Sorry, been gone for a while, here is my review of the Silent Hill movie, although late, it was written the same day the movie was released to the public (04/21/06) I hope it is well-received, since my preview held high expectations to the movie. Enjoy!
“Silent Hill” was my hope for a good videogame to movie port, and to end years of bad videogame movies. Did it live up to the series’ name? Or did it falter like most people believed it to do? Find out in this review.
As many fans already know, Silent Hill is the game series by Konami, the same developers of the Metal Gear Solid series. Silent Hill’s atmosphere is to be horrific without being too gory. Although the disturbing images make up for lack of blood, it is truly the symbolisms and the storyline that draw you into the game’s hellish world.
Unlike other games of the survival horror genre, including big names like “Resident Evil” and games that just did not make it like “Parasite Eve”, Silent Hill stands alone in sound, ambience, and the use of the atmosphere’s normal sounds to make up the in-game music. This game also is quite frightening; especially when there are times you do not want to progress in the game due to a noise behind a door, or when the radio you carry picks up a nearby threat.
The game originated on fifth generation videogame systems like the PSone. The series shining moment was on the sixth generation consoles such as the Xbox and PS2, and made way for something not well done in the history of survival horror games: it had a damn good story!
So, it works for videogames, and sets you into the mood well, but how does it fair without a controller? Chritophe Gans directed the movie version of Silent Hill; who was the acclaimed director of “Brotherhood of the Wolf” which is considered France’s greatest movie ever made. Visually, Silent Hill is well done, and the game is paid tribute to very well. Gans uses similar camera angles to those in the game, so at times the camera is well above the main character, to being down the alley, as the character walks towards it.
Story wise, this movie is not truly taken far away from the first game. See, in the game, a man named Harry is searching for his daughter, Cheryl, in the town of Silent Hill, after crashing his car. In the movie the main character is a woman searching for her daughter, Sharon, after taking her to Silent Hill due to her sleepwalking, and continuing to scream out the town’s name, when awakened. Silent Hill is mentioned in the movie as a town in West Virginia that was shut down completely, due to a coalmine fire that was still burning underneath the ground.
The movie seems to also jump from game to game as other characters are brought into the fray, such as the impenetrable Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2, to Alessa, from both the first and third game. I do believe that the movie could have explained more than it did, and ended earlier than two hours. The game also brings in the element of the “nightmare world”, which is when the game’s level changes from being normal to another dimension, and new clues and puzzles can be seen that were not there before. Also, unlike the “Resident Evil” movies, there is a more subtle focus on puzzle solving, and finding clues in the Silent Hill movie. There is one sick puzzle where Sharon’s mother, after going into the school’s bathroom, hears a little girl crying, then opens the stall where the noise is coming from, and finds a mutilated corpse tied down with barbed wire. On the wall of the stall are the words “I double dare you” with an arrow pointing towards the corpse.
This movie seemed very well done, but it does lack in some areas. I hope for a sequel, because it does live up to the hype, and I think no other video game to movie can live up to the challenge. Silent Hill was well done, but the town’s religion was not empathized as well, but like I said, sequels are made for reasons. Although if you listen to the people praying after being chased by what is known as the “Darkness” (Nightmare World) you can hear them explain a little bit about the cleansing processes that happened throughout the town’s history.
The movie is rated R, and it does earn this rating with some language, violence, and the very eerie atmospheres. The most gore that is seen is towards the end of the movie, but it is kept low. I would say that this movie was made for the fans of the game, but it does not try hard to reach out to a broader audience as well as it could have done. This can be both good and bad, since it allows for those who enjoy the series to sit back and fall right back into the atmosphere, but not allow newcomers to fall into the storyline as easily.
Silent Hill also makes well with the use of fear, and the scenes with Pyramid Head do make you want to cringe, since you see this behemoth creature that looks like a man with a flat, triangular head dragging an immensely long sword-like weapon. Pyramid head is also shown to be dominant and dangerous as well, in that it kills other monsters, and that all the other creatures in the movie fear it as well.
In conclusion, this movie must have a sequel to tie up the loose ends, and the ending needs to have an alternate on the DVD, because it did not satisfy me well. Not saying it was bad, but it needs something else. If you are a fan of the series, you probably already saw it on opening day like I did, but if not, then those who just noticed the title may not want to see this movie, I say rent it when it comes out. Fan boys and Fan girls will love it though, and may go back for seconds, or even thirds. I rate this movie for hardcore fans of the series, and if you are going to see this movie some time in the future, at least play the first game so it does not seem too abstract a storyline.
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