THE HOLE IN THE GROUND

Ireland, 2019, 90 minutes, Colour.

Seana Kerslake, James Quinn Markey, James Cosmo.

Directed by Lee Cronin.

A small Irish film. It plays as a psychological study. It plays as psychological breakdown. And it has tones of horror.

Filmed outside Dublin, however the film does not have such an Irish look, rather a Continental look with vast forest and trees, an enormous sinkhole, homes on the outskirts of the town.

This is the story of Sarah, a young mother (Seana Kerslake), seemingly separated from her husband, taking a young son, Christopher (James Quinn Markey) to make a new life in the small town, setting up the house, sending Christopher to school.

Opens with Christopher looking into a distorted mirror, then with his mother, and the mirror occurs as a recurring theme, for the boy, but especially for Sarah, an intense looking at herself.

The on this theme is introduced by Sarah encountering an old woman on the Road and almost crashing into her, an explanation given that she has gone mad thinking that her son was not her son. James Cosmo appears as her elderly husband, trying to explain the situation, especially after she dies and Sarah goes to the wake.

On the one hand, Sarah seems normal enough. On the other hand, she has a wound on her face, she takes pills to help her sleep, she has dreams, and Christopher looks at her in an alienating way. Eventually, she comes to the belief that Christopher is not her son – and there are some nightmarish sequences in the huge sinkhole behind the house, a tunnel, her seeking her son.

Perhaps an inconclusive screenplay. Rather than an atmospheric story.

1. Horror film? Psychological study? Irish setting?
2. The Irish countryside, the roads, the forests and fields, the sinkhole? The house, interiors? Basements? The musical score?
3. The title, the focus on the sinkhole, its vastness? Sarah on the edge, going down, sinking, the underground tunnel? The fact of the sinkhole? Its eerie power?
4. Sarah, her age, the absent husband, the wound on her forehead? With Christopher, his age? The bond between the two? The new town, setting up the house? The domestic sequences?
5. The role of mirrors, the initial distorted mirrors, mirrors in the house, mirrors draped in black for funerals, the final mirrors?
6. The encounter with the old woman on the road, almost crashing? The encounter with her? Seeing her again, blocking the gate? Her husband coming out, taking her away? Sarah and her friends, the story of the old woman, thinking that her son was not really her son? His death? Her psychological state? Her death, the funeral? Des, sympathetic, his explanations, Sarah going to see him, the problem of thinking her son was not her son?
7. Sarah, going to the doctor, pills? Her imagination, dreams, grizzly sequences about the woman and her head, the broken hand? Christopher and the arm-wrestling and her imagination? His disappearance into the forest, bringing her the flowers? The demands on him? Taking to school, his friends? The music, singing in the choir, her imagination, sitting in the hall, his look at her? The increasing pressure on Sarah?
8. Christopher, his age, wanting his father, his toy soldier, the soldiers, the other toys, his love for his mother, bringing her the flowers, disappearing, the noises in the night, his coming to the door…?
9. School, the friends, the meal, the stories? Sarah working at the shop, her friends support?
10. The buildup to the finale, Christopher, disappearance, going to the sinkhole, her drowning, the underground cavern, the skeletons, finding Christopher, taking him, the mirror image of herself and striking her? Taking Christopher?
11. Sarah, her studies, the camera, looking out the window, photographing Christopher? The mirrors?
12. The reality of the narrative, Christopher and his psychological condition, Sarah and her mental conditions, creating the narrative of the wrong child?