Trying to escape her broken past, Sarah O’Neill is building a new life on the fringes of a backwood rural town with her young son Chris. A terrifying encounter with a mysterious neighbor shatters her fragile security, throwing Sarah into a spiraling nightmare of paranoia and mistrust, as she tries to uncover if the disturbing changes in her little boy are connected to an ominous sinkhole buried deep in the forest that borders their home.
Sarah (Seána Kerslake) is a good mom. Despite the fact that there is clearly some family strife, the new horror film The Hole in the Ground opens with Sarah and her son Chris (James Quinn Markey) in a local amusement funhouse having a bit of fun. It is only on their way home that they run into the town crazy Norreen (Kati Outinen), aka “Walkie Talkie.” Nearly running her over, Sarah stops to check on this odd woman standing in the road muttering, incoherently. We learn that the insane lady believes that years before she lost her son to a legendary creature. Known as a Changeling in Irish culture, these subterranean beings would steal children and take their form. Well, best to move along and leave the woman in the road.
“Known as a Changeling in Irish culture, these subterranean beings would steal children and take their form…”
However, late one night as Sarah and Chris lay sleeping in their new, rather oversized home, noises are heard. Chris disappears, and Sarah follows the sound out into the forest where she comes upon a gaping hole in the ground. Returning to the house, she discovers her son, or what she believes to be her son, waiting for her to return. At first, things are suspect. Soon enough though, Sarah begins to detect very strange behaviors and begins to wonder if her son has been stolen away.
Written by Lee Cronin and Stephen Shields, The Hole in the Ground plays with the known legends and applied them to modern, everyday life. Little seeds are inconspicuously planted in the first act that suddenly becomes alarming payoffs in the second and third. Chris used to never eat his food; now he eats voraciously. He was never outgoing; now he is in the talent show.
“…an entirely fulfilling movie that takes folklore and applies modern logic.”
While Kerslake is wonderful as the roubles, confused mother Sarah, it is Markey that owns every scene he is in. Reminding us of the next Hailey Joel Osment, Markey carefully measures facial ticks and movement to suddenly become another person altogether. It is pretty wonderful work.
I thought for certain at the end as she watched her son on his bike that the old man was going to hit him with his car, I mean the last time she spoke with him she told him Chris wasn’t her son and his wife hit “their” son with her car.
This movie was gay and david green was not scared so it didn’t meet any expectations
So you’re saying that the movie was filled with mirth and joy, and yet, some random person named David Green (who apparently shares the same name as you!) “was not scared”? To me, this Green chap must not be very bright if he was expecting a “gay” lighthearted romp to be simultaneously scary.
Perhaps, in “not being scared”, Green is unwittingly, subconsciously admitting that such gayness is nothing to fear, and to that I say: judos, good sir, for your enlightened viewpoint!
Well as I understand it, the mirrors always show the truth, or so we’re told the mom who went crazy beleaved.
I thought for sure we’d see the footage from the video camera, but clearly it captired something terrible or inhuman.
So she takes the pictures in the end because supposedly it would revel if her son was real or not (DSLR cameras like the one she was using have a mirror inside that work with the lens to take a pic).
As for the head burrying, I don’t know. We should do some research into Irish mythology to see if there’s any symbolism.
Personally, I was expecting to find at the end that the son was real, but the fake mom had been the one to make it out of the hole… That the last shot would be of her without her scar.
SPOILERS:
Also its important to note the importance of the mirrors in this film. Notice how all the mirrors are covered at the funeral for the crazy lady. This could imply that the townspeople are all changelings. I then wondered if these mirrors would be uncovered later in the film when Sarah goes to show the video recordings she received to the crazy ladies husband(James Cosmo aka Jeor Mormoent lol). The husband stands in the kitchen and if you look closely it appears a mirror has been removed. There is a nail in the wall and black dust showing a spot where something hung on the wall. I am not sure if this imply he also is a changeling? Also the very starting scene of the film Sarah and Chris leave an amusement park which appears to be abandoned or at least that no one visits anymore. The parking lot is completely empty which makes me think the entire town stays away from this place because of all the mirrors in the fun house. They’re all clones even the teacher from the play and her friends!!!!!
Stupid movie.
Can someone please explain the ending of the movie? Whats with all the mirrors like the other lady? Why was her head buried? I cannot find any synoposis with spoilers to explain. Help!
Well as I understand it, the mirrors always show the truth, or so we’re told the mom who went crazy beleaved.
I thought for sure we’d see the footage from the video camera, but clearly it captired something terrible or inhuman.
So she takes the pictures in the end because supposedly it would revel if her son was real or not (DSLR cameras like the one she was using have a mirror inside that work with the lens to take a pic).
As for the head burrying, I don’t know. We should do some research into Irish mythology to see if there’s any symbolism.
Personally, I was expecting to find at the end that the son was real, but the fake mom had been the one to make it out of the hole… That the last shot would be of her without her scar.