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Originally Posted by Lucien21
Silent Hill
Oh I so wanted to like this film.
Big fan of the games and the film succeeds in replicating the atmosphere of the games very very well.
There are countless nods towards the series from the camera angles and music/sounds to lifting whole plot points from various games.
Therein lies the problem i'm afraid they succeed far to well It was too much like watching someone play the game. There was too much (especially at the beginning) of just watching the main character run around going through doors marvelling at "oh i remember this location"
The acting was dreadful and the story is impossible to know what the hell is going on unless you have played the games.
Strange there was not enough of the bad guys each of them get about 1-2 min of air time which was disappointing (Although Pyramid head gets slightly longer and also gets the best bit in the movie when he catches one of the characters - eeekk). Maybe it was just me but the movement of the nurses at the end all looked like they were dancing to Thriller I nearly laughed out loud.
Don't get me started on the ending which was crap.
Overall very atmospheric, looked and sounded amazing, and it was nice to see the designs, locations and monsters from the series up on the big screen, but as a movie it's a incoherant mess.
5/10
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You're too critical, man. Thus I counter your review with mine! Mmph!!
Finally saw it this afternoon. Three words: Instant cult classic.
Wow, I haven't seen a horror movie this rich, warped, well orchestrated, and visually beautiful since
Suspiria, Kubrick's
The Shining, and Cronenberg's
Videodrome,
Scanners, and
The Brood.
And actually I think the obscurity of the core story worked extremely well, because it keeps the audience in a perpetual state of imbalance, so that they're forced to look for clues and symbols, much like the concept of the original game of Silent Hill. The explanatory monologue towards the climax was almost too revealing, really. But then I supposed it was necessary in order to satisfy the clueless.
Spoiler:
But I hated that they killed Cybil Bennett off. That was cheap. She had an interesting enough back story to establish an emotional and psychological depth that, sadly, was neglected for further exploration.
Many of the best
monsters entities from the first two games were used and depicted lovingly and accurately. Pyramid Head's dramatic entrance was jawdropping. They also used many of the original music and sound effects from the games. Even some of the sets (like Midwich Elementary School) were eerily accurate to the game. The first dimension shifting scene where Rose flicks on her butane lighter is EXACTLY straight out of the first Silent Hill game - absolutely magnificent. And that scene where the dimension shifts in the bathroom in the school is peerless!!
Pragmatically it's definitely a little too closed off to audiences who haven't played the first and second game, but there's definitely an exquisite sensibility in this film that you rarely ever find in typical Hollywood horror fare. And hopefully this movie will ignite substantial interest in the games themselves (I now expect there to be a Silent Hill 5 or something in the works).
I AM ABSOLUTELY BUYING THE DVD!!
8/10
(I also posted this mini review in the Silent Hill thread)
