Keira's a hole lotta woman! (The Hole (DVD))

Member Name: l-m-n-o-p

Product:	The Hole (DVD)
Date:	02/07/07 (173 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: The scenes in the bunker are quite tense

Disadvantages: But it's not scary, some of the acting isn't very good

The Hole is a British horror / thriller from 2001, starring Thora Birch (American Beauty, Ghost World) and Keira Knightley before she got famous and started pouting.

It tells the tale of four friends who decide to bunk off a field trip from their posh boarding school, and instead spend the weekend buried underground in a secret bunker. Why they would want to do that is anybody's guess; it must have been one particularly boring field trip. These kids, Liz (Birch), Frankie (Knightley), Mike (Desmond Harrington) and Geoff (Laurence Fox - who I think is dating Billie Piper) are just looking for a good time, but something goes badly wrong…

Anyway, the film is told with flashbacks between this fateful weekend and the present, in which a police investigation is being carried out into the deaths of three of the four students. Only Liz survived the ordeal, and she is being interviewed by one of the psychologists/investigators (Embeth Davidtz - Miss Honey from Matilda). At first, the main suspect is another friend, Martyn (played by Daniel Brocklebank - now in Emmerdale), but it soon becomes clear that Liz's mind is not all there, and the true events reveal themselves as her memory begins to come back. She may not be telling the truth, the whole truth, or even anything truthful at all…

Let's get straight to the point: I wasn't particularly blown away by The Hole. It had some things going for it: the main concept was intriguing; I mean who wouldn't be scared of getting trapped underground for days on end, with dwindling supplies of food and water? These gloomy scenes really did create a feeling of claustrophobia, and the increasing paranoia and fear of the students came across well. Considering it's classed as a horror, and that it's an 18, there weren't any particularly shocking or scary moments (well, there was one gory scene, but this was just a bit of the old ultra violence); but it was generally a bit creepy.

The structure of the film was also interesting and helped keep the audience guessing. It spends almost equal screen time on the bunker flashbacks and the police enquiry, so if you're expecting a full-on horror fest, you may be disappointed. The present day scenes were much more like a TV police drama, and really diffused any tension or creepiness that was building up from the flashbacks.

However, therein lies the problem with The Hole: I didn't think the investigation scenes were very good at all. Like I said, they were like some cheap TV programme, and had acting to match. Embeth Davidtz was really wooden as the main investigator, she didn't grab your attention or convince at all. Thora Birch didn't fare much better either; her cool persona was just plain boring, and she was much more interesting in the bunker scenes, when she was going a little bit psycho. Plus she's American; her character is English. Go figure.

Basically, what I'm trying to say is that the film would probably have been better in terms of pure enjoyment if it solely showed the situation in the bunker for the whole time, but then again the jigsaw-style narrative was also interesting, and this couldn't have been used if it was all focused on the bunker. They just couldn't work together in the same film.

The acting from everyone is pretty average; not terrible, but no Oscars here I'm afraid. It's interesting to see Keira Knightley before she started bending it like Beckham and fighting sea monsters (plus you see a bit more of her than you might be expecting!) and she does her usual feisty, posh-accented tomboy act quite well. Plus her character's full name is Frances Almond Smith - how funny! The two guys that get stuck down there are pretty forgettable: one posh English blonde guy, one typical American guy, and the characters don't go much beyond that.

Overall, The Hole is quite interesting, but instantly forgettable. It's not particularly scary for a horror movie; the 18 rating is more for language, drugs and nudity than anything else, and it's all a bit bland. Even the twisted conclusion, which reveals the extent of Liz's psychosis, isn't particularly shocking. Still, if you're a huge fan of gloomy British thrillers (who isn't?) then you might like The Hole.
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You can buy The Hole for:

£5.45 from www.filmnight.com (including postage)
£5.97 from www.amazon.co.uk (plus postage)
or you can pick it up quite cheaply on the high street.

Directed By: Nick Hamm (he also made the supposedly awful "Godsend"... and not much since... hmmm...)

Starring:

Thora Birch … Liz Dunn
Keira Knightley … Frances Almond Smith
Desmond Harrington … Mike Steel
Laurence Fox ... Geoff Bingham
Daniel Brocklebank ... Martyn Taylor
Embeth Davidtz ... Dr. Philippa Horwood

Running Time: 102 minutes

Classification: 18

Production Year: 2001

My Rating: 2 stars

Summary: A disappointing British thriller/horror