4) The Hole
I came across this one while searching for director Joe Dante, the man behind horror-comedy classics Gremlins and The Howling. The Hole is in the same vein, this time taking on the haunted house motif with a story of two kids who move into a new house for the umpteenth time.
While there, they discover an apparently bottomless hole in the basement, and naturally just have to start poking around in it. As the hole unleashes untold horrors into the world, the kids have buckle down and start wrestling with their own demons – through the cunning use of paintball guns and baseball bats – before the demons defeat them.
The Hole sneaks in a number of references to iconic horror images, including Poltergeist, the work of Salvador Dali and Tim Burton, and Dante’s own films. Also, watch for cameos from Dante regulars and a quick scene with a very creepy Bruce Dern.
While not as iconic as Gremlins, The Hole succeeds in some real scares while staying in the PG-13 horror mode.