Random review: Silent Hill

A couple of weeks ago I had some down time and popped this movie in as background noise while I did some work on the central computing computation device. I saw this movie opening night as I am a big Silent Hill fan who’s played through all the games repeatedly. So, this wasn’t the first time I had seen it. It was actually closer to the 4th or 5th time. If you are not familiar with Silent Hill, it’s a series of survival horror [google it, plus I think this is a pretty broad characterization as I think the Silent Hill series are almost genre defying] games dating back to 1999. There have been 4 games spanning various platforms. All are required homework for those who have never experienced them. The story of the games is a little hard to describe and there are tons of people on the interweb cyberspace that can probably describe it better than me, so don’t yell at me if you disagree. It deals with a fictional town called Silent Hill which is a sort of personal Hell for people, or maybe it is Hell, or maybe its purgatory? Bottom line is you end up in this really foggy [or ashy?] ghost town where tons of the scariest fucking creatures ever conceived are lurking. Combine that with insane music and sound design from Akira Yamaoka [google it] and you are guaranteed to feel uneasy when playing with all the lights out and the sound turned up. The games deliver a very cool, almost David Lynch style narrative and immerse the player in a way no movie ever could. They are a unique experience and something no movie could ever capture.

When I read they were making a film adaptation I was horrified and not in a good way. After I was done breathing out of a paper bag and cursing creation I found out that Christophe Gans and Roger Avary were responsible. My panic then turned to caution or “yellow alert”. It turns out both were very passionate about the games and, like most people, revealed that SH2 was their favorite of the series. [yellow alert off, lower shields] Months later photos from the sets were popping up on the internet and my cautious optimism was reinforced with what looked like a very promising project. Another aspect of the production that really excited me was that they decided against CGI for the creatures and instead were using real actors in costumes. Now, I was officially excited.

The film’s plot loosely focuses on the events in SH1 while combining the aesthetics and music as well as some characters from SH2 with a female protagonist similar to SH3. This is a brilliant way to bring all the games together in spirit all into one film. I think as far as visuals and sound go, SH2 captured the essence of Silent Hill better than any of the other games. I also feel it was the darkest of the series. That said, I think the first game is a great place to start plot-wise. Dealing with losing your daughter in this “world” is a horrifying notion. The film focuses on a couple whose adopted daughter, Sharon sleepwalks and speaks of a place called Silent Hill. She is on medication and is receiving therapy but nothing seems to be working. After Sharon nearly kills herself sleepwalking one night her mother Rose, played my Rahda Mitchell, decides to sneak off with her daughter against the wishes of her husband to find this place Sharon keeps speaking of in hopes of curing her. On the way to this town she arouses the suspicion of a local police officer who attempts to follow her and pull her over. Sharon decides to run and they both get into an accident right at the edge of the town. Sharon awakes from the wreck to find her daughter missing from the car.

After this somewhat brief setup the movie takes on the mood and vibe of the actual game…sort of. They took some creative liberties in order to make the film adaptation a tad more coherent than the games. They did this by making Silent Hill a real location on a map. But this town is uninhabited since a fire wiped the town out. The town Rose is in is covered in ash that is floating in the air because the fires are burning to this day. Within this town exists a parallel version that melts the whole town into a skeleton of itself falling into pitch black every day. The more you try to explain the film the further out it sounds. I can totally understand someone unfamiliar with the games really scratching their heads after seeing this film, as it doesn’t follow a particularly familiar formula of the horror genre. It’s gory and dark and at times unsettling. Not to mention, Pyramid Head is a major part of this! It’s this unique quality combined with entirely unique visuals and tone that really make it something special in my opinion and possibly the best video game to film adaptation ever made. I think the film loses a little at the end when they do some over-stylized flashbacks to fill in all the gaps but I don’t think it hurts it THAT bad.

The purpose of this post is to recommend the games series as well as the film to everyone even mildly curious. If you have the self-control to play through the games [chapter 1-3, don’t worry about 4] before seeing the movie, all the better. In other good news, a sequel has been confirmed although it’s unclear if Gans will direct. Let’s all cross our fingers he does.

Silent Hill 2006
Director: Christophe Gans