Horror Movie Review: Demon Hole (2017)
There’s a lot to like about Demon Hole provided you’ve not watched a minute of it. The story about ‘fracking’ opening a hole to hell whereupon a demon emerges to cause chaos on a group of unsuspecting young adults sounds great.
In reality though it doesn’t hold up. Partially because it never fully embraces the horror of a demonic force at work. It also takes a few too many liberties elsewhere in regards to character actions and motivations.
The story dates back thousands of years where a group of Indians dug deep under the influence of a demon. Once they reached the bottom, they unleashed it and realising what they had done, sealed the hole up and the demon inside. Fast-forward to now and a fracking operation has let it loose.
Coincidentally, a group of young adults on community service arrive in the local woods to start clearing it up. They get lost (somehow) and end up at an abandoned cabin where they settle in and smoke weed. Stoned, they start to come under the demon’s influence and find they have supernatural powers. One can turn invisible, another can read minds and another…isn’t a nerd anymore. Yeah, that last one is a weird one.
This development isn’t a bad idea, something a bit different however it’s quietly dropped later in the movie when it comes to a fight for survival. It seems as though the introduction of these powers was supposed to create a few laughs but it fails.
A lot of this lies at the feet of the characters who are mostly one-dimensional and boring. Their constant splitting up, wandering off and idiotic reactions to bad situations makes them very hard to root for. The actors aren’t terrible, in fact some really try to wring the life out of what they’re given but we’ve seen it all before and done far better.
Some of the effects are decent though and it’s a nice surprise to see the demon is a person with makeup rather then CGI. He’s not the most intimidating but his look and movements certainly fit. If you were wondering what a demon might look like, this isn’t too bad a place to look!
A nice try. Demon Hole just drops the ball far too many times for it to be anything but a sub-par horror though.
Demon Hole
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The Final Score - 4/10
4/10