Film of the Week: The Hole in the Ground

It’s not the most original concept, a family member gets swapped with an imposter, but what this film lacks in originality, it makes up for in being scary. Whilst there was a huge opportunity to explore the mystery as to whether the mother was delirious with her belief that Christopher wasn’t her son, or if he had genuinely been swapped with a shapeshifting creature; what the film gave us was an interesting exploration of folklore.

The slow-paced storytelling allowed for the scares to shine. If you’re looking for jump scares, this is not the place to find it, but instead your given a psychological horror film, one which gives the audience just enough information without going overboard, and by that I mean enough information to understand what’s going on, and that’s it. It’s no room for your own theories to flourish, but a linear story from beginning to end, with barely a hint of one right at the end.

I did enjoy The Hole in the Ground, but it didn’t stand out from all the others that had done the imposter storyline before. It blended in within the rest, creating that automatic thought of this film not having a lot of originality. It’s a simple and easy watch, but that at least allowed the director to pump up the scare factor.

The constant feeling of a chill running down my back kept me watching, as well as the decent acting, mainly from the mother, Sarah O’Neill, played by Seána Kerslake. Sarah’s performance peaked when her character started suspecting that her son Chris, played by James Quinn Markey, wasn’t really her son. This is where the film could have played heavily on the concept that it actually was her son, but she believed he truly wasn’t, making us the audience question whether we should believe her or not. Adding the supernatural creatures in the mix, whilst kept the scare factor high, unfortunately felt like a missed opportunity to really mess with people’s heads.

The Hole in the Ground’s character development wasn’t ripe throughout. As stated before, it gives you just enough to keep watching without becoming confused, but also felt like it missed a chunk of the story as well.

I could tell a decent amount of passion went into making this film, as, even though it doesn’t stand out from the ocean of standard horror film, and it’s because of the level of passion that went into making this is what kept me watching. I did enjoy it, it is something I would recommend if you’re not a fan of all the jump scares, but you will see the missed opportunities with the story unfold as it diverts to the creature angle.

Thanks for reading

Antony Hudson

(TonyHadNouns)