cinema

Watched The Hole (2001)

Saint Creature May 4, 2026 No Comments

This movie reminded me of my childhood – a time when they knew how to make scary movies. What is it about?

The Pit is a pretty classic story in which four classmates decide to leave the trip and…disappear. At the same time, according to the previous story, the parents will think that the children are at school, and the school will think that the children are at home. Meanwhile, the company itself planned to have fun in a room that resembles a bunker. As you can imagine, we are waiting for a “so-so” twist with the fact that the bunker door will remain closed forever. What really happened will be told to us by a surviving girl named Liz, played by Thora Birch.

Despite the fact that the film is only 1 hour and 44 minutes long, the story itself is told from several points of view – Liz, as a girl who escaped, and Martin (Daniel Brocklebank) – a guy who imprisoned the campaign in a pit. And as the plot develops, the story of each of them receives new development and a new perspective on what events took place over the course of 15 days.

The cast of the film is quite good, in addition to Tora Birch, it also starred a then-young Keira Knightley (Liz’s friend, Frankie). At the same time, it received mixed reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (only 53% positive reviews). What went wrong?

Let’s start with the fact that this is a psychological thriller – a genre in which you can find a lot of inaccuracies. Perhaps this was the reason why it had such a low rating. Otherwise, the picture from the first frame to the last moment keeps you in suspense, not giving a clear answer to what exactly happened and who is to blame for it. And in my opinion, the films of that era (the beginning of the 00s) are some of the best in this genre. They did not have some kind of contrivedness, which modern films often sin with. That is, now we will more often come across a thriller about how the heroes are hunted by some super-computer or they “steal” from modern technologies than an ordinary story about a strong, albeit somewhat painful love.

Sometimes you want such a… dirty movie that will drag you headlong. Not least to distract you from all the modern nonsense that comes out almost every day. And “The Hole” is exactly such a movie. My personal rating is 8 out of 10. Interesting story, interesting twists, good actors. The movie, by the way, is based on the book “After the Hole” by the English writer Guy Burt.