The Hole in the Ground

The first thing I noticed about the film was the cinematography. The picture was dark and grim, which contributed to the movies thrill factor. With all of that and the above average acting, it payed out the films setting in the countryside quite well.

I expected a creature feature or paranormal film experience, instead I got a non-cliche story. This impressed me and made it easier to indulge into the story.

Without spoiling the film, the plot is that a mother suspects that her son was traded in with an identical imposter of some type. Let's just say the entity in this film is a doppelgänger of sorts. To my surprise the movie had nothing to do with the sinkhole at all, but what came out of it.

Some of the story does have holes and lacks a lot of background. Despite this it wasn't that terrible of a film at all. It was actually a lot better than I had expected and landed midrange on my scale at a 6/10.

It is very difficult to not be drawn in into seeing 'The Hole in the Ground' with a premise this good, mixing horror, mystery and psychological with a sensitive subject. It also looked great from the advertising, may not have been completely sold on the somewhat simplistic and to me misleading title but the premise and advertising were more than enough to make me want to see it. As well as seeing that there were people that liked it.

Seeing 'The Hole in the Ground', am going to join those that felt that were underwhelmed by it and that it could have been so much better. There are good things and it is not as bad as some of the negative reviewers have said from personal view, but at the same time 'The Hole in the Ground' is not particularly good either and has major flaws that prevent it from reaching its full potential. As far as my opinion goes, it is one that is pretty much on the fence here.

Will start with the good things. 'The Hole in the Ground' is well made, it is beautifully and atmospherically shot with a moody but not drab colour pallette that matches the tone of the film well. Another big plus point is the music score, which is suitably haunting, adds a lot to the atmosphere and never works against it or overbear it.

The acting is better than average, with a credible lead performance from Seana Kerslake. James Quinn Markey also has the right amount of intensity in his role, not an easy one to pull off. James Cosmo is great value. Some of the film too is suitably creepy early on.

Unfortunately too much of 'The Hole in the Ground' lacks the necessary eeriness and intensity, burdened by a very lifeless pace and an increasingly thin and sometimes uneventful story that struggles to fit enough content into a standard feature length film. While my intelligence was never insulted, my attention did waver and the lack of surprises and suspense was a big problem, as was the real head-scratcher of an ending that could have done with more clarity.

Found that the film never really disturbed or got under the skin, exploring its sensitive subject in a way that goes overboard on the subtlety as that particular aspect of it never felt explored enough to make me properly care or be moved. The script has as much life as a damp squib and was in serious need of a tidying up, while the characters were too underdeveloped to make me properly root for them.

On the whole, am on the fence here. 5/10

A creepy little Irish horror movie this one was. If you like the A24 horror movies, especially the one 'It Comes at Night', it's safe to say you will enjoy 'The Hole in the Ground'. Good performances and very well done acting by the young man who plays the son. The movie definitely manages to create a nice eerie atmosphere to go with the setting and there are a few scenes in this that gave me a good fright. Try and seek this one out and watch it if you are in the mood for suspenseful slow burn horror. 7.5/10

Movies involving evil or mean children often manage to creep us out the most for some reason. The Hole in the Ground is no exception. It's a small Irish production with only a few characters, but it manages to pull off a very chilling atmosphere of dread, after a mother and her son moves into their new house in a deserted area on the edge of a large dense forest. The movie really manages to make you feel their sense of loneliness as the mother stumbles upon a mysterious huge hole in the middle of the forest behind their house. Her boy begins to acts strange after he runs away one night in the forest, and she starts questioning his identity and also, her sanity. The actress playing the mother is very good at displaying her mixed emotions and the boy really conveys a feeling of unpleasantness. This coupled with the creepy atmosphere really pulls you in. It's more of a drama-psychological horror and not everyone will appreciate the slow and subtle tone of the movie, but if you enjoyed smart horror like Under the Shadow and Goodnight Mommy, then I think you will like this. It's not quite as good and it unfortunately lacks a little bit of explanation at the end, but sometimes I think it's okay for movie to leave a bit up to the viewers to figure out by themselves. I just wish it ran maybe 10 minutes longer to better develop the events leading to the conclusion.

The first hour of this film is creepy, well photographed, and reasonably subtle, if quite predictable if you've seen this sort of movie before. Despite the predictability it has the former assets.

Unfortunately, 1 hour and 4 minutes in, the scriptwriter abandons these assets. He could have gone in one of two directions. One would have maintained the creepiness and perhaps done something more clever, the other, which he chose, is an in-your-face pedestrian affair. I don't want to drop any spoilers so I won't mention what movie they essentially adopt for the climactic moments, but if you've seen a lot of horror movies you will recognize it instantly.

I have to mention another pet peeve. Among its other deficiencies, Hole in the Ground employs a tired old horror trope which, along with the jump-scare, should be banned from movies from here to the end of time. It's those moments where something creepy or horrifying is happening and, oh never mind, it was just a nightmare and we find the protagonist waking up in bed. Why screenwriters continue to think that this tactic is clever or effective is beyond me. It's a tired cliche and simply bad writing.