Cady's Take:

In the beginning of the movie we find out that four young students from an exclusive English private school had been missing for 3 weeks. Liz (Thora Birch) is the sole survivor of the four classmates. They had been stuck down in a hole while the rest of the school had been on a field trip that they opted not to go on. Her fellow misadventurers are pretty, popular Frankie (Keira Knightley), always-up-for-a-laugh Geoff (Laurence Fox) and most importantly Liz' love interest, the rich and popular guy Mike (Desmond Harrington).

Liz's weird geeky friend Martin, whose obsession with Liz is listed with his other weirdo traits, had offered the four teenagers a place of hiding. He locks them in an old bomb shelter and is supposed to return after the field trip to let them out. When the weekend ends, they find that they are still locked in. The question then is, did Martin, who came up with the whole plan, lock them in or is there another story to it? All we know is that nobody comes back for them, and no one hears them screaming.

The fact that the horror stems from human emotion, an obsessive teenage crush, rather than some sort of Monster in the hole with them is definitely in the film's favor. There are no knives or guns, just death by dying, displaying the deterioration of a person as they are starved of food and water. The film is well acted and pulls off several effectively chilling moments. This is without a doubt a creepy thriller. It is an innovative and original story but note that is incredibly graphic!

In the end we ask, Is Liz sinned against or psycho? The trouble is the film, for all its intriguing ambiguity, never quite makes its mind up.

I'm not big on horror movies in general, but I do like a good thriller, as long as the blood and guts is kept to a minimum. By minimum I mean, no gratuitous weapons, bodily fluids, lost limbs, etc. On that score I guess "The Hole" does an okay job. There are a few parts that made me flinch, but nothing I could not handle. Unfortunately, as psychological thrillers go, I'm going to say that this film ranks right up there with "The Ring". For those of you who liked "The Ring" and didn't read my review, I wrote that it was " the least scary, the least imaginative, and the least satisfactory thriller I have seen in a very long time. This is a one-note movie that barely achieves the one note."

That is, until now.

I will not bore you with the details, except to say that four prep school teens hide out in an old bomb shelter to avoid a class trip. We see two versions of how this came about, and it is up to us to decide which of those is true. Since there are really only two possible explanations and each can be figured out in 1.2 seconds, you are not in for a very spooky ride folks.

Sporting a cast that is far superior to the script (Thora Birch, Keira Knightley, Embeth Davidtz) "The Hole" is not a movie I was able to fall into. I do not recommend you even try.