The Hole In The Ground is a 2019 Irish horror film starring Seána Kerslake as a single mother, Sarah O'Neill, and James Quinn Markey as her young son, Christopher. The film follows Sarah and Chris as they set themselves up at a new house in a new town after a suggested break-up between Sarah and Chris's father.

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As the mother and son settle into their new home, Sarah notices that there are several strange things happening. One day, Sarah stumbles across a huge hole in the ground in the woods behind their house, and, after this, she begins to see various changes in Chris's behavior. As the film progresses, Sarah becomes increasingly convinced that Chris is not really her son.

Good Morning Mummy

James Quinn Markey in The Hole In The Ground

One of the first suggestions of the young Christopher acting strangely takes place early on in the film the morning after Sarah has run frantically through the woods searching for her missing son, who appeared not to be missing at all. This morning Sarah awakens to find an unsettlingly calm Christopher sitting in the chair next to her bed.

Chris seems to be patiently waiting for his mother to wake up so that he can utter the words "good morning mummy" and hand her some flowers he has picked from the garden. In any other context, this may seem innocent and perhaps even sweet, but, in The Hole in The Ground, this is a moment that sets the tone that will become progressively more creepy.

Noreen Brady

Seána Kerslake in The Hole In The Ground

Things really start to unravel as Sarah and Chris are in the car on the way to their new house. The mother and son are lightly arguing as Chris begs to get a bike, and Sarah refuses. Their drive is abruptly interrupted as Sarah slams on the brakes and swerves to the side to avoid a figure standing in the middle of the road, losing a mirror in the process.

Sarah steps out to confront the figure and discovers an older woman clad in a black hooded-cloak of sorts, muttering the words "he's not my son." This woman, who viewers will later learn is Noreen Brady, then turns to stare directly at Chris and successfully unnerves Chris, and Sarah, and the audience.

Noreen's Body

Seána Kerslake in The Hole in The Ground

In what appears to be a moment of extreme intuition, Sarah stops the car one day while driving past Noreen and Des's house and makes her way to their front garden. Sarah is instantly met with what appears to be Noreen bending over into the grass.

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Sarah quickly realizes that what she is looking at is Noreen's head is buried underneath the earth, and she is being pecked at by birds, a horrifying sight for both Sarah and the audience. Realizing that Noreen is dead, Sarah calls the police and makes a statement, and her suspicions about Christopher begin to escalate.

Sarah Confronts Chris

James Quinn Markey in The Hole In The Ground

When Sarah has become convinced that Chris has perhaps been taken over by something sinister, she drugs him at dinner and takes the plunge in confronting him. As Chris watches TV and becomes sleepy, Sarah decides to test him and challenges him in their favorite game. Unsurprisingly, the possessed Chris is unfamiliar with the game, and Sarah confronts him, repeating "you are not my son."

Chris then attacks Sarah, first grabbing her by the throat, and then picking her up and throwing her across the room in an altercation that could be comical were it not so unsettling. With Sarah now unconscious, the possessed Chris proceeds to drag her outside and bury her in the garden in the same manner as Sarah previously found Noreen.

Chris Disappears

The woods in The Hole In The Ground

One night soon after they arrive at their new house, Sarah is awoken by the repeated slamming of a door. Sarah walks around the house and discovers that Chris is gone and makes her way outside in search of him. In the dark of the woods, Sarah shines her flashlight hoping to find Chris.

The Blair Witch Project comes to mind as the flashlight illuminates tiny areas at a time and eventually stops on the trunk of a tree that appears to have a small figure hiding behind it. Sarah peeks behind the tree with her flashlight, and, upon seeing nothing, she becomes terrified and runs from the forest, back toward the house, only to discover Chris safe and confused at home.

Sarah's Double

Seána Kerslake in The Hole In The Ground

Towards the end of the film, Sarah ventures inside the hole in the ground, presumably in search of the real Christopher. Once inside, Sarah meets the creatures that are wreaking havoc and finds Chris unconscious on the ground. Sarah picks up her son and wastes no time in making her way back out of the hole.

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On her way back out, Sarah's arm is grabbed by one of the creatures, on second glance, however, this creature turns out to be the double of Sarah herself. Viewers can only assume that this is the possessed version of Sarah, or her evil double, just as was the case with Christopher, and the image is truly terrifying.

"He's Not Your Son"

Kati Outinen in The Hole In The Ground

Noreen makes an ominous reappearance in the film as she is found standing in the middle of the road once again while Sarah and Chris are driving home. Sarah steps out of the car to confront her and meets Des, Noreen's husband.

Sarah, still suspicious of Noreen, quickly returns to the car, only to have Noreen appear at the passenger seat window aggressively shouting "he's not your son" as she pounds and ultimately bangs her head on the window, frightening both Christopher and Sarah.

Sarah's Dream

Seána Kerslake in The Hole In The Ground

One morning after Sarah has suddenly finished the wallpapering, she joins Chris for breakfast. Sarah is standing in the kitchen as Chris sits at the table eating a bowl of cereal, and Sarah bends down to speak to him. Sarah assures Chris that she loves him and apologizes for her unusual behavior of late.

The child begins to stroke his mother's face, and what at first seems affectionate quickly becomes violent as Chris sticks his fingers into his mother's scar, causing it to bleed. This is soon revealed to have been a dream of Sarah's, which doesn't in any way detract from the horror of the act.

Christopher's Solo

Seána Kerslake in The Hole In The Ground

As Sarah's suspicions about her son mount, the school talent show comes around and Chris is shown combing his hair and practicing meticulously for his solo. At the show, Sarah sits in the audience as Chris's class performs a rendition of The Rattling Bog, and many children perform their own solo section of the song.

As it gets to Chris's part, everyone around her falls away and Sarah finds herself alone in the audience, gazing at Christopher, whose voice has turned deep and ominous as he menacingly drags out each word of the song. Sarah, terrified by her child, runs out of the auditorium in fear and continues home without him, completely convinced that he is not himself.

Christopher And The Spider

Seána Kerslake and James Quinn Markey in The Hole In The Ground

One evening, Sarah hears scrambling and giggling from the hallway. Following the sound, Sarah peeks underneath Christopher's bedroom door to try and catch a glimpse of where the sound is coming from. Sarah sees a spider, which is identical to the one that had terrified Chris at the beginning of the film, crawling along the floor just inside the door.

The spider is followed by a child's hand crawling along and mimicking the spider, and the hand then extends and pounces, trapping the spider. The hand is revealed to be Christopher's as he scrambles inhumanly to the other side of his bed. It is from here that Sarah sees Christopher take the spider and put it into his mouth. Chris devours the spider and Sarah becomes certain that this is not her son.

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