THE HOLE IN THE GROUND / CERT: 15 / DIRECTOR: LEE CRONIN / SCREENPLAY: LEE CRONIN, STEPHEN SHIELDS / STARRING: SEANA KERSLAKE, JAMES QUINN MARKEY, KATI OUTINEN, JAMES COSMO / RELEASE DATE: OUT NOW
In this smouldering atmospheric Irish thriller, Sarah (Kerslake) is fleeing an abusive relationship and trying to build a new life on the edge of a rural backwoods town with her young son Chris (Markey). But it seems that Sarah’s past won’t leave her alone when Chris briefly goes missing and returns from a visit to a strange and inexplicable sinkhole in the surrounding forest oddly changed. His behaviour seems off-kilter and Sarah begins to wonder if the boy who has come back is really her son at all…
If you like your mystery movies steeped in metaphor and wreathed in ambiguity then The Hole in the Ground has got your name all over it. Sarah is clearly a psychologically-damaged young woman battling against the demons in her past (she’s on medication to help her deal with her ongoing distress) to create a better future for herself and her son. The film hides its true story – Sarah’s story – under what presents as a hokey, clichéd tale of a possessed / replaced child, and we’re initially asked to follow Sarah as her suspicions grow and her sense of dread mounts.
Chris’ behaviour becomes ever more extreme and disturbing and yet it soon becomes apparent that what we’re seeing might not quite be reflecting Sarah’s truth. In fact, how much of what we are seeing is actually happening at all; how much of this is something feverish and terrible dreamed up by Sarah’s subconscious to protect her from the memories of her own past? The Hole in the Ground is in no hurry to answer any of the questions it poses – but a final sequence set in some subterranean nightmare world inhabited by creatures not entirely dissimilar to the horrors in Neil Marshall’s The Descent tends to lead us to conclude that Sarah is very disturbed indeed.
Despite the slight frustration engendered by a film which resolutely refuses to make sense – or at least to offer easy, convenient, box-ticking explanations – within its own world, The Hole in the Ground is strangely haunting, a film which will sit somewhere in the back of your mind long after you’ve watched it. The off-the-grid setting gives the film an air of unease and unearthliness, and immersive, absorbing performances by Kerslake and Markey, along with a powerful supporting role from genre veteran James Cosmo, combine to add to the film’s quirkiness and sense of dislocation.
Director / co-writer Cronin is clearly at home with the tropes of the genre which he manipulates and subverts with an ease we might not expect of a first time feature filmmaker. The Hole in the Ground’s refusal to play by the rules might infuriate those looking for a more traditional, linear narrative but the film clearly delights in telling an entirely different story from the one we might have been expecting. If it doesn’t always touch the bases it’s aiming for and can occasionally be a little too oblique for its own good, it’s still worth a look if only to see a promising and savvy new director taking his first steps into what could well become a long and accomplished career in a genre he obviously has a massive affinity towards.
