John and the Hole (2 Stars)

This is the 29th film in the Stuttgart Fantasy Film Festival.

Every year at the festival there's one film that excites people so much that it sells out. Films like "Mandy" and "IT Chapter One". They were both excellent films. This year the only film that's sold out is "John and the Hole".

So what's it about?

A 13-year-old boy called John finds a hole in the woods near his house. It's a partially constructed bunker that was never completed. It's impossible to get in or out without a long ladder. John drugs his family (father. mother and sister) and traps them in the hole. He leaves them in the hole for days, maybe weeks. 

There's also a meta-story. A mother tells her 12-year-old daughter Lily the story of John and the Hole. Then she tells her that she's leaving and Lily will have to live by herself.

That's it. That's the whole film. When it was over I was stunned by the stupidity. If the director was trying to give us a message, I missed it. Whatever it was that drew the crowds into the cinema, they were disappointed, based on the reactions of the people sitting around me. Some hazarded a guess as to what the film meant, but nobody liked it.