"There's Something Not Right With Him Lately. I Can't Put My Finger On It..."
Directed and co-written by Irish filmmaker, Lee Cronin, The Hole in the Ground is the latest rather well made, independent horror which may take that extra effort in order to seek out in cinemas. Co-written by first time film screenwriter, Stephen Shields, Cronin's movie follows a very familiar genre set up as we follow Seána Kerslake's Sarah O'Neill into the heart of the Irish countryside with her son, James Quinn Markey's Chris, in order to escape a slightly ambiguous previous violent relationship. On arrival to her newly purchased and slightly grotty open-air house however, Sarah nearly collides with the elderly figure of the infamous local crackpot, Kati Outinen's Noreen Brady, who begins a sudden and strange fascination with Chris, whilst the discovery of a gigantic and rather hypnotic ever-moving sinkhole in the heart of the neighbouring woods results in Sarah soon seeing sudden changes in the behaviour of her son whose move to the countryside seems to have made him a completely different person.
Whilst the movie begins with an a-typical horror narrative, Cronin's movie manages to sustain from the offset a brooding sense of melancholia and smouldering darkness, personified nicely by the swaying, isolated wilderness of the woods which reside next to Sarah's new home. Whilst my own personal xylophobia means that every film which ventures into wooded area is guaranteed to creep me out, the best parts of The Hole in the Ground is when the movie embraces its' inner The Blair Witch Project or The Witch, particularly one set piece in which the camera decides to show a midnight stroll through the eyes of Sarah, with the only source of light coming from her low powered torch. As the movie moves into a third act in which seems to take nods from the likes of The Omen and other paedophobia heavy horrors, the drama does unfortunately become slightly silly, with ambiguity being thrown completely out the window and the narrative instead choosing to go down a more fantastical, mythical route as it reaches a nicely wrapped up conclusion. Whilst not memorable in the slightest or a movie which can safely stand up and say that it offers anything which can be classed as new or original, Cronin's movie is a fairly enjoyable, low-budget horror which makes the most of a talented cast who embrace the material with open arms, and with a couple of set pieces which made me watch the film through the slits of my fingers, is a movie which is worth seeking out, particular for horror completists.
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