By David Prendeville
Irish horror film The Hole in the Ground, to be distributed across the country by Merrion Square-based company Wildcard Distribution, recently had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival in Toronto. Upon its premiere, it received excellent notices from critics.
Starring Séana Kerslake and James Markey, it is the feature debut of writer-director Lee Cronin. Cronin previously directed the 2016 horror-short Ghost Train. Speaking about having his film premiere at Sundance, Cronin said: “It’s been a whirlwind since we touched down in Park City. The wave of support and positivity around the film has really helped quell the nerves that you cannot escape when premiering your debut feature at Sundance.”
Critical reviews have compared the film to Hereditary and The Witch, and the picture has already secured a US distribution deal with the high-flying company that produced those films, A24. Guy Lodge in Variety described it as: “a nifty, unpretentious horror debut” while Screen International describes it as “original and visceral.”
The Hole in the Ground follows Sarah O’Neill (Séana Kerslake) who is trying to escape her broken past by building a new life on the fringes of a backwoods 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 while 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 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 Wallimage and the Finnish Film Foundation.
Wildcard Distribution will be releasing the film in Irish cinemas from Friday 1st March.