Massive Plot Holes (spoilers)

Really, you could pick apart just about any movie ever made. Hardly anything is flawless. This movie isn't perfect, but then again, what is? I still liked it a lot. The plot was very interesting, the dialogue, cinematography and acting were really good and the special effects are great for the time. But you're right, there are a few problems here and there with this film.

First, why would he use a guillotine when he had a perfectly good electric chair/access to drugs?

The electric chair obviously would have put Christina through a great deal of pain. The gas chamber set up also would have been grueling. I think the guillotine set up would have been the least painful if done correctly. I don't know what you mean by "access to drugs." Do you mean give her an overdose? Or are you referring to the gas chamber set up? The overdose would have been very difficult to moderate.

Also, at the end, why the hell would two cars speed towards each other? Just for the lulz?

It looks to me like he was anticipating a car crash and just stepped in between them. Logically, it's a stretch, but it's not impossible. He could have been hanging out there for who knows how long waiting for two cars to approach each other at a high speed and just walked out into the road then.

He seemed to magically be able to zoom in on his sons forehead at the moment he hit the branch?

I can't remember how this was shown. It would have been impossible for Hugo to zoom in using that camera, but if the director of this film was showing a playback of the footage and did a close shot of the tree branch hit from the further vantage point, then it would be acceptible. Really depends on how the playback shot was cropped. I'll have to rewatch that part because I can't remember now.


But anyway, like I said, if these are problems at all they are minor problems and nothing that really took away from the movie much in my opinion.

His son's face was shown to the viewers when the accident happened in the movie, by the non-diegetic camera - the cinematic camera.

Later, when Hugo checked the diegetic footage he filmed during the accident on that old style camera, first we see b&w footage of the boat that we didn't see before.
Then the accident happened and the b&w footage appears to have same exact shot that we saw before. And it is shown on b&w footage like this shot was edited inside the footage. There was no zoom, it was a simple cut, which makes no sense because that was an original footage before the editing, and if it was edited, then it was not the first time Hugo saw it and his surprise was not in place.

Similar technique you can see in other movies, when non-diegetic camera films some occurrence, and later we see the same footage as it appears on surveillance cameras that are part of the diegesis.

This is of course not a plot hole, but rather old cinematic technique that was used quite often, when the viewers were still naive, and was considered as acceptable medium convention.

As for other points, they could be simply explained by the poor plot. The content was very good and the story deserves better treatment, but the plot which was used to tell the story was poorly written, poorly directed and poorly acted.

I remember the film as being quite terrifying from when I was a kid but was quite disappointed second time around. Good concept but bad execution (if you pardon the pun).

- The older guy seemed to take a long time to cotton on to the experimental possibilities of seeing the man hanged.

- At the end of the hanging was the man pulling at the hanged man's legs to break his neck? I hope so because it kind of looked like he was trying to rescue him by pulling him downwards. That's the kind of help I can do without!

- Why did the younger fella change the blue crystals for white ones that didn't do anything at all. He may as well have just taken the blue ones out. (As an aside ... did scientists then put their fingers in everything? No wonder they died of poisoning so often)

- What did the note say? Was it the combination to the lock. Or was it the young fella saying 'up your's mate, now you can live with your guilt forever'?

- Frankly they deserve to die for being the least competent scientists ever. Fancy not working out they needed 2 people to work the experiment. Darwin award anyone?

- And what about the amazing new design of trigger that does not need holding down. That would be called a 'switch' then. Give that man a prize!

- I thought they could have done a lot more with the (ridiculous) guillotine and rubber pipes scene. What could possibly go wrong? We should have seen her head in the basket ... alive ... with her saying 'kill me', Alien style.

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I still think it's a pretty good film. But even so I can't help but riff it! Why would you not take extra precautions with your own daughter or clearly bump into the one guy that is holding the blade? That doctor was so bad at trying not to kill people! And it never crossed his mind that his assistant took his own life? Oxygen and gas doesn't cause an explosion! But 'flaws' aside, I think we can translate them as British cultural differences towards the horror genre. American horror is about the sex, violence, and gore. British horror is more about the significance, the short comings of humanity, and any gore that is displayed tries to capture a more uneasy semi-realistic tension rather than just being gory to horrify. Plus I like to see this as a sort of Ghostbusters inspiration.

The guillotine was chosen specifically to frighten her. The electric chair and drugs aren't as fear-promoting as the threat of a sharp blade falling on you. As said in the film, the asphyx won't come unless the subject is afraid.