The Hole, 2001

Geography field trips, eh? Didn't you just hate them when you were in school? Me too, but I didn't hate them enough to spend three days hiding in a disused WW2 bunker in order to get out of them. That is exactly what the four teenagers in "The Hole" decide to do, only they spend a lot longer in that bunker than they initially planned. This film is a fairly tense psychological thriller, not one of the brainless slasher flicks that were popping up almost every week around the time it was released. However, in my opinion, it suffers from one major flaw... namely that the main characters are all so thoroughly unlikeable. Yes, I remember my school years: selfishness and vanity were a means of survival, and that is reflected in this film. However, if I were to meet the 15 year old me in the present day, I'd want to lock him in a hole too. Being rich, snooty, vain and selfish are not admirable qualities and I found it hard to sympathise with any of the characters in this film. Also, I found the structure of the narrative quite annoying. The story jumps around all over the place, with flashbacks and the present day seemingly mixed at random. This kind of editing can be effective when done well, but here I found it quite jarring. Finally, I spotted at least one large plot hole. I won't spell it out, but it involves Thora Birch's first telling of the story and the credibility of the police psychiatrist who interviews her. It happens early on, and I spent the rest of the movie hoping it would be explained, or at least acknowledged. It wasn't.

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