The Hole

The Hole is a British adaptation of the thriller novel by the same name written by Guy Burt. Four friends from a private school in Britain look for illicit adventure in a wooden countryside. The story is told by one of the four friends who survived a harrowing experience and is questioned by the local police. The story recounts how another friend invites the group to a long-forgotten bomb shelter for partying and no-rules fun.

The group enters the underground stronghold without fully understanding what they are getting into. A night of partying ensues, but when they decide to leave, they discover escape is impossible. Within a short period of time, isolation and desperation takes over the student’s minds and emotions. They each become bent on preserving their own lives at the possible expense of others. Hallucinations, wicked thoughts, unspeakable options and deep spiritual fear are thrust upon the entire group.

Some remain sane, others become hopeless and dangerous. With the fear of dying in a modern, metal catacomb, each friend is forced to voice their deepest thoughts and feelings. Everyone becomes a danger to the other and time nearly runs out for any possibility of escape. The friends battle tensions between each other and express deep introspective feelings that would normally never be spoken.

The twisted subhuman interactions intensify as suffocation and doom becomes more inevitable. The surprise resolution is beyond belief. The ordeal is told in retrospect, but how any survivors of the hole came to live to tell their tale is something that can only be believed by watching the entire, nearly unbearable account.

The Hole stars Keira Knightley as Frankie, Thora Birch as Liz, Daniel Brockelbank as Martyn, Desmond Harrington as Mike and a host of other notables. This is a movie that raises nearly as many questions of morality and humanity as it does concerning the origins of true terror.