The Hole (2001)
The Hole (2001)
I think it is a real tragedy that the 2001 dark psychological horror film The Hole never received a theatrical release in the United States, as it did in the UK where it was made. The film stars a talented and sexy cast featuring Thora Birch and Keira Knightley. The film was based on the Guy Bert novel After The Hole, and it tells the story of four college students who are trapped in a bunker in the ground near their school. They went there to party for three days, but things went horribly wrong, and the film starts with Thora Birch's character Liz, escaping the whole, and getting to a phone at her school where she dials the 999 and just screams into the phone. The story is told through the voice of Liz, as she tells the story of what happened to a police psychiatrist named Dr Phillipa Horwood who works with Liz to discover what happened to the young adults in the hole. However we are just taking her word for it, and there is more than meets to the eye when it comes to Liz, and as the film progresses we start to get the truth of what happened through her flashbacks, and her own words at the end of the film, and also from the statements of Martyn who is accused of locking them in the whole. We know from the beginning of the film that Liz is the only one that survives being stuck in the hole, but the true horror comes as we slowly find out what actually happened to them down there. 
The Hole is directed by Nick Hamm, with a screenplay by Ben Court and Caroline Ip. The film is based on the 1993 novel After The Hole by Guy Burt. The Hole was filmed in the UK and produced by Canal +, and distributed by Pathe. The North American distribution was obtained by Dimension Films, for 2001 theatrical release, however the film was never released theatrically in the USA and would be released for nearly two years when it was released direct-to-video. I don't know what the story is behind why the US theatrical release fell through, but because of it, this was a film that flew under the radars of most viewers, sadly.
The Hole stars Thora Birch as Elizabeth "Liz" Dunn, Keira Knightley as Frances "Frankie" Almond Smith, Desmond Harrington as Michael "Mike" Steel, and Laurence Fox as Geoffrey "Geoff" Bingham who are all locked in the hole together. Daniel Brocklebank plays Martyn Taylor, who is accused of locking them in the hole. Embeth Davidtz plays Dr. Philippa Horwood, and Steven Waddington plays DCS Tom Howard. This film is a great example of the depth and talent of Thora Birch, who made a name for herself as a child actor, maybe most notably for her role as the younger sister in Hocus Pocus, and then in 1999 she broke out as an adult actress in her role in American Beauty, which was also her first topless scene, which definitely helped to break her image as a child actor, then she was in the poorly recepted Dungeons and Dragons film in 2000 as the young idealistic Empress, and then in 2000 with The Hole she showed that she can effectively play a very dark and complex character, and do it quite convincingly, and honestly quite sexy, though also very crazy. The film was also a breakout role for Keira Knightley who brings a strong sexiness to the film, she is Liz's best friend and she is a promiscuous character, and hyper sexual, quite different than the image that viewers might know of her from her famous role in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films. Sadly because of the hyper-sexualized character that Keira Knightley plays, promotional materials for the film tend to push her character, and use sexualized language referring to her to sell the film, which is truly unfortunate, because it is really Thora Birch who is the real star of the film, her character is more complicated, and very dark and twisted, and required a much stronger actress to pull off. Though, please do keep in mind that Thora Birch is one of my favourite actresses, and being that she is only a one year younger than me, I grew up with her films, aging along with her, so I was always able to identify with her. So for example when I saw her in Hocus Pocus, when she was 10, I was only 11, so I felt like I could closely identify with her character, and the same goes for the film American Beauty. I feel like her role in this film is very underrated, because how well she played this role, to me was very impressive.
If you haven't yet seen The Hole, I highly recommend checking it out, this is a terribly underrated film. Though the film only has a mediocre rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I truly feel like people should give this film another chance. I love how much the story twists and turns, and how up to the very end we are trying to guess what actually happened, and not quite sure on who we can actually trust to fill in the holes of what happened in the hole. The film has some amazing acting, especially from Thora Birch. Also it is kind of cool, that Embeth Davidtz was also in 13 Ghosts the same year as The Hole, and it is interesting, because her character in both films seem similar in some ways. I really love this film, and I would honestly say that this is a must see film, because of the great storytelling, and the great acting. The film is well directed, and well written. Sadly I didn't get to experience this film until around 2013, I remember watching it for the first time on my friend Jade's computer laying on her bed with her, she had a collection of horror film DVDs, and this was part of that collection. I instantly fell in love with the film, and that was an amazing memory to me, watching movies with one of my best friends. So if you come across a copy of The Hole from 2001 I highly recommend not passing it up.
The Hole stars Thora Birch as Elizabeth "Liz" Dunn, Keira Knightley as Frances "Frankie" Almond Smith, Desmond Harrington as Michael "Mike" Steel, and Laurence Fox as Geoffrey "Geoff" Bingham who are all locked in the hole together. Daniel Brocklebank plays Martyn Taylor, who is accused of locking them in the hole. Embeth Davidtz plays Dr. Philippa Horwood, and Steven Waddington plays DCS Tom Howard. This film is a great example of the depth and talent of Thora Birch, who made a name for herself as a child actor, maybe most notably for her role as the younger sister in Hocus Pocus, and then in 1999 she broke out as an adult actress in her role in American Beauty, which was also her first topless scene, which definitely helped to break her image as a child actor, then she was in the poorly recepted Dungeons and Dragons film in 2000 as the young idealistic Empress, and then in 2000 with The Hole she showed that she can effectively play a very dark and complex character, and do it quite convincingly, and honestly quite sexy, though also very crazy. The film was also a breakout role for Keira Knightley who brings a strong sexiness to the film, she is Liz's best friend and she is a promiscuous character, and hyper sexual, quite different than the image that viewers might know of her from her famous role in the Pirates Of The Caribbean films. Sadly because of the hyper-sexualized character that Keira Knightley plays, promotional materials for the film tend to push her character, and use sexualized language referring to her to sell the film, which is truly unfortunate, because it is really Thora Birch who is the real star of the film, her character is more complicated, and very dark and twisted, and required a much stronger actress to pull off. Though, please do keep in mind that Thora Birch is one of my favourite actresses, and being that she is only a one year younger than me, I grew up with her films, aging along with her, so I was always able to identify with her. So for example when I saw her in Hocus Pocus, when she was 10, I was only 11, so I felt like I could closely identify with her character, and the same goes for the film American Beauty. I feel like her role in this film is very underrated, because how well she played this role, to me was very impressive.
If you haven't yet seen The Hole, I highly recommend checking it out, this is a terribly underrated film. Though the film only has a mediocre rating on Rotten Tomatoes, I truly feel like people should give this film another chance. I love how much the story twists and turns, and how up to the very end we are trying to guess what actually happened, and not quite sure on who we can actually trust to fill in the holes of what happened in the hole. The film has some amazing acting, especially from Thora Birch. Also it is kind of cool, that Embeth Davidtz was also in 13 Ghosts the same year as The Hole, and it is interesting, because her character in both films seem similar in some ways. I really love this film, and I would honestly say that this is a must see film, because of the great storytelling, and the great acting. The film is well directed, and well written. Sadly I didn't get to experience this film until around 2013, I remember watching it for the first time on my friend Jade's computer laying on her bed with her, she had a collection of horror film DVDs, and this was part of that collection. I instantly fell in love with the film, and that was an amazing memory to me, watching movies with one of my best friends. So if you come across a copy of The Hole from 2001 I highly recommend not passing it up.
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