The Hole (2001) Reviews

• Not as advertised but a solid little thriller none the less

  bob the moo2002-05-14

  Liz stumbles towards her boarding school, bloodied and shaken up after being missing for several days. She tells the police psychologist of a party in a hidden bunker planned for her and three friends by her friend Martin. However when Martin doesn't return things turn nasty in the bunker. However when Martin is found by the police he tells a very different story. Slowly the true events are retold in flashback. I saw the trailers for this and assumed it was another teen slasher – I didn't even know it was set in Britain until someone told me. I think the trailer is an example of a studio unsure of how to sell a product and just plumping for the lowest common denominator. However this film rises above that. Instead of being a slasher or a horror it is a thriller with a horror twist. This makes it better – it may not be as scary as you expect but it is a better story and is creepy rather than schlocky! The cast are good despite being young. The weaknesses come in with the adult cast – especially the cops who have clearly watched too much Sweeney! However the teens are good and are more than the sort of fodder that is put in teen movies. Overall this is not what you expect. But it is better than you'd think. The thriller story is gripping because you're not sure what happened in the bunker until the end and I had questions answered as I went. Not great but certainly better than another teen slasher movie.

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• Twisted and Enjoyable

  BrandtSponseller2005-04-09

  Four snotty rich kids at a prep school in England want to get out of a field trip to Wales, where they would have to eat "fish paste sandwiches" and be otherwise uncomfortable. They also don't want to get out of the trip by just returning home over the school break. Two are male friends, Mike Steel (Desmond Harrington), son of a rock star, and Geoff Bingham (Laurence Fox), and two are female friends, Elizabeth Dunn (Thora Birch) and Frances Almond Smith (Keira Knightley). Frances and Geoff have had an intimate relationship, although any relationship between them seems very tenuous, and Elizabeth has had a crush on Mike for a long time; Mike was otherwise going out with another girl, but she had just dumped him. One of them knows, or knows someone who knows, the perfect "getaway" spot, secluded and private, just right for promoting an intimate, extended weekend of partying--an old war bunker deep underground in the middle of a forest. The bunker is accessed via a circular, thick steel door, and is lined with thick reinforced concrete. The four end up trapped in the bunker, with the door locked and no way to get out, for at least 10 days. Who locked them in and why? How will they get out? If you're someone who only likes straightforward plots, traditionally happy endings and films depicting "facts" that are close to what you believe to be true about the actual world, you're best advised to avoid The Hole. If you instead do not mind, or even prefer, circuitous, twisted tales with strong fantasy elements (in this case primarily to enable what amounts to a parable) and fairly nihilistic endings, you may find much to love here. Reflecting the film's overall ambiguity, The Hole resides in a gray genre area between thriller, psychological horror and a straight-ahead drama. The first half hour or so is much more straightforward, and for me, the film was cruising along at about an 8 for at least that length of time. But as it progressed and things became much more bizarre and "evil", my score gradually rose, with the extended climax being a firm 10 for me. So my rating on this one is more of an average. The plot, from a screenplay by first time (and only time so far) scripters Ben Court and Caroline Ip, based on a novel by Guy Burt, is unusual for being told primarily from unreliable characters' perspectives. We learn most of the story through the testimony of a victim--Elizabeth, and a primary suspect, Martyn Taylor (Daniel Brocklebank), who may in fact be a friend of Elizabeth's. Their accounts change as the film progresses, often framing different characters as victims and perpetrators, and the bulk of what we see on screen are depictions of these changing accounts. Thus we see some "repeating" material. It's important to show parts of the story again as the supposed facts about the story change. Stemming from this, it's easy to see that the performances are quite good. Most characters undergo subtle alterations for the different instantiations of the story, and the four principals--Birch, Harrington, Fox and Knightley--adeptly transform themselves, aided also by their clothing, hair and makeup. Court and Ip cleverly do not change the scenario as much as you might expect after the first couple variations. It keeps you on your toes as to just who the perpetrator was, but also enables a surprising and in-depth exploration of the psychotic personality and motivation behind the "lock-in"--whoever the perpetrator was (and I certainly won't reveal the film's answer here), they were clearly somewhat insane. We're also led to be skeptical about the material that's relayed from an ostensibly third-person point of view. It's never clear for most events just what is meant to be "objective" and true versus what is still the potential fantasy of the storyteller. Personally, I love that kind of ambiguity. Some others do not like it so much. The Hole is also a bit of an exploration of spoiled kids. All of the main characters are manipulators who are used to getting whatever they want. They all seem to have an attitude that their intellect is far superior to almost every one else, and thus they're entitled to whatever they desire, as well as justified in whatever it takes to get it--that's a classic disposition of many criminals, and not a few business leaders, politicians, Internet geeks and so on. It's notable that when the students' parents appear (which is very seldom), they are distant and mostly dissociated from their offspring, who have come to rule the roost as far as we can tell. The investigators trying to piece together the case come to know this, although they never directly state as much, but the performers give very subtle clues to their complex realizations as the story goes on. We can see them also gradually losing hope that they'll be able to properly sort the events out and reveal the truth. The Hole can be seen as a parable about how far some may go to get what they want, as well as how far co-conspirators may go before they try to divorce themselves from events gone wrong (there are clues throughout the film that other characters had various levels of knowledge and involvement). It's also an exploration of what makes some go as far as they do and what makes conspirators play along. At the same time it comments on the bewilderment of "outsiders" trying to figure out how some horrific event developed. A lot of the answers are appropriately ambiguous. Under the guises of the subtexts, as well as on a more visceral surface level, the film is a great success.

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• There should be more of these.

  mjw23052004-03-06

  Truly, fresh and new ideas, rarely make it to film. The Hole, based on the novel (after the Hole) by Guy Burt is a good exception to this. It is seldom that we see a top quality thriller, but this movie is well cast, well directed, and works wonderfully. The story is quite simple really, it relies on strong characterisation and good dialogue. All the cast give good performances and Thora Birch is outstanding. This thriller really does keep you on the edge of your seat throughout; it is very dark, very creepy and has a terrifying atmosphere. I would recommend this film to anyone who likes a good thriller. It isn't in the same league as Se7en and Silence of the Lambs, but it is better than most thrillers that are released. 8/10 A great film.

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• Good Film, Even Better Cast.. But A Few Sloppy Elements

  peter_cooper2001-04-20

  I've been anticipating this film for a while since it is Thora Birch's first role since American Beauty. So, The Hole. The Hole has been hyped up as a horror/psychological film in which 4 students are locked down an old wartime bunker (-the- Hole) to avoid a boring Geography field trip. How does it fare? The casting is probably the jewel of this film. It's superb. The absolutely stunning Keira Knightley (Sabé from Star Wars Episode I) appears as Liz's (Birch) friend, Frankie. All the rest of the characters are complete unknowns, except the psychologist played by Embeth Davidtz (Matilda, Bridget Jones, Schindler's List), but they all act their parts excellently. This film really has the British 'feel' mastered. The sets are excellent, the locations are splendid, and the whole 'feel' of the movie is very realistic. The school really does feel like a British public school (A British 'public school' is like a 'private school' in the US.. one where you need rich parents to flash $$$ to get you in). The unnamed pupils seem extremely realistic. There are only three small flaws with this film. The first is that it doesn't exactly live up to the hype in the British press. I did not find this scary at all, but it was an extremely well done mystery/whodunnit. Horror? Nah, not unless you classify psychological thrillers as 'horror'. The second flaw is that the transitions between different parts of the film can be rather confusing. Often, the film bounds around past and present shots and be extremely disorienting in places. Unlike Memento, this disorientation is not an advantage. However, at the end of the film, you'll be able to tie all of the parts together and leave feeling quite satisfied with the story (a bit like the film 'Wild Things'). Another minor let down is the music. Totally forgettable, has no place in the film, and it often appears at the most inappropriate times. I really do hope this is released in the USA soon, as Thora Birch is definitely not to be missed here.. and I think the stunning Keira Knightley is going to be getting some bigger roles from now on, she's definitely earned her stripes here. So, my big question, why has this not been scheduled for US release!? This is certainly not a Blair Witch Project clone, although this impression has been given by the press. Instead, this is a cleverly constructed and extremely well casted psychological thriller/mystery.

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• A morbid, sinister, sadistic, yet fantastic movie.

  anarchyisthewordonthestreets2001-04-21

  Here goes, The whole movie is about one girls obsession with another boy, and the lengths she goes to make him notice her. I know you have 'cliché' ringing about your ears already but this movie has managed to twist and contort itself to such extremes that it took me a while even to break it down that far. First of all I saw the trailer, very deceiving, portraying the movie as some kind of teen slasher, with the deep voiced narrator telling of how they wanted to be in this 'hole' so much, yet after not long are desperate to get out. There was even the ubiquitous shot of a girl (liz) screaming as if some masked killer were about to chalk her onto the list of not so memorable movie deaths. But instead I can only think this trailer was done to try and draw the student and teen population into the cinema's to watch a much darker and more frightening movie. Forget about the hole, the hole is unimportant. The movie could have easily been called 'the big wardrobe' or something foolish. It's not about the fact that these people are stuck in a hole, it only represents an unbreakable boundary holding them in, albeit a slightly spooky one. The real boundary is Liz's encapsulating herself in her own hole by being so fazed with this boy (mike) even to the extent that when her best friend is vomiting in the only disgusting toilet in the hole, right next to her, she doesn't notice and tries to strike up a conversation about how Mike is starting to notice her more. Another thing I liked was the lack of twist in the movie. Wes Craven seems to write this book of movie rules after every one of good movies, and all his pioneering new idea's are fast turned into known and hated cliché's. That's what I think of all these slasher flicks thinking they have to have a 'twist'. There wasn't a clear twist in this movie, there was a gradual change of emphasis, guises of the same theme, but no 'oh it was only a dream'... or 'I'm your father Jessie' kind of twists. About 8 people walked out near the end of this movie when I was watching it at the cinema. I can only guess it was because they expected to come and see a movie where pretty girls got stabbed and then died quickly and never seen again. Instead they had some truly gruesome deaths followed by sickening decay and rotting, and the decay of the living due to lack of water. And the most frightening thing about the movie was the fact that for one girl, it was all self imposed. So if you want to see a pretty girl get stabbed go to watch another 'I know what you did last summer' sequel, but if you want a slightly disturbing psychological thriller then give this one a shot. Xand

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