The Hole - The Inzomniac's Movie Madness Review.

The Hole
UK 2001. Director: Nick Hamm
Cast: Thora Birch, Keira Knightley, Desmond Harrington

Thora Birch and three friends from school are locked down in a big underground WW2 bunker in the woods. There they are supposed to spend a couple of days while the rest of the school are on some other activity. At first it's kind of fun, party and all. But when the day comes when they are supposed to be let out by an outside fifth friend, nothing happens. No one comes around with the key. They are imprisoned and almost no one on the outside knows where they are. Soon the food and water supply are empty.

The story is told in flashbacks, beginning with a ragged and dirty Thora Birch stumbling up from the hole and into town. Then she starts to tell her weird story. Or some story. It becomes clear that something ugly eventually happened down in the bunker and it's up to psychologist Embeth Davidtz (Army of Darkness) to figure out exactly what.

The Hole had a good chance at becoming a great film, but it doesn't quite make it to the end. It starts off really spooky, the first half hour is greatly great. But about halfway the film starts to give away too many clues to the mystery and much of the suspense is effectively erased, me thinks. You can see the ending coming from miles away and the last half hour waiting for it becomes a real drag. The performances from the young ensemble are brilliant throughout, though, and the scenes down in the bunker has a weird and unsettling atmosphere which makes up for much of the shortcomings. Sometimes it reminded me of Blair Witch 2, but let's ignore that. The Hole is still an original and well crafted spookshow, much better than your average American ditto. But it could have been untouchable, if it had played its cards more carefully.