The Hole in the Ground
Seana Kerslake in Lee Cronin's The Hole in the Ground

#IrishAbroad: A24 acquires North American rights to Lee Cronin’s The Hole in the Ground

Variety is reporting that U.S. independent distributor A24 and streaming service DirecTV have acquired the North American rights to Lee Cronin’s Sundance-bound horror The Hole in the Ground.

The film is Cronin’s feature debut which he co-wrote with Stephen Shields and stars Séana 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).

Trying to escape her broken past, Sarah O’Neill is building a new life on the fringes of a backwood rural town with her young son Chris. 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 Hole in the Ground 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.

A24 are best known for releasing the prestige dramas and horrors like Lady Bird, Hereditary, Moonlight, The VVitch, and Ex-Machina. They have also released the award-winning Irish films Room, The Lobster, and The Killing of a Sacred Deer.

Wildcard Distribution will release The Hole in the Ground in Irish cinemas in early 2019. A24 will release the film in American cinemas, while DirecTV will offer a limited pay-per-view window before the release.