The Hole in the Ground (A24 Horror Film - Jan 31st, 2019)

[The Great Owl]

Four and a half stars.

In hopes of escaping the traumas of her past for a new life, Sarah, a recently separated single parent played by Seána Kerslake, moves to a small countryside town with her young son, Chris, played by James Quinn Markey, but their arrival brings its own difficulties. An unsettling encounter with an elderly neighbor puts the already frazzled mother on edge. Meanwhile, Chris is having trouble fitting in with the other children at his new grade school. Despite the trying circumstances, however, the mother and son take solace in each other's company while enjoying humorous games and dinner conversations.

One day, Chris ventures alone into the deep forest near their remote farmhouse. After finding him unharmed in the woods near a crater-like sinkhole, the relieved Sarah admonishes him not to go outside unattended. During the days that follow, she notices mysterious changes in her son's behavior. Chis looks the same, but his mannerisms and his personality are subtly different. As the distance grows between the two of them, Sarah wonders if her imagination is getting away from her due to stress and medications or if something more sinister is to blame.

The 2019 Irish horror film, The Hole in the Ground, treats us to a myriad of narrative developments that have been explored time and time again in this genre. There is nothing particularly original about seemingly possessed evil children, creaky rural houses, unhinged protagonists driven to the edge by paranoia, an eerie old woman standing in the middle of a road, or family members spiraling into distrust and animosity while living in isolation from others. The well-tread terrain ascends to more than the sum of its parts, however, thanks to the enthrallingly insidious visual flourishes of director Lee Cronin and to the ability of our two leads to elicit sympathy from the audience.

There is a tangible escalation of dread at play in this deliberately paced slow burn of a story that rises above the usual jump-scare mayhem of recent scary movies. Kerslake and Markey both draw us into the fold with ease, and our resulting nervousness at the idea of either of their characters coming to harm is the fuel that drives this engine, even when the conclusion takes us down a road that has been traveled many times before. The Hole in the Ground may borrow stale recipe ingredients from The Babadook, The Shining, The Exorcist, The Sixth Sense, and Invasion of the Body Snatchers, but I have still never seen anything quite like it. The fact that the filmmakers do not over-explain the nature of the menace at hand is icing on the cake.

The A24 production company that brought us movies like Hereditary, The Witch, Ex Machina, Under the Skin, Green Room, Moonlight, It Comes at Night, Good Time, Lady Bird, and First Reformed has maintained its winning streak into a new year. I hope that they can keep it going.