Wolf’s Hole (Vera Chytilová, 1987)

Ice cold mind games breed distrust

Wolf’s Hole is a low-budget Czechoslovakian horror movie in the vein of Lord of the Flies.

A mismatched group of teens invited to a mysterious ski camp arrive at a rural train station where they meet their instructors: a gruff old man and a girl who surely can’t be as young as she looks.

It plays like a Soviet take on Hollywood high school movies of the 80s. Certain archetypes stand out and we think we get an idea of where things are going. In some cases, initial impressions are correct. In others, less so (the clumsy kid disdained by his father, for example, turns out to be a plenty capable and boisterous character).

Their camp — located at the isolated Wolf’s Hole — has been cut off from civilization following a recent avalanche. The only way in or out is via a rickety ski lift.

With the gang all assembled, however, it appears there is one student too many. Allegedly, all 11 kids have invitations. But there should have been only 10.

Since no-one owns up to being the intruder, however, the camp leaders acquiesce to the campers’ insistence that they are all welcome — and they will all stick together and support each other; one for all and all for one.

Soon, however, it becomes clear that the camp leaders are playing mind games with the kids. All 11 were indeed invited and the lie was a ploy to try and breed mistrust. Added to this, food quickly begins to run out, and at night there are human forms spasming wildly in the snow surrounding the cabin.

Wolf’s Hole is a very strange horror film. It is certainly not filled with the sort of tropes we are familiar with in Western cinema. Indeed, for a horror movie it is remarkably bloodless.

But that doesn’t mean it isn’t scary.

There is a pervasive sense of atmospheric menace running throughout the film. There are numerous jump cuts and Dutch angles routinely deployed to unsettle and keep everything feeling sufficiently off balance. The score is chilling. The arthouse cutaways to ice not melting but rather spreading are disconcerting. And those manic bodies throwing themselves about in the snow like fish out of water are perhaps most terrifying of all.

But I alluded at the beginning of this review to Lord of the Flies… The fact is that Wolf’s Hole is a similarly allegorical film, but one specifically concerned with the normalization and manipulation of authoritarian regimes.

Even before the truth of the camp leaders has been revealed, we see how they manipulate the campers in various ways — trying to turn them against each other, making conditions worse for everyone in the hope that the group will sacrifice a scapegoat…

In an American horror movie, no doubt a single hero would emerge, there would be plenty of violence and gore. None of that happens here. Instead, Wolf’s Hole traffics in a much more phycological brand of horror.

It also posits that in order to overcome the sadistic evil of those in charge, the campers must avoid turning on each other at all costs. They can only survive, overcome, and overthrow their oppressive rulers by sticking together. Community wins. People acting together are powerful.

It is a chilling film in many regards, but also decidedly optimistic.