Silent Hill: The Movie

[EWS]

Finally, someone has done justice to a video game!!

Ok, firstly, let me explain that I enjoyed Resident Evil and Doom. I didn't enjoy them to the same extent as Kong, but they hold a place as a 'good' movie. But Silent Hill blows them out the water. This review will contain spoilers, so if you don't want to be ruined, don't read it. But first, if you don't want to be spoiled I will do a small paragraph.

The trailers made this movie looks like a scary movie, for me, it wasn't exactly that scary. Infact, it was as scary as the game itself, which is saying something. All your favourite beings are in there, including Mr I walk on my legs, and the famous Pyramid Head (who, by the way rules). Rose, the main protaginist, is a great actor, and Sarah, the little kid, is great as well. Cybil (the Policewomen) may not be in it much, but gets a really cool scene near the end.

Basically, this movie is good, although it has flaws (the CGI is very poor in some places) and I would reccomend. It isn't the amazing Video Game Movie that everyone was wanting, but you can't expect everything. Anyway, that was the smaller, spoiler free, option. Now for the juice;

SPOILERS FROM HERE

The movie opens with Rose and Cristophe (Sean Bean with a crap accent) searching for their daughter (Sarah). It appears that she sleepwalks, and in the middle of the night she has disappeared. We get a few cool shots tracking Rose in her search until we get to a waterfall (where we get an amazing shot). We cut to Sarah, as we see her peer over the waterfall suddenly the water changes into some sort of pit and we get the first glimpse of the "badguy." Really cool shot here, and sets it up well. Rose spots Sarah and catches her before he falls, where she screams "SILENT HILL."

It appears that this happens often, and that she is on medication. We then find that Rose has in effect kidnapped Sarah and is taking her to Silent Hill to try and find the root of this problem. Enter Cybil, who looks exactly like the cop from the game, and after a scene, we get to Silent Hill. Theres a crash, Rose wakes up and discovers Sarah is gone. Anyway, finally into Silent Hill and this is where the fun starts.

Silent Hill looks great. The ash (or ashes as she says) gives a brilliant feeling, and looks like the "fog" from the first game. We see some shots of the area, and it is suitably scary. Remember the first chase scene from the first game? There is a few homages here (including a great Camera shot) and we finally hear the Alarm. This thing will send the creeps into you, and this is when Silent Hill comes to life. You don't see the transition to begin with, but the Alarm signifies when the monsters can come to life, and the true Silent Hill can begin.

I felt a bit let down here, the CGI on the monsters is quite poor, and although the monsters themselves are quite awesome, you can't quite believe them. This is where doubt sets in. Is it all in her head, because as suddenly as the darkness starts, it ends, with the monsters all bursting into flames. Rose wakes up, and all the fiery cages are gone, and it is a normal area of Silent Hill.

Later on, when the world changes into darkness, the cross over scene is just fantastic. The world decaying and changing into the cagey, firey hell that it is makes you realise that some serious shit is going down. The first glimpse of Pyramid head is when his little termites are eating 3 clothed figures in gas masks and he enters. His sword is just awesome, I absolutly love it, infact I want one just like it. You can tell that they spent some time getting him right, because the CGI on him is just perfect, theres a few dodgy scenes, but on the whole it is brilliant.

The movie progresses, and we meet some more people. Witchburners. They are saved by faith, and take refuge in a church where the darkness cannot enter and we here some of their story. Theres a cool scene here where Pyramid Head rips the skin of some girl, gruesome but cool. Rose then decides to descend into the bowels of the Hospital to confront the demon and save her child.

We then learn the truth. The Witchburners are the true evil, and the demons are created by one little girl (who is exactly like Sarah) who was burned many years ago, and started the great fire that burns under Silent Hill. And she wants her satisfaction - her revenge. Well, you guessed it, revenge ensues (some cool death scenes here, envolving barbed wire).

Thats basically the plot of the movie, except for one thing, the great big twist at the end. It is hinted at throughout the movie, but is pretty much confirmed at the end - They are dead....or are they?

SPOILERS END

So thats the plot points out the way, will try and keep the spoilers small here. The movie looks great, there are some great shots in this, and Gans has a great eye for what works and what doesn't. The transformation scenes are just superb, the skin being ripped off the world works so well, and it leads to a massive sense of fear as well as a great WHAT THE FUCK!!! factor.

The CGI could have done with some touching up, but apart from that there is nothing wrong with them. The monsters are poor in some places and great in others, infact, it is mainly when skin is involved that the monsters don't look at all good. Pyramid is great though, no complaints.

The music, however, is one feature that makes this movie. Just like the game, and compliments the atmosphere amazingly. It jumps so much, and is scary, foreboding, and real. Theres a great Johnny Cash moment as well - think about the song after the movie and you will see why it is so good.

The script is tight in places, loose in others. There are some plot points that are not follwed through, but apart from that I can't complain. The acting is good, on par with most movies and Sean Beans accent still sucks. The kid rules though, easily scary.

So overall, this movie rocks. Not the greatest in the world, but by no means the worst. I would definatly reccommend it - and if my enthusiasm doesn't show through here, let me tell you that I was pumped for this movie, and it delivered everything I expected. Gans has done a great job, and Avery's script is faithful without being stupid. It trys to explain as much as possible without entering the realms of stupidity, and the twist works suprisingly well. You don't need to be a fan of the game (I have never played any) to enjoy this movie and understand it as it really does that well.

I'm sure I will write more later, because although still fresh it is yet to manifest itself fully in my brain (it took me 4 days, and 3 viewings to decide that I liked Revenge of the Sith) and I intend to go see it again. But for first impressions, a game has finally been done justice. And I cannot think of any better game for which to have been done justice to.

[Acriku]

Here's my review of it off a blog of mine:

Saw Silent Hill again... *shudder*

Current mood: scared

I don't care if you've got balls the size of my head, you cannot keep from being creeped out from seeing Silent Hill. The visuals were outstanding, which made it 10x more creepy and the different realities of Silent Hill really stood out on their own, each with their own creepiness and scary atmosphere (do you know how many realities of Silent Hill there are? ... I would say around 4, maybe even 5).

What was great about the movie was that it didn't focus on the combat between hero and enemy like we're tired of from Resident Evil series and the various Romero movies. It was minimalistic at some points with the monsters, and at other points almost overwhelming, but the director struck a good balance of the two. Another great thing about this movie was the music. The sound director did such a great job (which he should have done, since he was the original sound director for the Silent Hill games). Without the music and sound adding another level of creepiness to the movie, it would have been just another monster movie. But this movie wasn't meant to scare you, it was meant to creep you to your very soul. To make you uncomfortable, to make things unsettling and the way it worked out it had more effect than it would have with just a surprise sound and camera movements every 5 minutes.

What went horribly wrong with this movie was the dialogue. After seeing it a second time, I got a bigger idea of how bad it really was. It would have been such a better movie if they focused on better dialogue (and better actors, actresses, while we're at it). Lines like "People said this place was haunted..." "I think they were right." just take you right out of the creepiness of the movie. What surprised me was the improving acting ability of the little girl, Sharon. At first an annoying child who can't make a believeable panic, she became this very creepy girl that had this almost sinister voice with a facial expression that will make you cold.

The people who know a bit about Silent Hill from the games would appreciate more of the movie, but also fret on certain points of the movie that were reversed from the games. Having played it long before, I was able to understand some of the seemingly random jabber made by some of the characters in the movie, and the ending made much more sense than it would have to someone new to Silent Hill (easily seen by the obnoxious people who shouted WTF at the end).

So, while the movie lacked in some important areas, it did not let down in the creepiness department, and certainly showed us some visually beautiful and horrifying effects at the same time. With just a bit of knowledge about Silent Hill, one can appreciate much more of the movie and understand a whole lot more about why certain things happened and what may come of the sequel that was set up so obviously.

Final verdict: 8/10

[Andrew]

Hmm, I liked Resident Evil 1, RE2 was ok, I disliked Doom a lot.

As far as I could tell all the reviewers disliked Silent Hill. But you guys liked it?

Is this a type of movie where you had to play the game to enjoy/understand?