This movie is basically a well made thriller, that has an original concept but in the end still falls flat as a thriller, due to some poor, mostly non-linear, storytelling.

Really the main problem for me regarding this movie was its storytelling. It has a non-linear storyline, with flashbacks and such. It also tells the story two times, only from a different source. It makes the first part of the movie feel kind of redundant afterward. Sure its good for some twist but unfortunately at the same time these twists are too obvious and not quite surprising enough. And why do movie makers keep giving away parts of the ending of the movie already at the beginning? I'll never understand why they do this. It's a killer for the rest of the movie, since you already know who survived and who didn't. It completely takes most of the tension away and you know certain events have to occur in the movie to add up to the ending of it, which was already shown in the beginning. It's mostly a common thing in British movies. One they should very quickly abandon this way of storytelling in the movie business.

This movie makes the cop seem like a bunch of narrow minded morons. They could had solved the entire mystery already halfway through the movie and while watching this movie it makes you wonder why they didn't. I hate it when they make the police seem like stupid narrow minded persons, mainly because its bad for the credibility of the entire movie.

The characters are good and so are the actors that portray them. Only thing is that they used too old persons to play the youngster. I hate it when man play boy-parts. It's not credible. The only one who seemed to have the real right age at the time was Keira Knightley

I appreciate what the movie tries to succeed and it times it comes really close. For most part the atmosphere of the movie remains good and consistent. It tries to make the movie a mysterious one with lots of twist and character changes in it. However most of the twist are too obvious with as a direct result that this movie isn't the most surprising thriller around.

In the end it simply doesn't all add up. The movie remains too vague in certain areas and doesn't deliver a satisfying enough ending. It makes you wonder why this should be the ending. It seems like a silly and unlikely thing that the Thora Birch character would get away with this all, after already confessing it moments ago to Dr. Philippa Horwood. The movie leaves too many questions and improbabilities.

A movie that had way more potential and in the end comes too short of becoming a completely good, memorable and credible thriller.

6/10

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A fairly uninteresting British thriller. It starts off promisingly enough, throwing four teenagers into an eerie location and watching what happens. An unreliable narrator in the form of American BEAUTY's Thora Birch is added to the mix to keep the viewer feeling that what we see on screen may not be the actual truth. But the promising opening sequence which reveals a bloodied Birch emerging screaming from the titular pit turns out to be somewhat misleading, as the film is never as exciting or suspenseful as it should be.

One of the problems lies in the uninteresting characters. Birch struggles with the complexity of her lead, but all too often she just seems whiny and a bit sullen. Desmond Harrington is a one-note bore, and Laurence Fox has little to work with after being saddled with a 'posh boy' persona. By contrast, a pre-stardom Keira Knightley is the 'posh girl', but watching her acting you can't really work out how she became a mega-star in just a few years. Seasoned performers like Embeth Davidtz and Steven Waddington are wasted.

For much of the running time, we're left with scenes of the foursome fighting, drinking, shouting and generally being teenagers. There's little sense of menace and somehow the plight of the characters just doesn't ring that true; not once did I see them fully explore their surroundings to see if there was another escape route. The format of the film also doesn't work very well, with the cross-cutting of the detective scenes after the event failing to generate any suspense. Instead of wanting to find out what really happened, I just felt a bit bored. Of all the 'trapped in a room' type films of the last decade or so, THE HOLE, along with Exam, is one of the least interesting out there.

Four teens have been missing from their expensive private school for 18 days. Then one of them Liz Dunn (Thora Birch) comes stumbling back to school. She tells police psychologist Dr. Horwood (Embeth Davidtz) a story of desperation. The four teens (Desmond Harrington, Keira Knightley, Laurence Fox) had wanted a private party away from their families and ditch their school trip. They employed the help of Martyn (Daniel Brocklebank) who faked their school records and locked them in an underground bunker. The plan was for him to return after the weekend to unlock the door and let them out. However he never returned.

This movie has aspirations of something better. It wants to be a Hitchcock noir. For the first half, it achieves something close to it. However, the movie starts showing the real story, and any mystery disappears.

There is a better way this could have gone. Director Nick Hamm probably should have stayed with Embeth Davidtz as she tries to unravel the mystery. If that's the case, he can't really have Thora Birch blab out the story so early on.

Then there is the ending. It makes very little sense that anybody could believe Thora Birch's story. The basic premise that these kids would be willing to let themselves be locked up is too hard to believe. The first time they shut the door, they would want to try to test it. The whole thing seems convoluted.