The Hole in the Ground (2019)
The spooky-kid subgenre gets a geological refresh in director and co-writer Lee Cronin’s tale of young mother Sarah (Séana Kerslake), who’s recently left her (abusive, it’s implied) husband to start life anew with her son, Chris (James Quinn Markey). Their new home backs up against a vast forest that’s straight out of fairy-tale nightmares, not the least because it’s home to a sinkhole so giant and menacing it can only be powered by evil. When Chris starts acting very off, Sarah—who’s already spooked thanks to an eccentric neighbor who out of nowhere insists “That’s not your son!”—fears the worst. The Hole in the Ground doesn’t go anywhere terribly unfamiliar with its plot, but the landscape is eerie nature at its finest, and Kerslake is compelling as a woman forced to face an unthinkably horrific truth.
