Review Detail

So, did the editor achieved the end goal of fully removing Billy? Absolutely. Not only through extensive audio and video editing, but also by using AI. Impressive!

The new ending is a great improvement over the original. I mean, seriously, the US military appears and the mist goes away? A bit on the nose…
The new ending keeps the tone similar to the rest of the film, and makes much more sense.

One thing I would have preferred here would be a lot less CGI monsters. My personal taste, of course. But both in the original and in this edit, I’ve felt the huge amount of CGI after the first act partially ruins the suspense and the uneasiness (both work great at the beginning because we see almost no “CGI monster shots”). My ideal edit for this film would try to replicate the first act's suspense for as long as possible. An example: the creepy baby spiders’ scene (my favorite section of the film) would work even better if we hadn’t already watched the many CGI flying bugs before. Or the many CGI adult spiders.