Silent HillFollow

Better than Bloodrayne? I think NOT!

If it's not give it a few weeks.

Bloodrayne < Doom

Seriously, Doom wasn't as bad as I was expecting it to be. It actually had something resembling a plot!

I enjoyed it. I'm too drunk to review it right now, so I'll edit this post in the morning to elaborate.

EDIT: To me the movie did a great job of capturing that subversive kind of creepy: the kind that sticks with you for a little while afterwards. It was light on the cheap "jump out and surprise you" kinds, and heavy on developing the imagery. I thought they did a great job of painting a scene whenever the characters were about to go through something frightening, and really drew me into the experience.

The format was pretty similar to what I've seen from the video games, where they really inundate the main character in some horrifying situation, then it suddenly clears up and you get a breather, only to be thrust back into it again. This occurs up until the point where the plot starts being fully revealed, which might be a slow part for people who are more familiar with the games. For me though, I liked the way that the plot was told to the viewer.

And that little girl in it was a pretty good actress!

Edited, Sat Apr 22 15:45:03 2006 by Eske

I enjoyed the film myself, even though I have only played a bit of the Silent Hill games. It was fun to see that there were some notorious monsters in the movie that can be found in the game. I wont give out what exactly to not ruin it for anyone.

Although Silent Hill did do the cliche "demon child" thing, it was still pretty interesting. Also, it didnt really have any "jump out of no where and makes your heart skip a beat" moments, atleast not for me. It was more about "WTF IS THAT!? GET THE HELL OUT OF THERE YOU STUPID *****!" type of film. I would definitely say it is one of the best game to movie titles released as of yet.

I haven't seen the movie yet so I am definately enjoying the positive reviews overall it's getting. Definately well overdo for a videogame to big screen event.

Regarding the whole concept of the game's atmosphere, only the game will create that and NEVER a movie, reason being is that none of us ever expected a game to hit the tones that the SH series did.. Sure the Resident Evil's were gory zombie type games.. The Silent Hill games though set the bar for a true psychological fuckfest of your mind. And while we hoped the movie would hit that same bar, it won't because we simply expected it from the get go.. Automatically taking steam out of it's potential.. I bet those that see the movie that never once touched the game or read about the games were hit on an equal level of shock like the gamers were.

The most common complaints I have seen were about the Heavy-Handeness of the "Revelation Scene" and the lack of Pyramid Head "RAPERAPERAPERAPERAPERAPE". I don't care. I'll go and see the movie anyways, just not surwe when.


In the meantime I'll probably buy the game.

Edited, Sat Apr 22 22:31:58 2006 by Nabraben

Just saw this the other day. I hadnt played Silent Hill so it was new to me. I thought it was fairly decent. Slow in the beginning but it picked up halfway through. The one thing I did understand, and maybe this is explained in the game, is what exactly, Sharon is. They made it very vague on whether she was Alyssas daughter, or the "good half" of Alyssa herself. The 30 year break inbetween when everythng happened to Alyssa and the time of the movie made it hard to pick up

They took a stab at it during the speech near the end, but didn't do a very good job of it.

** Spoilers ahead ** - Skip the post if you're intending to see the movie. (not that the post will ruin much of the impact, but hey.)


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Once upon a time you've got an evil psycho christian cult. In the games they were performing rituals for a variety of reasons; at first to punish sin, later to try and bring forth God (Satan) onto this earth. A very misdirected group under the thrall of a charismatic leader and bound together through the enormity of the things they had already done; the movie represented this well.

In the games, Alessa, the girl, was born to be the recepticle for the coming of God. She wasn't made aware of this until they took her to use her in their ritual. She was burned and things went terribly wrong; she wound up surviving and was hospitalized.

Possibly due to the nature of the ritual or maybe just through the extreme pain she was subjected to, Alessa winds up being able to change the landscape of Silent Hill. It helps to think of the town as being somewhat psychotropic, reactive to thoughts and feelings. Her nightmares are given form and begin to exact punishment on those who harmed her.

The suffering drove Alessa crazy. Her personality divided into a light and dark half. Whether either is "real" is up to interpretation (the games were big on not giving much in the way of real detail). Light Alessa (Sharon) was left at an orphanage to get her as far away from Silent Hill as possible; Dark Alessa stayed behind to act as gatekeeper to a private hell for those who had wronged her.

The movie opens with Sharon passing out and talking about Silent Hill; Alessa's two halves were seeking unification for reasons unspecified. Possibly because Dark Alessa was unable to actually enact her vengeance due to the obstinance of the cult members (their faith is misguided, yet it sustains them). Dark Alessa was calling out to her other half in the hopes of finding a way to get on with the killing. (And did so.)


Silent Hill is always up to interpretation. In the games, the people drawn to the town are able of changing the landscape too. The second game is the only one featuring that Pyramid-headed fellow. He acts as a manifestation of the Guilt of the lead character, but this isn't made clear until the final moments, when you realize he's been concealing something for the entirety of the journey (and lying to himself about it, too).

The burned critters are representative of Alessa's suffering, the nurses are how she viewed her caretakers at the hosptial.. everything ties in somehow. The games hospital scenes were particularly graphic; you could argue the worst of Alessa's suffering happened there.


Anyway, food for thought.

That pyramid-headed guy was a hell of a sight. I guess I'd be a little more jaded to it if I had played the games, but all of those kind of characters creeped me out quite a bit. I haven't seen a horror movie recently that I can think of that created such a visceral effect with its monsters.

I liked the movie a lot, but then I'm a huge fan of the games, so take that for what it's worth. I can see how others would really hate this movie.

Like the games, the movie doesn't try too hard to make sense. It's much more about creating an atmosphere than having a plot that moves from one event to another. If you're a fan of more "Japanese style horror" movies like The Ring or The Grudge, this probably appeals to you.

The art direction, camerawork and sound are all excellent. The people who made the movie did a great job of bringing the game to life. At certain points in the movie I found myself thinking things like "look, a save point!" or "uh oh, boss battle coming up." Clues, escort missions, ambiguous NPC interactions were all there.

The first time that the civil defense warning went off and the town turned into the dark alternate reality, I was giddy with anticipation, wanting to know what was going to happen, and how the moviemakers were going to make the transition work.

This is one area where the special effects really stand out. It's been a while since I played any of the games, but in the movie there is a definite visual theme deriving from the story that determines how everything looks. Everything sort of burns away to reveal the dark version of the town. I think the movie even did a better job than the games of making the parallel universe idea work.

So... if you're a fan of the Silent Hill games and were hoping that the movie would be a good representation of them, you'll probably be quite satisfied with the movie. If not, it's kind of hit-or-miss if you will like it.

Now, for the semi-spoiler...

Walking out of the movie, my fiancee (who hasn't played the games) had a much different idea of what actually happened than I did. After talking with her a little, I agreed with her.

Here is what we think.



Sharon (the girl) and Rose (the mom) died in the car wreck on the way to Silent Hill. Sybil (the cop) also dies when her bike wipes out. I don't want to get too much into the evidence for this, because I think it would be giving too much of the plot away. Sharon, since she is somehow also Alyssa, has always sort of been there. The mom and cop get sucked in with her because they are there when she dies.

Ok, follow me here.

Allysia 30 yrs ago was burned by the crazy religious fanatics. She survived but badly burned. Her saddness eventually turned into hate which the bad little girl represented. Sharon was the good part of Allysia that was left. So Allsyia had breeded 2 parts of herself, the good part and the bad part. The good part was Sharon, the bad part the other little girl. So they are one in the same yet seperate. I hope that helped.

I liked the movie, the games always freaked me out -_-. lol

OK Allessa get burned and stays in the hospotal for a while at first shes just sad and confused,then after a few months/years it all turns to rage. THEN the demon shows up and gives her the power to change stuff and thats when the personality split thing happens. Im guessing her time in the hospital lasted longer than it seemed before she went **** crazy.

Edited, Tue Apr 25 10:30:46 2006 by Subrosia