“The Hole in the Ground” is an engaging low-budget horror-drama from Ireland. Sarah O’Neill, seeking to escape her troubled past, is forging a new existence on the outskirts of a secluded rural town with her young son, Chris. However, her newfound stability is threatened as she descends into paranoia when Chris begins to exhibit increasingly odd behavior.
The Review (Spoiler Free)
On the surface this film comes across as another semi-grade horror flick. The pace of the movie is very slow and we don’t know too much about the main character, Sarah’s past played by Seána Kerslake. Towards the end, the movie takes on unexpected turn. And you ask yourself, what is the movie really about?
Even with the slow pace of the movie, the movie got my attention until the end. The Hole in the Ground starts out as a movie about some kind of evil child. Some thing about evil children just creeps me out. This movie is no different. James Quinn Markey did good job playing the mysterious evil kid.
But the movie takes on the surprise turn towards the end. The Hole in the ground is low budget movie with very few characters, but it manages to pull off a very chilling atmosphere of dread.
The mom played by Seána Kerslake did a great job portraying a mom who is concerned about her son turn turning into an evil kid.. The movie really manages to make you feel their sense of loneliness as the mother struggle to fight for her son.
Even though there is wild twist in the story towards end, The Hole in the Ground is more of a drama-psychological horror. Because throughout the movie, we are wondering sanity of the mother. At the end, we are left to wonder if everything is real or is it just in her head.
Not everyone will appreciate the slow and subtle tone of the movie, but if you enjoyed smart horror like Under the Shadow and Good night Mommy, then you’ll appreciate the movie. The ending is big ambiguous, but sometimes I think it’s okay for movie to leave a bit up to the viewers to figure out by themselves.
Ending Explained (Spoiler Warning!)
The Hole in the Ground starts out as a movie about a demon possessed evil kid. But the movie takes a surprised turn and it turned into movie about a some kind of shapeshifter monster. But what most people have missed is that the mother’s mental state is very questionable.
The movie doesn’t reveal too much information about the mother’s past. I know that the father of her son is not in the picture, and she has big scar in her forehead which supposedly from an car accident. Throughout the movie, we see her hallucinating and it gradually getting worse. She also takes medicines regularly. This bring interesting question. What really happened to her past? Is there a dark secret that we don’t know about?
What is interesting is that this type of subtle ambiguity is very intentional. There is a very well hidden parallel story that runs alongside the one which is presented to viewers. We see the story from the perspective of the mother, Sarah O’Neill, who isolates herself and her son in a remote house near the woods. Her delusions gradually increase as the film progresses, and the viewer is dragged in to her fantasy world with these scary monsters.
What the mother is suffering from is Capgras Delusion. Capgras Delusion is the condition in which a person holds the delusional belief that a close family member has been replaced by an imposter. The condition can be caused by trauma to the head. We do see references to Sarah’s unexplained scar in her forehead. This condition can also accompany other psychological conditions such as schizophrenia and psychosis. The final part of the film is clearly a psychotic event experienced by Sarah.
If you pay attention, there is lots of reference to mirror which is another hint to Capgras Delusion. The film eludes to the fact that mirrors unmask the true nature of the person. Capgras Delusion sufferers can sometimes doubt their own identity after seeing themselves within a large mirror.
In the end, it’s probable that the supernatural events involving monsters are merely delusions. There may be a mysterious hole in the ground, but no monsters exist, and the son never fell into it. It’s unlikely that the son is behaving violently or strangely. It is all a figment of her imagination. I do believe she burned down the house to start anew, which explains her constant moving and inability to settle in one place.
In the Nutshell
Overall, The Hole in the Ground is entertaining psychological horror drama. [4 out of 5 stars]
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Genre: Horror-Drama
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The director said in an interview that he Sarah character wasn’t crazy and there really was a monster. You should try a simple Google search before posting your opinion like it’s fact and you figured everything out.
Fact check you idiot it’s clearly stated she’s not crazy 2 people cannot share the exact same delusion
I give this movie 4 stars. It was really good and I disagree with your review. Sarah wasn’t mentally ill and her son had a doppelgänger and from what was shown wasn’t the first coming out of the hole in the ground! Why do people always have to deem a person “mentally ill” if if they claim to see or hear something they don’t want to believe or want to explain away their claims? That is also true in real time real life situations! Shameful!
Ok…. seems the reviewer is not aware of Irish fea folk mythology and what a changing is… 🙃🖤
Good decent movie you can clearly see it’s the mimic thing going on not sure if the actual intent of the creature was ever bad, it didn’t really seem that way to the end when was found out, I believe it would of just migrated into her life as her son
I do not like the movie. It was terribly slow. The mother was stupid and did a lot of stupid things. If you’re a thinking person, this movie is not for you.