Sinkholes
naturally occur when the earth below the surface is eroded away by water.
Essentially, the ground becomes corrupted and collapses. Perhaps that makes the
phenomenon an apt metaphor for Sarah O’Neill, who is seeking a fresh start with
her young son after leaving his abusive father (or not). Unfortunately, she
will trade a conventional horror for a supernatural one in Lee Cronin’s The Hole in the Ground (trailer here), which screened during the 2019 Sundance Film Festival.
O’Neill
was largely successful shielding her precocious son Chris from her violent
husband, but she carries the physical scars of his abuse. They have moved to a
sleepy provincial village, where nobody knows them—exactly the sort of place
you find in horror movies. O’Neill has become a relentlessly overprotective
mother, but Chris still manages to slip away into the woods, where an ominous
looking sinkhole sets off all her internal danger alarms.
Shortly
thereafter, the borderline catatonic wife of their nearest neighbor suddenly
snaps to, telling O’Neill her son is not really her son. Unfortunately, she
will start to suspect that herself when Chris’s behavior starts to change. Most
distressingly, he has apparently lost all memory of the secret game they share.
Horrifyingly, O’Neill comes to suspect her son has been replaced by a
doppelganger, but she is deeply confused and conflicted regarding how she
should treat him.
Hole is another horror
movie that offers a revisionist take a parenthood, just like Jennifer Kent’s The Babadook. In this case, O’Neill’s
formerly beloved son turns into a little monster. It is also a fine example to
Irish horror, which generally seems to be distinguished by moody atmospherics
as well as an often sinister view of rural life and the natural environment (as
exemplified by Don’t Leave Home, Without
Name, The Hallow, and The Canal).
As
O’Neill, Seána Kerslake convincingly implodes into a puddle of paranoia, while
James Quinn Markey is quite chilling as the supernaturally altered bad seed
boy. Their scenes together are all kinds of tense and awkward. It is almost a
two-hander, but James Cosmo adds some grizzled humanity in his brief but
memorable supporting turn as their neighbor, Des Brady.
