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thessalianSilent Hill movie. Oooooooooooh yeah.
So the plot, right? Not quite Silent Hill 1. Wouldn't say 'better' per se, but less complicated and fits right in. If I'd seen that as another game in the 'series', I wouldn't bat an eye. And they even got the "neat items that you find along the way and use in unexpected improvisational ways later" bit right. And the "Oh, hooray, the big bad guy's been beaten, we've had adequate drama and climax and here comes the denoeument and ... wow, we beat the baddies and are still screwed to the wall" ending.
And let's not forget the look and feel of it. PERFECT. Absolutely perfect. The visuals when the air raid sirens went ... ooooooooh a thing of beauty. The mist, the snow/ash, the dilapidated buildings, the impossibly annoying camera angles that mean you're never quite seeing as much as you want to and sometimes much more than you want to when you catch something icky out of the corner of your eye ... and the monsters. Oh, the monsters. The 'patients' ... those horrible burned up ... I dunno, things (still partially glowing like an improperly banked fire bowl, oh WOW)... The nurses. They incorporated the zombie nurse look (complete with sobbing sound effects taken, we reckon, straight from the game) with the "We won't move unless you get too close" manoeuvres of the mannequins from Silent Hill 2. And, of course, there's that one other thing they took from SH2. Pyramid Head. Oh, so well done. The ungainly movements due to the oversized head and the BIG FUCKING KNIFE, with a swarm of evil cockroaches in his wake to add to the evil. And the knife ... we always knew the knife was feared. Now we see why.
Afterwards, so much scope for conversation. The "Did you Notice" list went as follows:
* In the walls of the sacrificial chamber deal at the bottom of the hotel, that symbol - the one that serves as a save point in SH3 - is painted on the wall. You only see it for a split-second.
* The 'patients', that look like they're in straitjackets? Only appear when Rose has her hands cuffed behind her back.
* "Silent Hill is what you bring with you". Well, let's see. Sharon was terrified of those dreams, and the things they were making her do (witness her reaction to the pictures she changed), and she becomes Alessa's dark half. Rose was terrified of losing Sharon to the dreams (witness her reaction to Sharon going to a mental hospital because of the sleepwalking episodes), and ... well, Sharon becomes Alessa's dark half. Cybil's still feeling rage over what last took her to Silent Hill -- the abused child dropped down the well shaft, and she is lured back in and helpless to stop another child from suffering. Dahlia is in agony for having let her daughter Alessa go with the cult people because of what they turned her into ... and she sees what Alessa became because of Dahlia's weakness. Christabella was afraid of the results of the ritual's failure, of Alessa still being alive, and ... well, Silent Hill is now this demon-riddled nightmare. Which begs the question: given the ending, were any of these people actually alive? Was it hell? Was it what they made, and if so, whose hell was it, or were they sharing?
* Nice nod to Silent Hill 4 with 'Colin' and the things coming out of the walls...
Anyway. Overall, I don't think it could have been better. At all. Okay, I think they tried a little too hard to cram all the game music into the first few scenes, but you really did forget all about that after ... I'm gonna say ten minutes, and even during those minutes, it's just a "Oh, there's another one" thing; after all, it's good game music. The film was beautifully cast, beautifully scripted, beautifully acted, beautifully set and beautifully shot. I am going to go see it again at the earliest opportunity.
Well? What are you doing sitting here faffing about online! If you like horror films at all, go and see it. Now. I promise you will not regret it.
So the plot, right? Not quite Silent Hill 1. Wouldn't say 'better' per se, but less complicated and fits right in. If I'd seen that as another game in the 'series', I wouldn't bat an eye. And they even got the "neat items that you find along the way and use in unexpected improvisational ways later" bit right. And the "Oh, hooray, the big bad guy's been beaten, we've had adequate drama and climax and here comes the denoeument and ... wow, we beat the baddies and are still screwed to the wall" ending.
And let's not forget the look and feel of it. PERFECT. Absolutely perfect. The visuals when the air raid sirens went ... ooooooooh a thing of beauty. The mist, the snow/ash, the dilapidated buildings, the impossibly annoying camera angles that mean you're never quite seeing as much as you want to and sometimes much more than you want to when you catch something icky out of the corner of your eye ... and the monsters. Oh, the monsters. The 'patients' ... those horrible burned up ... I dunno, things (still partially glowing like an improperly banked fire bowl, oh WOW)... The nurses. They incorporated the zombie nurse look (complete with sobbing sound effects taken, we reckon, straight from the game) with the "We won't move unless you get too close" manoeuvres of the mannequins from Silent Hill 2. And, of course, there's that one other thing they took from SH2. Pyramid Head. Oh, so well done. The ungainly movements due to the oversized head and the BIG FUCKING KNIFE, with a swarm of evil cockroaches in his wake to add to the evil. And the knife ... we always knew the knife was feared. Now we see why.
Afterwards, so much scope for conversation. The "Did you Notice" list went as follows:
* In the walls of the sacrificial chamber deal at the bottom of the hotel, that symbol - the one that serves as a save point in SH3 - is painted on the wall. You only see it for a split-second.
* The 'patients', that look like they're in straitjackets? Only appear when Rose has her hands cuffed behind her back.
* "Silent Hill is what you bring with you". Well, let's see. Sharon was terrified of those dreams, and the things they were making her do (witness her reaction to the pictures she changed), and she becomes Alessa's dark half. Rose was terrified of losing Sharon to the dreams (witness her reaction to Sharon going to a mental hospital because of the sleepwalking episodes), and ... well, Sharon becomes Alessa's dark half. Cybil's still feeling rage over what last took her to Silent Hill -- the abused child dropped down the well shaft, and she is lured back in and helpless to stop another child from suffering. Dahlia is in agony for having let her daughter Alessa go with the cult people because of what they turned her into ... and she sees what Alessa became because of Dahlia's weakness. Christabella was afraid of the results of the ritual's failure, of Alessa still being alive, and ... well, Silent Hill is now this demon-riddled nightmare. Which begs the question: given the ending, were any of these people actually alive? Was it hell? Was it what they made, and if so, whose hell was it, or were they sharing?
* Nice nod to Silent Hill 4 with 'Colin' and the things coming out of the walls...
Anyway. Overall, I don't think it could have been better. At all. Okay, I think they tried a little too hard to cram all the game music into the first few scenes, but you really did forget all about that after ... I'm gonna say ten minutes, and even during those minutes, it's just a "Oh, there's another one" thing; after all, it's good game music. The film was beautifully cast, beautifully scripted, beautifully acted, beautifully set and beautifully shot. I am going to go see it again at the earliest opportunity.
Well? What are you doing sitting here faffing about online! If you like horror films at all, go and see it. Now. I promise you will not regret it.