Single mother Sarah (Seána Kerslake), who is living in a rented house in the Irish countryside, starts to suspect that her son Chris (James Quinn Markey) is not actually her real son…

She begins to think that Chris’ odd, disturbing behaviour might somehow be connected to the big sinkhole located in the forest just behind their house.

THE HOLE IN THE GROUND was directed by Lee Cronin, written by Stephen Shields & Lee Cronin, with fine cinematography by Tom Comerford.

This is a slow burn supernatural horror story that’s well handled, with some disquieting moments, including shots of victims lying on the ground with just their heads buried beneath the soil.

The movie is a variation on the changeling myth, with Sarah realising that her son has been replaced by a shapeshifting creature. During the finale we get to see some of these beings when Sarah enters the sinkhole to search for her actual son.

A nice touch is the idea that changelings reveal their true selves when viewed in a mirror. At one point Sarah holds a mirror near to her son’s face and sees a hideous creature reflected back!

These creatures, as briefly shown at the end, are featureless humanoids… until they touch you, after which they can acquire your appearance, which happens when one of them grabs hold of Sarah.

I do think that Cronin relies too much on endless close-up shots of the heroine’s distraught face, and the pace should have been upped in the third act, but he imbues the film with a creepy atmosphere and obviously did a good enough job to snag the directing gig for EVIL DEAD RISE, which is coming out this year.

Here are some posters for the film…