Review Detail

The Hole is a Dante deep cut and a bit of a curiosity. When I saw it I felt that the script was pretty poor and the tonal clash between teen angst and slightly more adult horror was out of place. It was at the back of my mind to have some fun with the footage at some stage, so it peaked my curiosity to see williamredrobin announce a fanedit.

QUALITY
I assumed this was an SD source, so to see that it says HD on the IFDB entry surprised me. It’s a soft look and there are moments where the picture quality is quite poor. The worst instance is during the bathroom scene where there is some pretty intense macro blocking, and as we zoom into the face of the "girl next door" the image is crazy distorted. I can see now looking at the cutlist that some colour/fx work was done there, so maybe that’s contributing to it? Same with the creepy little girl - there's something off about her face and it seems some work was done here, although I don't remember the theatrical well enough. Audio is probably near the bottom end of what I’d consider ok quality. All in all, this averages out at 6.

AUDIO/VISUAL EDITING
Generally the editing work is great. I noticed one audio cut, but it was quite subtle. Most times I could tell something was edited because the visual cut was slightly quick. There was also a visual crossfade fade that seemed unnatural, but could have been in the original. Audio editing is solid and holds up well in surround. Visual editing I would award a 9, but dropping to 8 based on the visual presentation of the bathroom scene. It’s also apparent that a lot was cut from the final clown confrontation and it feels obvious that the editor doesn't want to show us the clown. (was it rough cgi? I don't remember too well)

NARRATIVE
I remember thinking this was a hot mess when I first saw it, so to watch it now and it not seem any more or less coherent with 15 minutes cut is pretty good. The ghost girl is very poorly developed, but this was an issue in the theatrical cut. I don’t believe Red Robin has created any new narrative issues here, and I think the film is just fine without the crazy old man character (couldn’t remember them, didn’t miss them).

ENJOYMENT
Not really what I’m looking for in an edit of this, though it certainly addressed some things I had issue with. It’s all still a bit too disney channel meets horror to me and feels a bit off. I think if you already like the film and just want some of the more egregious cheese and hokeyness removed, then this is a solid option. I’m probably looking for something a bit more daring.

Thanks for sharing, Willimaredrobin :) nice to see some of your work.