With Sundance just around the corner, it only feels right to talk about A24‘s next project that will premiere at the film festival in a few weeks. And thanks to a new trailer, we have our first look at what seems to be potentially the year’s first quality horror film.
“The Hole in the Ground” follows young mother, Sarah. Trying to escape her broken past, Sarah is building a new life on the fringes of a backwoods rural town with her young son Chris. A terrifying encounter with the titular hole in the ground, and a mysterious neighbor, shatters her fragile security, throwing Sarah into a spiraling 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 is said to be in the same vein as “The Babadook” and will “weave suspense, terror, and supernatural folklore into a richly evocative story about the primal fears of motherhood.”
The film will star Seána Kerslake, James Quinn Markey, Simone Kirby, Steve Wall, and Eoin Macken.
“The Hole in the Ground” will debut at this month’s Sundance Film Festival before arriving in theaters March 1.
Here’s the film’s synopsis:
Sarah (Seána Kerslake) moves her precocious son, Chris (James Quinn Markey), to a secluded new home in a rural town, trying to ease his apprehensions as they hope for a fresh start after a difficult past. But after a startling encounter with a mysterious new neighbor, Sarah’s nerves are set on edge. Chris disappears in the night into the forest behind their house, and Sarah discovers an ominous, gaping sinkhole while searching for him. Though he returns, some disturbing behavioral changes emerge, and Sarah begins to worry that the boy who came back is not her son.