Lee Cronin’s eagerly awaited psychological horror ‘The Hole in the Ground’ opens in Irish cinemas on Friday, March 1st.
The Irish horror has enjoyed some fantastic reviews following the films world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival and stars Seána Kerslake (‘A Date for Mad Mary’), James Quinn Markey (‘Vikings’), James Cosmo (‘T2 Trainspotting’), Simone Kirby (‘Jimmy’s Hall’), Steve Wall (‘An Klondike’) and Kati Outinen (‘Le Havre’). Digital Spy tipped the Irish horror to follow in the footsteps of ‘Herreditary’, ‘The Witch’ and ‘The Babadook’, who all went on to become “some of the most talked-about horrors of the year’, following their premieres at Sundance in previous years.
‘The Hole in the Ground’ follows Sarah O’Neill (Seána Kerslake) who is trying to escape her broken past by building a new life on the fringes of a backwood rural town with her young son Chris (James Quinn Markey). A terrifying encounter with a mysterious neighbour shatters her fragile security, throwing Sarah into a spiralling nightmare of paranoia and mistrust, as she tries to uncover if the disturbing changes in her little boy are connected to an ominous sinkhole buried deep in the forest that borders their home.
The film which Cronin wrote with Stephen Shields shot on location in Dublin, Kildare and Wicklow and was produced by Conor Barry and John Keville for Savage Productions with Benoit Roland and Ulla Simonen for Wrong Men and MADE. The film was funded by Screen Ireland, the BAI and Headgear Films with support coming from Wallimages and the Finnish Film Foundation.
IFTA nominated actress Seana Kerslake has also picked up praise with BirthMoviesDeath making the claim that “Sarah deserves a spot among the great heroines of horror, and I sincerely hope she moves enough people to get it." This comes from a review that confidently backs Cronin’s film saying "for all its smallness, I anticipate a lot of great conversations about the film.”
Variety’s Guy Lodge said:"Putting the agonized single mom at its center through a veritable spin cycle of familiar horror dilemmas and distractions — a haunted child, a creaking house, a ghostly neighbor, even a mysterious, beckoning sinkhole — and seeing how she comes out of the wash. Thanks to the resourceful Seána Kerslake in the lead, she fares rather well, and so does Cronin: The Irishman’s trim, jumpy debut feature rewrites no genre rules, but abounds in bristly calling-card atmospherics."
Collider’s Perri Nemiroff said:"The Hole in the Ground takes a simple, curious, highly cinematic premise and never over-explains or bombards you with flashy set pieces but rather, sustains its 90-minute runtime by creating two well developed, engaging characters, letting you live with them, and then all slowly slip into the darkness and paranoia together."
‘The Hole in the Ground’ opens in cinemas across Ireland and the UK on Friday 1st March.
There are two special Q&A screenings scheduled in Galway and Dublin over the opening weekend.
The Pálás cinema in Galway will host the opening night Q&A screening on Friday 1st March at 6.15pm where the film’s director Lee Cronin will take part in an interview following the screening – Book Tickets.
The Light House Cinema in Dublin will then host a Q&A screening with Cronin on Sunday 3rd March at 6.15pm – Book Tickets.