The Hole in the Ground

The first hour of this film is creepy, well photographed, and reasonably subtle, if quite predictable if you've seen this sort of movie before. Despite the predictability it has the former assets.

Unfortunately, 1 hour and 4 minutes in, the scriptwriter abandons these assets. He could have gone in one of two directions. One would have maintained the creepiness and perhaps done something more clever, the other, which he chose, is an in-your-face pedestrian affair. I don't want to drop any spoilers so I won't mention what movie they essentially adopt for the climactic moments, but if you've seen a lot of horror movies you will recognize it instantly.

I have to mention another pet peeve. Among its other deficiencies, Hole in the Ground employs a tired old horror trope which, along with the jump-scare, should be banned from movies from here to the end of time. It's those moments where something creepy or horrifying is happening and, oh never mind, it was just a nightmare and we find the protagonist waking up in bed. Why screenwriters continue to think that this tactic is clever or effective is beyond me. It's a tired cliche and simply bad writing.