An interesting horror movie whose concept reminded me of Kathe Koja's first novel, The Cipher. It stars Teri Polo (Meet the Parents)
The story: a family moves into a new home and the boys find a mysterious hole in the basement that causes their worst fears to come to life.
Was it good?
Not really. There is a nice idea to it, but the movie doesn't do anything particularly interesting. The relationships, with the two brothers teasing each other and the older brother liking the girl next door, had some possibilities and one or two nice moments, but they didn't extend it. It's like I've said before -- movies like this work best when you have a clear emotional element and then use the external force as expand the metaphore. In ET, Eliot is alone and then meets ET, so it is like the story of a boy and his dog, only here it is an alien. In CLOVERFIELD, a guy wants to run out to find the girl he is in love with but then a monster attacks and now he has to run out and save her from the monster.
So while there are some nice moments, it ends up feeling more like a cheesy B-movie instead of a classic family film, ala ET or GOONIES.
For youngers kids, it's probably worth a rental, although they might actually get a little bored since nothing struck me as really, really cool. For older kids (which are called adults, right?) there isn't enough here to watch.
*** AVOID (except maybe for kids) ***
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