The Hole

I'D RATHER YOU DIDN'T READ THIS IF YOU HAVEN'T ALREADY SEEN IT, JUST IN CASE I SPOIL IT FOR YOU!

When Liz staggers, tattered, shocked and disturbed in a blood stained coat through the halls of residence in an exclusive British boarding school in the opening scene of the film, which has thus far been intense and atmospheric, I begin thinking - "This is promising." But then, and I don't wish to be known as a pedant or anything, she stumbles up to a British telephone in her British boarding school and calls the British emergency services, saying, in a British falsetto...

"Nine... one... one."

WHAT?????????????

911? The most basic and fundamental of research errors, the number for the police, has been overlooked.

I know I am watching an American film. Ever since I first saw her in American Beauty (in which she managed to hold her own against Spacey and Boening beautifully. I have found a brilliant allure about her. I so wanted to like this film. And I did. I would have liked it more if it had been a little more culturally sensitive.

All American-Britons in the film had flawless British accents - but that's just it - a regional dialect here and a glottal stop there would have been far more believable.

The concept itself is brilliant - a tale of adolescent obsession and peer pressure leading to insanity and homicide. And there are moments in the film that are genuinely disturbing, for example when we see Liz beside her vomiting best friend, ignoring her totally, preferring to obsess about Mike - her teenage fantasy incarnate.

Technically, the film is superb, and fragmented fast shots of the bodies and effective lighting and mise-en-scene in the Hole itself are brilliant, but everything set in the present is fairly terrible, mostly due to dubious acting and underdeveloped script work. The contrived atmosphere of the first fifty minutes is representative of Liz's tale itself - false, and when we do see the account as it happened, it is shocking and tense (although the cheesy funeral scene is fairly diabolical).

The biggest problem around the film is the fact that the characters, even Liz, are underdeveloped and the script and issues (eg that of identity, ie belonging - "The be popular at (name of high school), you have to be either..." said by both Martin and Liz) are too. Her obession is a fantastic premise for a film and its context in the hole is excellent but then it is damaged by a throw away attitude to making decent psychological thrillers - in this case, the teen horror genre was too much of an influence (although the grissly death scenes were very effective).

An excellent idea, but seriously underdeveloped, especially when placed in a market with peers such as Cube, with a lower budget and totally unknown actors (I'm sorry, Thora, I'm sorry!!)which manages to be shocking, timeless and tense.

Watch it, it's good. But note that its potential was done poorly by using American actors to create a pseudo-Britain, and "American-England," and the sometimes unbelievable dialogue.

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.

I had high hopes for 'The Hole' being a fan of this kind of "head trip" mystery (when done well!), and also because Thora Birch shows lots of potential. Unfortunately Birch is nothing special here and she is the ONLY good thing about this disappointing missfire. The plot features so many holes and ludicrous moments that you quickly lose interest, especially after the main plot twist will take you all of ten minutes to guess. You vainly hope that the obvious way the movie is heading is a red herring and will be cleverly subverted, but it isn't. Anyone who has seen a decent amount of mystery thrillers over the years will find this one to be the same old, same old. On top of that the four main characters are all unsympathetic and so cliched that you frankly won't give a damn what happens to any of them, and that is a fatal flaw in this kind of movie. Don't bother with this one.

The Hole begins slowly and very standardly, but unlike most genre films, it picks up pace after 40 minutes then accelerates towards a smashing ending. Well okay, the ending itself wasn't a great surprise, but I found it satisfying in a B-grade kind of way.

The premise of Hole is pretty mundane. The idea of a group of teenagers going into an old abandoned building or structure for a lark is a stock standard story opener for hundreds of B-grade horror flicks. But then Hole becomes interesting by the re-telling of events from different characters' individual points of view in a manner reminiscent of the 1950 British gem ‘The Woman in Question'. Just who is telling the truth?

The final third of Hole rockets along and the film becomes genuinely frightening. I was especially impressed with the way repercussion of actions and in-actions are graphically shown and not glossed over as so many genre films have a habit of doing.

Hole is not a great film. The acting from the five teenagers is a cut above average, but the direction is pretty heavy handed and not very imaginative. Overall I found Hole a nicely satisfying and genuinely frightening B-grade experience which proves the old adage that says the worst monsters are human beings. It also shows that modern thriller/horror genre films doesn't always have to rely on lashings of special effects and supernaturalism to tell a story effectively.

6/10

The movie concerns a bunch of adolescents formed by Thora Birch , Desmond Harrington , Kiera Knightley and others who stake to shelter in a bunker .

They're closed up and then terrible events originate .

Although the happening develops itself in locked place the film is not tiring .

The yarn mingles emotions , violence , shocks , thriller , the suspense doesn't fail and that's why it's bemusing and isn't boring .

Acting by Thora Birch is awesome , she was paid a high salary due to her recent acclaimed role in American Beauty (1998) . The beautiful and very young Kiera Knightley -she war 15 when this movie was shot- is ready as a future main star (Pirates del Caribbean, curse of the black pearl) and even she has a brief first nude scene . And Desmond Harrington (Ghost ship) is cool .

The film has relation to last group of English movies developed in shut and strange stages as the Bunkers or trenches , for example : ¨Deathwatch¨ and ¨the Bunker¨.

The movie has a pretty twisted plot and the final storyline has extraordinary and fascinating surprises. The motion pictture was well directed by Nick Hamm (Killing Bono , Godsend , Talk of angels) . Flick will appeal mystery and emotions fans.

Rating: 6/10 Good . Well worth watching