MovieGuide The Hole in the Ground reviewed; plus Fritz Lang’s Human Desire on Blu Ray

★★★★ Dir: Lee Cronin

Starring: Seána Kerslake, James Quinn Markey PG 120M

Fresh from its success at the Sundance Film Festival, where it scared the bejeepers out of the midnight screening crowd (a slot previously occupied by The Babadook and Hereditary), comes Lee Cronin’s eagerly awaited horror film. Seána Kerslake takes the lead role of Sarah, a young mother living in rural Ireland with her son. We don’t get much of a back-story, but a prominent scar on our heroine’s head suggests that Sarah’s previous relationship did not end well. While building her new life, Sarah slowly comes to believe that the young boy sitting across from her at breakfast is not actually her son; a belief somehow connected to a large sink-hole that recently opened up behind their isolated home. While The Hole in The Ground offers many of the time-honoured tropes you expect from the genre, first-time feature director Cronin is smart enough to keep his audience on their toes by surprising them with unexpected thrills and chills. He is helped in his endeavours by a truly committed performance from Kerslake, one of our brightest acting talents, and by young James Quinn Markey, equally at home playing cute or unsettling. While there isn’t much room for other players, the impressive supporting cast does include Simone Kirby, Catherine Walsh, James Cosmo and Steve Wall. On the technical front, kudos to editor Colin Campbell for his pacing, Stephen Nolan for his ominous score and cinematographer Tom Comerford for creating such a visually atmospheric palette. Irish cinema has delivered some remarkable and technically accomplished horror films in recent years: The Hole in the Ground is an impressive addition to that list.