Director Hamm’s previous work – the fluffy summertime Britcom of Martha Meets Daniel, Frank and Lawrence – didn’t quite register on the Richter scale of cinematic greatness, but his reputation is unlikely to be damaged by this surprisingly chilling second feature, a kind of British version of the first Blair Witch with a proper budget and a highly effective central performance from American Beauty ‘s Thora Birch. Basically an overheated and cleverer version of every Friday-the-13th style flick ever made,The Hole is a teens-in-peril frightener which gathers five young innocents together, leaves them in an underground ‘hole’ in the middle of nowhere, and then goes about ruthlessly terrorising its ill-starred protagonists to almost disturbing effect.

In places, the inherent shallowness of The Hole’s vacuous characters detracts from the drama and almost defeats the purpose, but it’s still surprisingly effective in terms of pure suspense. Birch has the upper-crust Blighty accent perfected to a T – while teenage ‘style-icon’ Keira Knightley puts in what can best be described as an attention-seeking performance, flashing as much flesh as the plot will legitimately allow.

Granted, the three dweebs who share underground space with them don’t do a great deal to imprint their names on the annals of cinemaic history – but The Hole , at its best, conjures up a genuine sense of fear and foreboding, with the soundtrack effectively used throughout to highly disconcerting effect. Birch lifts it above the sub-ordinary, spending the film’s second half doing a highly convincing impression of one who has just escaped Hell but will never really be able to leave it behind – and it all careers mercilessly towards a mind-wrenching if predictable finale, with maggot-ridden toilets, unstoppable vomit and other such delights to send you bouncing out into the sunshine with a spring in your step.

If nothing else, The Hole is the single most malevolent movie to emerge thus far this year.