Gavin_L
Second Unit
- Joined
- Aug 24, 2001
- Messages
- 266
thanks mark for the review as always. sounds like a good dvd and mvoie. thinking about buying the dvd, is videoflicks a pretty reliable online store?
Home Theater
Entertainment & Streaming Content
Physical Media
Home Theater Equipment and Hardware
Other Diversions
Bargains and Classifieds
Home Theater Forum
Press Release : The Hole (Seville Pictures) (1 Viewer)
- Thread starter Mark McLeod
- Start date
Jason Whyte
Screenwriter
- Joined
- Jun 3, 1999
- Messages
- 1,439
FINALLY, here is my review of the DVD. My thanks to Mark and Seville DVD for furnishing me with a copy.
---
Link Removed
The Hole DVD Review
By Jason Whyte
Film: *** out of ****
British filmmaking, as one of my English friends has noted, has went the route of too many Cockey Gangster ensembles and corny teen horror films. The former I can easily agree with, but with one case, I can disagree with the latter. Released last year, "The Hole" initially looked like another "Scream" film but with a UK Angle. Yet, it struck my interest for casting both Thora Birch and Desmond Harrington, both Americans, along with this entire British cast which includes the notable Embeth Davitz, Daniel Brockelbank, Laurence Fox, and in what may be one of the lovliest young women I have ever seen, Keira Knightley.
"The Hole" is a peculiar horror story, but one that I can strongly recommend for the chances it takes. It deals with the obsession of Liz (Thora Birch) over a jock named Mike (Desmond Harrington). The film opens after an ordeal occurs, and Liz is asked to recount her experiences to a doctor (Embeth Davitz), and she opens up to her story of how her, Mike, and two friends spent more time in an abandoned bomb shelter than they should have. But there's also another angle to this story, and even more interesting opinions down the road. Is Liz telling the truth?
The movie is shrewd fun and creepy at the same time. We enjoy the tricks the filmmakers play with us, yet at the same time it really gets under our skin with some depictions of teenagers trapped with no possible escape, and we watch as they die alive. In one particular scene, watch Liz as she finds out Mike has feelings for her, and goes off to tell her friend Frankie (Keira Knightley) as she's vomiting into the toilet.
"The Hole" is directed by Nick Hamm, who proves that he may have an interesting career with atmospheric storytelling. It is far from perfect, but effectively scary, far more so than pretty much any American horror film in the past couple of years.
Picture: 4.5/5
Seville has provided a terrific anamorphic widescreen transfer which is framed at the 2.40:1 aspect ratio of the theatrical prints, and is encoded in RSDL dual-layer. (This disc has also utilized the optional pan-and-scan "On the fly" feature, which zooms the picture to 1.78:1 and thusly destroys a consistent part of the image at the sides. What's even more funny is that a full-frame transfer of "The Hole" wouldn't look like this anyway; the film was originally shot in Super 35). The picture is surprisingly strong for a small-budgeted import, and looks just as good as a large-scale Hollywood film. Colors and sharpness are dead-on. The black level is deep and full, which is important in this film, especially in some of the later scenes where the darkness of The Hole encapsulates the characters. Another note of the picture transfer is the mediocre dual-layer switch about an hour into the presentation which occurs in the middle of a zoom and creates an edgy pause in the picture and sound.
Sound: 3/5
At the time of mastering, Seville could not get together a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track in time for replication. (The theatrical soundtrack was Dolby Digital) That said, we are instead given a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track, which can be best described as serviceable. It certainly shows its limitations, but does open up in certain scenes. To be fair as well, the music score by Clint Mansell does open nice and wide to the surround channels and has good balance. It is recommended that you "Turn It Up" if you intend to scare your friends with the soundtrack. Overall, the 2.0 soundtrack has nothing on the fine Dolby Digital theatrical track I saw back in theaters last October. Still, strong kudos to Seville DVD for trying their best here.
Extras: 3/5
While billed as a "Ultimate Special Edition," this is no more than a few extra features and snazzy packaging. That said, there are a nice array of features for fans of "The Hole." The first noteworthy supplement is a fair commentary track by director Nick Hamm, who provides some interesting antecdotes about the production, and at times can get weary with talking about character motivations that were clearly explained when we actually watched the film. Another problem is there is no background film audio while this commentary is playing, so things can get a little lonely when he is not talking. Next up is a nice 10 minute assortment of deleted scenes, with 8 in total (note there are nine chapter stops, but a timing error caused one chapter to skip to the next in the middle of a deleted scene). We get to view some additional character material here, additional lines in currently running scenes, even an alternate ending where Thora's character, Liz, has changed her identity and went back to blonde. A peculiar feature is a photo gallery montage which features all the production photographs running over the film's main orchestral theme. A nice feature is the Cast and Crew Biographies, which do feature a nice biography and filmography for the major players in the film. The film's UK theatrical trailer is in full frame and is mastered from a PAL source. Finally, we get a trailer gallery featuring trailers from other Seville films.
Menus: 3.5/5
The animated menus are nice, however an animation is selected after every click, making navigation a little tiring at times. As well, if you select the commentary from the special features menu, it then takes you to the audio language menu to select it from there, then back to the main menu (and the cursor doesn't even highlight "Play Movie"). Other than that, no problems with the menus.
Other odditites:
Just two: No subtitles or closed captioning of any form are available; and no listing of chapter stops are anywhere to be found(and the film is chaptered).
Summary:
"The Hole" was released to only a small roster of theaters in Canada last October right before Halloween (it even had a Sneak Preview run the weekend before), and sadly did not do much business. "The Hole" has not been released in any form of the US just yet. (Dimension Films is rumored to pick this up for a video release) That said, it is a well made and creepy film from the UK, and the DVD from Seville Home Video is strongly recommended for the very few fans who saw the film over here, and especially recommended if you want a good creep out. --JW
Tech Specs:
102 minutes, Color
RSDL Dual Layer
DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 -- Anamorphic Widescreen
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (Super 35)
Sound: English 2.0 Stereo, French 2.0 Stereo
--
Theatrical Sound: Dolby SR-D
---
Link Removed
The Hole DVD Review
By Jason Whyte
Film: *** out of ****
British filmmaking, as one of my English friends has noted, has went the route of too many Cockey Gangster ensembles and corny teen horror films. The former I can easily agree with, but with one case, I can disagree with the latter. Released last year, "The Hole" initially looked like another "Scream" film but with a UK Angle. Yet, it struck my interest for casting both Thora Birch and Desmond Harrington, both Americans, along with this entire British cast which includes the notable Embeth Davitz, Daniel Brockelbank, Laurence Fox, and in what may be one of the lovliest young women I have ever seen, Keira Knightley.
"The Hole" is a peculiar horror story, but one that I can strongly recommend for the chances it takes. It deals with the obsession of Liz (Thora Birch) over a jock named Mike (Desmond Harrington). The film opens after an ordeal occurs, and Liz is asked to recount her experiences to a doctor (Embeth Davitz), and she opens up to her story of how her, Mike, and two friends spent more time in an abandoned bomb shelter than they should have. But there's also another angle to this story, and even more interesting opinions down the road. Is Liz telling the truth?
The movie is shrewd fun and creepy at the same time. We enjoy the tricks the filmmakers play with us, yet at the same time it really gets under our skin with some depictions of teenagers trapped with no possible escape, and we watch as they die alive. In one particular scene, watch Liz as she finds out Mike has feelings for her, and goes off to tell her friend Frankie (Keira Knightley) as she's vomiting into the toilet.
"The Hole" is directed by Nick Hamm, who proves that he may have an interesting career with atmospheric storytelling. It is far from perfect, but effectively scary, far more so than pretty much any American horror film in the past couple of years.
Picture: 4.5/5
Seville has provided a terrific anamorphic widescreen transfer which is framed at the 2.40:1 aspect ratio of the theatrical prints, and is encoded in RSDL dual-layer. (This disc has also utilized the optional pan-and-scan "On the fly" feature, which zooms the picture to 1.78:1 and thusly destroys a consistent part of the image at the sides. What's even more funny is that a full-frame transfer of "The Hole" wouldn't look like this anyway; the film was originally shot in Super 35). The picture is surprisingly strong for a small-budgeted import, and looks just as good as a large-scale Hollywood film. Colors and sharpness are dead-on. The black level is deep and full, which is important in this film, especially in some of the later scenes where the darkness of The Hole encapsulates the characters. Another note of the picture transfer is the mediocre dual-layer switch about an hour into the presentation which occurs in the middle of a zoom and creates an edgy pause in the picture and sound.
Sound: 3/5
At the time of mastering, Seville could not get together a Dolby Digital 5.1 Surround track in time for replication. (The theatrical soundtrack was Dolby Digital) That said, we are instead given a Dolby Digital 2.0 Surround track, which can be best described as serviceable. It certainly shows its limitations, but does open up in certain scenes. To be fair as well, the music score by Clint Mansell does open nice and wide to the surround channels and has good balance. It is recommended that you "Turn It Up" if you intend to scare your friends with the soundtrack. Overall, the 2.0 soundtrack has nothing on the fine Dolby Digital theatrical track I saw back in theaters last October. Still, strong kudos to Seville DVD for trying their best here.
Extras: 3/5
While billed as a "Ultimate Special Edition," this is no more than a few extra features and snazzy packaging. That said, there are a nice array of features for fans of "The Hole." The first noteworthy supplement is a fair commentary track by director Nick Hamm, who provides some interesting antecdotes about the production, and at times can get weary with talking about character motivations that were clearly explained when we actually watched the film. Another problem is there is no background film audio while this commentary is playing, so things can get a little lonely when he is not talking. Next up is a nice 10 minute assortment of deleted scenes, with 8 in total (note there are nine chapter stops, but a timing error caused one chapter to skip to the next in the middle of a deleted scene). We get to view some additional character material here, additional lines in currently running scenes, even an alternate ending where Thora's character, Liz, has changed her identity and went back to blonde. A peculiar feature is a photo gallery montage which features all the production photographs running over the film's main orchestral theme. A nice feature is the Cast and Crew Biographies, which do feature a nice biography and filmography for the major players in the film. The film's UK theatrical trailer is in full frame and is mastered from a PAL source. Finally, we get a trailer gallery featuring trailers from other Seville films.
Menus: 3.5/5
The animated menus are nice, however an animation is selected after every click, making navigation a little tiring at times. As well, if you select the commentary from the special features menu, it then takes you to the audio language menu to select it from there, then back to the main menu (and the cursor doesn't even highlight "Play Movie"). Other than that, no problems with the menus.
Other odditites:
Just two: No subtitles or closed captioning of any form are available; and no listing of chapter stops are anywhere to be found(and the film is chaptered).
Summary:
"The Hole" was released to only a small roster of theaters in Canada last October right before Halloween (it even had a Sneak Preview run the weekend before), and sadly did not do much business. "The Hole" has not been released in any form of the US just yet. (Dimension Films is rumored to pick this up for a video release) That said, it is a well made and creepy film from the UK, and the DVD from Seville Home Video is strongly recommended for the very few fans who saw the film over here, and especially recommended if you want a good creep out. --JW
Tech Specs:
102 minutes, Color
RSDL Dual Layer
DVD Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 -- Anamorphic Widescreen
Theatrical Aspect Ratio: 2.40:1 (Super 35)
Sound: English 2.0 Stereo, French 2.0 Stereo
--
Theatrical Sound: Dolby SR-D
Dave_P.
Supporting Actor
- Joined
- May 20, 1999
- Messages
- 983
Just got this from A&B sound (fast shipping!) and I have to say I was totally blown away. This is one damn creepy movie! Right from the opening credits (which were a fairly refreshing take on the much-copied Se7en titles) and chilling opening shot, I knew I was going to like this one. The scenes down in the Hole as the group's situation deteriorates were captured perfectly and the cast played the growing desperation to a "T". Unlike most "suspense/thrillers" this one was hard to predict what was going to happen and who the ultimate villain turned out to be. The disc itself is excellent as well with some nice supplements, though a 5.1 track would be pretty kick-ass. Maybe the eventual Dimension DVD will have it, but I wouldn't wait, since this movie rocks and the 2.0 track is defnitely serviceable. For some reason right after seeing this I was compelled to watch Crimson Rivers which has the same tone and feel to it. And oh yeah...Keira Knightley IS damn hot. Good God.
