The Hole in the Ground

No scares, jumps or gore in this horror, just a good creepy storyline that hooks you from start to finish. 8/10.

An effective creepy and atmospheric horror film. The film takes its time to establish the dynamic between the mother and son, gradually providing more information on their background and the strong performances from the two central actors ensure that the audience is invested in both characters as things start to go wrong. The filmmakers rely on building tension through creating a strong sense of paranoia rather than cheap jump scares and the majority of the film treads a fine line in ambiguity and uncertainty as to what is going on. That the film ultimately decides to resolve this ambiguity and definitively provide answers is not necessarily to the film's detriment as the final act still works well and contains probably the film's creepiest moment, but there is probably an equally effective cut that could still have retained much of the uncertainty that the film works so hard to maintain throughout. Well worth seeking out though.

I was worried I'd be adding this to my list of new hip horror that I find maddeningly boring. NOPE! Really dug this by the end. Decent payoffs.

The trailer didn’t do any good, just start watching the movie if you like Stranger Things and Eli combined.

Chillingingly effective but familiar Irish horror, with a story we have seen variations of before. Still worth a look though, especially if you're looking for something a little more grounded (pun intended) than the usual cookie cutter horror movies filling up our streaming services.

I found the performances to be decent but the pacing was slow and the story was derivative. Nothing new to see. Also, I really didn't like the shooting style.

How did she get out of that hole??

I enjoyed the acting in this. It felt an hour longer than it was; however.
I was thinking this was in the 5 range, but really enjoyed the ending quite a bit. That'll push it up to a 6.1, but unfortunately I figure many watchers will have tuned out by then. A shame as it's a well directed piece. It just meanders too long. Very different than Cronin's latest features "Evil Dead Rise" of course. Where this is subtle and foreboding, that is chaotic and aggressive. Still happy I watched this.

It had its moments but overall, it was - even at a mere 90 minutes - overextended and a bit ambiguous for my taste. There was one...okay, maybe two...good jump scares through the whole film but this was mainly just a psychological thriller that bordered on the edge of science fiction/horror. Not a "bad" movie but I was expecting a lot more and maybe that's why I came back a tad disappointed here. For one thing, the closing moments of the film were so dark and difficult to follow that by the time it was over with, I was glad to see the credits start rolling. It started off good enough but seemed to fizzle just when you thought it was really going to get interesting. Look closely at the poster art and you'll see probably the creepiest thing about this whole film.

**PSA: Be advised that there are some really strong strobe/pulsing light sequences in this movie, some quite early on. If you have any sort of medical issues that may be triggered by flashing lights, I strongly suggest you give this one a pass; it's not worth it.**