The Hole (12:10)
Brian Challis; IMDb; Vimeo

This was made in 1998, I guess. I must have first seen it sometime in 2000, on Exposure. One day in 2014, I was thinking about this story, but I couldn't remember what it was called, or whether it was something I'd seen on Exposure or somewhere else. So I googled what little I remembered of the plot, and the first thing that led me to was "Thanksgiving," a 1986 episode of the TV series "Amazing Stories," which I don't think I've ever seen. (It's possible I saw a bit of the series in reruns at some point, but I doubt it.) Then I learned that that episode was based on a 1971 short story called "Hey You Down There," by Harold Rolseth. I doubt I ever read that, but it's not impossible. Also, one site I looked at mentioned a French short film from 1983, called "Ceux d'en bas," which was based on the same story, but I also tend to doubt I ever saw that. However, when I watched "The Hole" online, um... I dunno. The details didn't really strike me as particularly familiar, beyond the basic plot. And the ending didn't strike me as being nearly as creepy as I remembered. Maybe that's because I was expecting it, waiting for it the whole time I was watching the film. (Or maybe things are just inherently less creepy on a laptop than on a TV.) But part of me can't help wondering if maybe I am thinking of one of the other incarnations of the story. Or possibly even some incarnation I can't find mention of online. I just don't know, but most likely it was this one.

Anyway... I should also say that the film's writer/director, Brian Challis, doesn't seem to be aware of the story or its previous adaptations. From what I read on yet another site, it seems he'd heard the story from his grandmother when he was little. I get the impression he must have thought she'd made it up, or something. So... it's kind of unwitting plagiarism, I guess. But I think the film won some awards and no one ever called him on it, or anything. And I don't hold it against him.

Well, I should say something about the story. There's this man and woman who were digging a well. They had a big drill or whatever. But they don't find any water (or whatever they were drilling for). So the guy's in a really bad mood (and he seems like someone who's probably in a bad mood most of the time, anyway). But the woman hears some voices coming from deep down in the hole. At first the guy thinks she's crazy, but then he hears the voices, too. She convinces him to lower a flashlight into the hole. (They call it a "torch," since this is in New Zealand.) Then they pull the rope back up, and find that whoever's down there had given them a big chunk of gold and a thank you note. So the guy gets excited, and goes into town to buy a bunch more torches to exchange for gold. Meanwhile, the woman lowers a sandwich into the hole, and gets a small nugget of gold in return, along with another thank you note. Later, the guy comes back and... things don't turn out quite the way he hoped. Beyond that, I don't want to say anything. The ending... well, it's definitely creepier if you're not expecting it. (Although I don't suppose it's really all that hard to predict.) Anyway, it's a decent little film, I guess. And I'm glad to have discovered what it was I was (probably) thinking of. The first time I saw it, I expect I would have rated it higher than I did this time, but it's still not bad. (And even if it doesn't scare you too much when you watch it, it's the kind of thing by which you might be a bit more creeped out when you think about it later.)