History Film / TheHoleInTheGround

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:Sarah manages to rescue Chris - the ''real'' Chris - from the titular hole in the ground, [[KillItWithFire burns down the house with changeling Chris inside]], and moves back to the city. However, when taking photos of Chris riding his bike outside, his face is very blurry compared to the rest of the photo, and the last shot is of the wall behind Sarah... which is ''covered'' in mirrors, suggesting that she still isn't entirely sure whether she's rescued human!Chris. Or, at least, ''is'' sure but will be forever paranoid against losing him again.]]

* ChangelingTale: [[spoiler: What the film ultimately is. Specifically, Chris was/is the changeling in question.]]

* DarkAndTroubledPast: We never really learn what happened to Chris' father - if anything happened at all - and how Sarah gained that badly healed scar on her head, to the point her doctor starts to question if it really was an accident, or maybe some other way. We don't even know if the boy's father is alive, with restraining order or simply divorced.

* DrivenToMadness: Noreen, the local {{Cloudcuckoolander}}, suffers from some unspecified condition after - probably not - accidently killing her son thirty years ago. [[spoiler: The actual reason is because she knows her son was [[KillAndReplace replaced]] and she was unable to get him back]].
* EvilSoundsDeep: During the singing number in school, Sarah starts hearing Chris in deeper and deeper voice, until it's heavily disorted. Like many such moments, it's [[spoiler: her ImagineSpot rather than actual event, considering how the audience and rest of the class disappear halfway through]].
* EyeMotifs: Oh yes. There are lots of closeups of eyes, or ocular objects in general. One standout example, if noticed by particularly observant viewers, is that [[spoiler:Changeling Chris ''never'' blinks.]]

** There is enough of [[ChekhovsGun guns]] and hints spread in the first act to cobble together not only what's going on, but also what's going to happen. Doesn't make the film any less engaging.

* IndyPloy: The final twenty or so minutes Sarah has to come up with a solution after solution while quite literally running for her life.
* JumpScare: Used grand total of two times. But since various scenes are build intentionally around the expected and telegraphed jump scare, only to never have one, this leads to a tricky situation to decide ''which'' moment will be a "real" jump scare, [[NothingIsScarier mounting up tension with]] ''[[NothingIsScarier nothing]]''.
* KillAndReplace: [[spoiler: There is no goal or objective when handling captured children - they just starve to death, while the changeling takes over their life]].
* MamaBear: Invoked verbatim by Sarah when she [[spoiler: comes for rescue real Chris]].

* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:Noreen killed her son due to her belief that he was a changeling. We see her real son's corpse at the end so she was right.]]

* PsychologicalHorror: You think a ChangelingTale is scary? What about ''going insane and thinking your son isn't real'' while progressively becoming worse and more abusive parent? [[spoiler: And Sarah is left paranoid for the rest of her life about the whole ordeal she went through]].
* PrimalFear: Everything that happens [[spoiler: underground, especially the very narrow and tight tunnel that seems to never end]]. Also, getting lost in a forest at night, anyone?

** What happened to Chris father? Where is he? Is he even alive? Was he and Sarah even married? Did they divorce?
** [[spoiler: Who and ''if'' killed Noreen? Was it Chris? Was it some other changeling? Was it a suicide? Did her husband did that?]].
** Do people even know about the massive sinkhole in the forest? Does the sinkhole exist as it is shown, or is just Sarah's projection? [[spoiler: What's living down there? Was Chris dragged there or simply fell down?]]

* SomethingOnlyTheyWouldSay: Sarah confirms her fears when [[spoiler: she offers Chris the "dusty cheese", which he hates, and he happily spoons it onto his spaghetti, and follows it up with trying to play their game - which the replacement doesn't know.]]
* SuperStrength: Sarah has countless {{Imagine Spot}}s in which Chris displays not only feats of inhuman strength, but also being malicious and harmful with it. [[spoiler: While those are all going in her head, the Fake Chris indeed possess enough strength to throw an adult woman around and drag her around with ease]].

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:The fae folk who kidnap children and replace them with doppelgangers, with the implication that they drain their life essence.]]

* PeekABangs: Thanks to an accident, Sarah's forehead has a nasty, non-stop irritated scar. She has it perpetually hidden with her bangs and is very much insecure about the whole thing.

* PsychologicalHorror: You think ChangelingStory is scary? What about ''going insane and thinking your son isn't real'' while progressively becoming worse and more abusive parent? [[spoiler: And Sarah is left paranoid for the rest of her life about the whole ordeal she went through]].

* ContractualGenreBlindness: A very Irish Sarah spends most of the film [[spoiler: ignoring all the changeling and fae folklore]], along with local HauntedHouseHistorian, just so the plot can happen. The moment she starts to take those things serious, the whole gig is off within a single night.

* DarkAndTroubledPast: We never really learn what happend to Chris' father - if anything happend at all - and how Sarah gained that badly healed scar on her head, to the point her doctor starts to question if it really was an accident, or maybe some other way. We don't even know if the boy's father is alive, with restrain order or simply divorced.

* UncannyValley: There is something very, very wrong with Chris, but Sarah can't even name it properly. The boy is alright and behaves almost like always, but there are those countless, tiny deviations that make her question if the boy is even her real son.

* {{Foreshadowing}}: The first time we see Chris, it is when he is pulling faces in some bendy mirrors, which distorts his reflection. [[spoiler:He is kidnapped by fae folk and replaced with a changeling, although we don't see the kidnapping itself.]]

* AdultFear: Your child disappearing in unfamiliar territory and... not ''quite'' being the same when they come back.

* DefiniteArticleTitle

* TheTheTitle

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:Sarah manages to rescue Chris - the ''real'' Chris - from the titular hole in the ground, [[KillItWithFire burns down the house with changeling!Chris inside]], and moves back to the city. However, when taking photos of Chris riding his bike outside, his face is very blurry compared to the rest of the photo, and the last shot is of the wall behind Sarah... which is ''covered'' in mirrors, suggesting that she still isn't entirely sure whether she's rescued human!Chris. Or, at least, ''is'' sure but will be forever paranoid against losing him again.]]

* {{Doppelganger}}: [[spoiler:Changeling!Chris, but more directly Sarah sees one of herself. One of the changelings hiding in the hole in the ground imitated her to confuse or replace her, just as she's exiting their lair.]]
* EyeMotifs: Oh yes. There are lots of closeups of eyes, or ocular objects in general. One standout example, if noticed by particularly observant viewers, is that [[spoiler:Changeling!Chris ''never'' blinks.]]

* EyeScream: [[spoiler:Changeling!Chris claws at Sarah's eye whilst trying to get at the scar above it. Luckily, it turned out to be a hallucination, but it's still pretty horrific to see.]]

* TheMirrorShowsYourTrueSelf: Noreen covered her house in these, and regularly checked her husband to see if he hadn't been "replaced." Extends to cameras and video as well, with [[spoiler:Changeling!Chris displaying what looks like a black, insectoid face in a broken rearview mirror.]]

* TheUnblinking: [[spoiler:Changeling!Chris ''never'' blinks.]]

* BeautyIsNeverTarnished: Averted. Sarah gets increasingly bloodied and muddied during the course of the film.

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:The fae folk who kidnap children and replace them with doppelgangers.]]

* [[spoiler:ChangelingTale: What the film ultimately is. Specifically, Chris was/is the changeling in question.]]

* [[spoiler:{{Doppelganger}}: Changeling!Chris, but more directly Sarah sees one of herself. One of the changelings hiding in the hole in the ground imitated her to confuse or replace her, just as she's exiting their lair.]]

* WouldHurtAChild: [[spoiler:The fae folk who kidnap children and replace them with doppelgangers.]]

* OffingTheOffspring: [[spoiler:Noreen killed her son due to her belief that he was a changeling. Whether or not he truly was is left ambiguous.]]

* TheTheTitle

* ShoutOut: The new wallpaper has a hexagonal pattern very similar to that of the [[Literature/TheShining Overlook Hotel]].

* WouldHurtAChild: Noreen [[spoiler:killed her son due to her belief that he was a changeling. Whether or not he truly was is left ambiguous.]]

* [[spoiler:ChangelingTale: The entire film, although the word "changeling" is never used.]]

* AmbiguousEnding: [[spoiler:Sarah manages to rescue Chris - the ''real'' Chris - from the titular hole in the ground, [[KillItWithFire burns down the house with changeling!Chris inside]], and moves back to the city. However, when taking photos of Chris riding his bike outside, his face is very blurry compared to the rest of the photo, and the last shot is of the wall behind Sarah... which is ''covered'' in mirrors, suggesting that she still isn't entirely sure whether she's rescued human!Chris.]]

* Cloudcuckoolander: Noreen, the old lady who lives near Sarah and Chris, and who claims that Chris isn't Sarah's son.

The movie follows a young woman named Sarah and her son, Chris, when they move to rural Ireland near a forest, where a large hole in the ground exists. After strange events, she starts suspecting that her son might have been switched by something else.