From Gremlins director Joe Dante, family horror movie The Hole stars Chris Massoglia (The Vampire’s Assistant) as one of two brothers who discover a mysterious hole in their new home’s basement. Of course the kids decide to explore the hole, where they discover their darkest nightmares are coming to life.
To celebrate Monday’s release of the film on DVD and Blu-ray, the folks at Entertainment One offered to send us down a mysterious hole ourselves, with an after-hours venture into the London Tombs at Tower Bridge last night.
With the staff and visitors all safe at home and the front doors locked, our small group are led down into the former plague pit by Haunted Happenings host Jane, a paranormal investigator with a background in parallel universes.
Our night commences with a pre-ghost-hunt tour of our surroundings, which is probably wise when your surroundings include evil clown animatronics, severed limbs hanging from the ceiling, lines of creepy dolls and a genuine stuffed dead horse. Armed with titanium dousing rods, we explore the pitch-black tunnels by torchlight, while the manager recounts stories of strange smells, phantom footsteps, banging doors and sightings of a tall shadowy figure in doorways, nicknamed Shadowman by the staff.
Once we’re familiar with the Tombs, the spooky stuff begins, as Jane sets a glass on a table for an impromptu séance and the torches go off. Despite abandoning one of the group’s more cynical members on his own for half an hour at the opposite end of the tombs as sacrificial ghost bait, there’s a distinct lack of paranormal activity though.
Perhaps the tortured spirits don’t like the glass? And so begins a second try at communicating with the dead, this time with Jane’s homemade customised planchette, consisting of a heart-shaped cheeseboard on wheels. Sadly, even after Jane’s repeated invitations for the ghosts to “touch us anywhere” and attempts at flirting with a regular ghost called Jack, it seems the ghostly inhabitants of London Tombs have had an early night. Maybe next time, eh, Shadowman?