There are spoilers within. Proceed with caution.
To most Horror Survival gamers out there, Silent Hill is lord and master. It’s simply the best there is out there. It has very high production values, fantastic story-telling that would make Lovecraft and Clive Barker proud and leave Stephen King wondering why he never thought of that. It’s the kind of game that you tell yourself it won’t go there and yet it does. And I couldn’t resist the nightmarish aesthetics because the fantasy world of the games looks a lot like dreams that wake me up at night.
When Silent Hill the movie was announced I cringed in fear. I thought to myself, here we go and they’ll either get Paul W.S. Anderson or Uwe Boll to produce and direct and it’ll be another Resident Evil clone schlock fest the likes only these two clowns can make. No movie based on a video game has EVER been good... until now.
It is good, just not great. But now I believe that maybe it is possible to make a good movie from a game. Just as long as you don’t let Anderson or Boll near the project. This should be a rule of thumb in Hollywood. Because handing out the movie to Christophe Gans was a stroke of genius. You may or may not remember the brilliant Pacte Des Loups (Brotherhood of the Wolf), which was his baby.
Gans went all out to make the film look and feel exactly like the games and he sublimely succeeded. From the instant the film begins, you know this is Silent Hill. A mother runs out looking for her sleepwalking daughter who is found screaming "Silent Hill, Silent Hill." Classic Silent Hill ethos.
And when we do get to Silent Hill, the gamer in the audience will feel like he’s playing the best looking version of the game. It looks exactly like the town used in the games. The camera angles are all the same, the feel, the texture, and even the music exactly the same, the lighting and, of course, that ever freaky fog. In the game, the fog is the first thing that freaks you out with its realism, its denseness, and its foreboding presence. But again, the music, very symbolic in the game, is so perfectly well replayed here that it brings even more dread. Most of the themes are ripped directly from the game titles. The movie credits end with the pop-rock song heard at the end of Silent Hill 3.
Article comments
1 - Chris Beaumont
Nice review. Looks like we were on similar wavelengths, although I have not played the game. I would like to say that the final boss isn't completely original, it looked a lot like something that would happen in Hellraiser.I also think that Ferland was excellent as Alessa, but not very good at playing Sharon.
2 - Dave Nalle
Now don't be dissing Mila. She's the only good thing in most of those movies she's in.
Dave
3 - JELIEL³
Hence my Clive Barker comment Chris, but it was nothing I've ever seen before. As Sharon she had to be cold and distant, not full of life. It was the whole point in my opinion. To make her lok detached from reality, out of touch.
4 - JELIEL³
Well that's if you like skeletal women, Dave. She's pretty but needs a cheeseburger...
5 - ThatGuyJay
Silent Hill does deserve a three out of 5. The movie kept me on the edge of my seat, but yet the corny lines and less economical ways of life killed me. They didnt explain what exactly silent hill was. If Alissa called on Rose to save her, why did she put her through hell, almost kill her (have her killed, pryamid man, acid monster and the baby burning ethopians). Also wtf was up with the ending. Are they spirits or what?
6 - Cesar
I agree with everything you wrote, Milla is now filming RE3 in Mexicali, Mexico. I know this because I only live ten miles away from the border but the main point is that Anderson is behind the film again, so thank god for Silent Hill and up to this day the best movie based out of a video game. Hopefully Anderson will watch this movie and learn, and I reserve my personal opinion about Boll, I'm not allowed to write such words.
7 - JELIEL³
#5
ThatGuyJay
It's the set up for Silent Hill 2. They are still in the alternate reality.
8 - JELIEL³
#6
Cesar
I hear ya about Uwe. *grin*
9 - Bliffle
There seems to be difficulty finding films worth watching. May I suggest "Imagemakers" on PBS, which is a repertory set of short films by both famous and unknown film people? You even get to vote for your favorites at their website. I just watched "Barrier" this morning featuring Sandra Oh (whom we've all grown to know from Grays Anatomy) as a young doctor (!) conducting a study on sex habits, with unexpected results. Another is, IIRC, "Facing your Fear" about a young Japanese monk of a couple centuries ago, and an excellent one (whose name I can't recall) with Kenneth Branagh as a man alone with his cellphone terrified by a series of strange calls (it may remind you of that famous Cabinet Of Dr. Caligari).
And you don't have to risk $7 to see them!
10 - reggie von woic
I found this movie kinda confusing.
The burnt girl, the demon girl, and the adopted girl...what's the difference?
Think i'll go watch it again.
11 - JELIEL³
All different aspects of the same person.
12 - toya
The end confused me too lol i went looking fa pages like these from d start a d movie, has the part 2 come out yet? cause id love to c y they still in fogy land and daddy isn't. did sarah get possesed wen she blacked out? wat? wat? lol
13 - toka chan
well i think the thing whith the fog is that they're in limbo coz when rose goes back to the church after the whole thing whith alessa and she says "there was no apoccalips you all perished in the fire that you started and now your trapred in this limbo and god is not here." well thats not word for word but ot mostly is wow i think i'v watched that movie like 12 times the acting could have been better but what you gonna do i definately give it a 3 out of 5 ^_^
14 - libraryjim
The only thing that really bothered me was changing the 'fanatics' from devil-worshippers to another insane Christian group gone wrong. I can do without another excuse to bash Christians, thank you very much.
Other than that -- wow.
Definately a worthy adaptation of the video game. I don't know if it's 'the best ever' (cutting away every time something spooky showed up wasn't good, didn't like the way the cop had to die, ok, we got it -- the husband's hands are tied by incompetent cops), but it was definately good enough for me to want the sequel to hurry up.