Dante is back with The Hole
Among the 3-D films previewed in the cavernous, packed Hall H at the San Diego Comic-Con this year, two elicited chills, gasps and nervous laughter from the audience on Thursday afternoon.
The Hole, Joe Dante’s latest picture written by Vacancy scribe Mark L. Smith, was the first genre project touted during a special 3-D presentation. And Dante stepped out, with star Haley Bennett (The Haunting of Molly Hartley), to show off a trailer and clip, albeit the latter was not in 3-D. The trailer showed a ton of promise, however, as Dante said, if you’re going in looking for gory thrills, look elsewhere.
This is a film about old school frights as the preview offered a bit of the story. Essentially, a family moves into a new town and two brothers discover, with the cute neighbor (Bennett), an old door in the floor of the basement. The lock is quickly popped on this sucker but what the kids find is merely a hole. They pour a jar of nails into it to get a sense of how deep the bottom is (the nails cascade towards your face in 3-D), but they hear nothing. The rest of the trailer plays out with the kids trying to figure out what the hole is all about. They discover it feeds off their fears and materializes their worst nightmares.
Dante says is a psychological thriller which begged this writer to question, “Why do it in 3-D then?” When you see the trailer, you’ll know why. Dante wanted to use the technology to immerse the audience in the story. Careful compositions, eerie atmosphere and arresting sets (actor Bruce Dern is introduced in a room filled with hanging light bulbs) all worked visually in the trailer’s favor. Shortly after this preview, he, must to the producers’ chagrin, showed off a lengthy clip (not in 3-D because the process wasn’t finished) featuring Bennett getting spooked by a jittery, bleeding little girl in a bathroom stall. The scene was followed by another with co-star Nathan Gamble under attack by a leering, pint-sized clown doll. It’s about as “Joe Dante” as it sounds.
The Hole is territory we like to see Dante playing in. Except, unlike Small Soldiers, he’s balancing his sense of fun with a dark, sinister bite. It should be an interesting ride…
Speaking of journeys, it’s been a long one for Final Destination fans craving another entry in the franchise. Producer Craig Perry brought a treat in the form of a hyper-violent 3-D trailer for The Final Destination. And Christ, was it merciless. I’ll be surprised if anyone survives this sequel! Perry showed off an extended version of this trailer except it was loaded with kills from a girl getting her head knocked clean off by a tire and a man being forced through a chain-link fence like cheese through a grater, to another poor sucker getting skewered through the head and a lawn mower accident taking out a girl’s eye. 3-D is definitely the way to go for a Final Destination film. I just hope what we saw didn’t ruin all of the good kill gags.
On the recent title change to The Final Destination, Perry said this is likely the final chapter in the series.
Source: Ryan Rotten, Managing Editor
