Author Topic: Silent Hill  (Read 1207 times)

Mr_Pleasington

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Silent Hill
« on: April 24, 2006, 01:29:52 AM »
I've never played any of the games though I do know the plots of all of them, so I was going in mostly blind.

The movie gets an A+ for style.  Extremely stylish.

I'd say a C for substance.

Really, it's a fine film for the first 2/3 then it kind of loses its way.  

The movie has no scares either, just a lot of creepiness, which I find to be a good thing.  You won't be jumping out of your seat though some of hte images will stay with you long after the movie is over.

The climax was waaaaaay over the top, too.  Possibly the goriest thing I've seen in years.  Be prepared to see a whole lot of blood.

Anyone else seen it and want to discuss the ending?

Fellfrosch

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Re: Silent Hill
« Reply #1 on: April 24, 2006, 03:01:51 PM »
I haven't seen it, but I read the spoiler. I have a morbid fascination for the plots of horror movies. I'm interested to hear what you think.
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Mad Dr Jeffe

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Re: Silent Hill
« Reply #2 on: April 24, 2006, 03:08:53 PM »
Penny Arcades Take
Quote
When last we spoke, I was considering the timing and severity of my punishment. You see, I'd just won some kind of contest to see Silent Hill early. The turnaround on this one, cosmically speaking, was brisk. I was not yet prepared for the idea that the blessing and the curse might be concomitant.

You might have seen people say that this was a good movie, or a faithful representation of the game, and I would urge you to disregard anything those people say in the future about movies or, indeed, any other subject. Silent Hill: The Movie evokes the games without accurately expressing them - to the extent that the movie succeeds at all, it is because director Christophe Gans has mastered the series' visual lexicon.  It was weighed down by a faulty script, a terrible kind of smudge across the sheet, but brilliantly directed. It is in this way that it most closely mirrors electronic gaming in a general sense, though (ironically) not Silent Hill, in that it is the sterling execution of a poor narrative.

It's alright if a person wants to enjoy it, so long as they do not lie to themselves and others about the film in aggregate. One can exert their will and emerge from the film with whatever nutrients exist in that barren place. In the same way that a telescope cannot be made to examine itself, I believe that writing in a way can't be used to examine the dialogue of this movie. There is something foul about language after what this writer has done with it. Roger Avary, who PR flacks were quick to establish as one of our own, should go to prison. Not forever now, just for a couple hours, so that he can feel what it was like to languish in that dark theater.


The story for the first Silent Hill is what I would call "complex." It is not ready-made for the mass market. It is ambiguous in some ways. In short, it is the sort of story that a person like Roger Ebert might assume doesn't exist anywhere in gaming. This movie won't change his mind, because much of the subtlety and perhaps even the core ideas have either been stripped out or "seasoned" to appeal to the idiots they imagine will watch this thing. I say "idiots, etc." because this is a movie that feels the need to repeat two and three times what is really the most basic Goddamn information. There is no trust whatsoever in the viewing audience, which is to say you, aside from he absolute assurance that you will be snared by the carefully created mythology that this is "the faithful videogame translation."

The concepts communicated by the second game are far more digestible, and would require no idiot scribe to chew every detail to a paste and then spit it in my mouth. If Silent Hill must, must be a Box Office Entity, there are ways to manage it that do less violence to what it represents.
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fuzzyoctopus

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Re: Silent Hill
« Reply #3 on: April 24, 2006, 05:28:04 PM »
Well despite the fact that I had to keep my eyes closed during parts of it....

It does the "creepy scary" mood really well.  I wish they'd done the whole "And this is what's going on" thing better, or even better yet - not done it at all.  The Silent hill GAMES don't do it for heaven sakes. That's why they're so popular - you  have to play them more than once to figure out what's going on.

My husband thought it was ok, and he's a huge fan of the games.  I agree with Eric Snider though, that it's impossible to hear them screaming "She's a witch! Burn her!" without thinking of Monty Python and giggling. I mean really - someone should have caught that and changed it before it went to print.

Also - Christabella continues to look like the Borg Queen, even with all that hair.  She just has creepy eyes.
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