HOLES
A heartwarming adventure with story problems and occult elements.
Should You Watch It?
Holes has real strengths. It is well-directed, has great production values and beautiful photography, and builds toward a rousing, heartwarming, redemptive ending. The story also values ethics, friendship, sacrifice, carrying another person’s burdens, and doing good for others.
The movie’s main cost is its content and uneven storytelling. Occult elements are lightly rebuked but remain part of the plot, while violence, profanity, nudity, sexual innuendo, bullying, and other immoral behavior may trouble some families. The first third can also be confusing or boring as it introduces several story threads.
If you are choosing for teenagers, especially teenage boys, this adventure is worth considering with discernment; for younger children, choose something gentler. The practical answer: watch it with middle schoolers and up, but discuss the content and themes afterward.
The Story
NO SPOILERS — WE KEEP THE SURPRISESYoung Stanley Yelnats is sent to a reformatory camp in the desert after being accused of stealing a famous athlete’s sneakers. At Camp Green Lake, Stanley and the other teenagers must dig holes in the hot sun to “build character.”
Stanley befriends Zero, a quiet boy who speaks only to him. As Stanley learns more about his family’s supposed curse and the camp’s strange history, the boys begin to suspect that there is more behind the endless digging than character development.
Is It Any Good?
Three stars means this is a worthwhile but uneven adventure. The direction is strong, the production values are impressive, and the photography is sometimes beautiful. The acting, staging, and directing are fine, with Jon Voight singled out as especially effective.
The film’s last third is rewarding, endearing, uplifting, and entertaining. Its significant weakness is the script. The first third struggles to introduce its many story threads, leaving some children confused and others bored. A rewrite and some editing could improve the movie tremendously.
The Worldview
Holes presents a light redemptive allegory with Christian messages and positive allegorical touches. It values a code of ethics, friendship, sacrifice, carrying another person’s burdens, and doing good for others. Its life-giving stream imagery points toward renewal, while the story’s movement from hardship toward redemption gives the ending its emotional power.
The film also includes fortune-telling, a curse, and ghosts that could be simple visions. The curse is dismissed in dialogue, yet some later plot elements appear to support it, and a post-credits joke has little Zeroni pronounce a curse on the audience. The source review considers this inappropriate for viewers who believe in the biblical mandate against such invectives. The film’s moral and immoral elements sit uneasily beside one another.
The story’s central longing is for redemption through sacrifice, service, and restored good. Scripture calls believers to “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2).
The Content Guide
The specifics — spoilers included by nature — so you can judge for your own family.
Content Summary
Light redemptive allegory with some occult elements that are lightly rebuked such as fortune teller who pronounces a curse and ghosts who could be simple visions, and some politically correct elements, as well as moral and immoral elements; 9 obscenities and 2 "Oh My G-d" profanities; violence includes man hit with shovel, man scratched with rattlesnake venom, woman bit by deadly lizard, man shot to death in boat, boy hallucinates rattler bite, man shoots deadly lizards, man knocked unconscious by shovel, vigilantes burn schoolhouse, outlaw shoots men and kisses them, outlaw shoots sheriff pointblank, boys fight, and boys almost die of thirst in the desert; light sexual innuendo and kissing; many shots of upper male nudity and woman buttons blouse; no alcohol; no smoking; and, theft, lying, intimidation, and bullying.
Talk About It
Questions for the drive home, the dinner table, or the youth group.
Stanley keeps an ethical code in a harsh place. What does it look like to do what is right when others are mean or unjust?
Micah 6:8 · Romans 12:21Stanley carries Zero up the mountain when Zero cannot make the journey alone. When has someone carried a burden for you, and how can you carry someone else’s burden?
Galatians 6:2 · Philippians 2:4The story includes a fortune teller and a curse. What does Scripture teach about seeking power or guidance through occult practices?
Deuteronomy 18:10–12 · Isaiah 8:19The film connects sacrifice with redemption. Why does love sometimes require giving up comfort or safety for someone else?
John 15:13 · Philippians 2:3–4The Final Word
Holes is an entertaining, well-directed adventure with beautiful photography and a heartwarming ending. Its confused opening, occult elements, violence, profanity, and other content call for family discernment. For teenage boys and middle schoolers and up, it is WORTH THE TRIP — MIDDLE SCHOOL AND UP.
