I'm sure we'll have more on this one soon - Canfield's working something up - but one of our regular readers, clearly a big fan of the games, has just posted a lengthy and detailed Silent Hill review from that perspective in our forums. Pretty safe to say he liked it. A lot. Thanks to BtoFU for this ...
My feelings -
The Silent Hill theme hits after the Pathe logo and we break into a tumultuous scene as Rose calls out to her daughter, Sharon. The opening scene with Sharon sleepwalking towards the edge of a cliff is a brief opener but one which conveys the mild sense of anxiety that will gradually build and take control over the next two hours. As a hardcore fan of the series it's understandably difficult not to pinpoint every niggling facet that doesn't adhere to the source, strand by strand. Thankfully though the opener is the only scene that bothered me, that being said I completely understand why these first ten minutes are integral - not everyone is clued in and it really is essential to deal with some plot formalities - so little Sharon calling out 'Silent Hill! Silent Hill!' in her sleep is hokey to a fan but completely necessary in laying the groundwork.
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Man, I feel like I need a tissue to wipe myself with after reading that.
I'm not yet going to read that review, but Silent Hill could be a turning point for cult film.
ebert gave it 1 and a half star.
then again, he gave tomb raider 3 stars, so i'm not sure how much i care for his opinion on game adaptations...
I'm going to see it in a few hours and just cannot wait. I have such high expectations though... but I know I'll find at least one thing that will make the whole movie worth it.
Nice review Btofu! However my feelings toward the movie somewhat differ.
Silent Hill had bags of potential, and was far from being a turkey by any standards.. however its shortcomings destroyed what potentially could have been the most original horror movie in ages.
First, concentrating on its good points; it certainly had style, Gans showing a lot of respect for the subject matter. A lot of the imagery was at times quite striking, and possibly the most original 'creatures' since Barker's Cenobites - not least in that of the demon pyramid head; it's just a shame its scenes are so few, as PH was one of the major winning points of the movie for me, a wonderfully terrifying creation brought to full force on the screen.
The acting was, in most cases, above par, not least Radha Mitchell who was a particularly effective and compelling lead. Also lovers of the game will be thrilled to see a lot of its famous imagery on the screen, as this really is one affectionate love song to the game - from the locations, the creatures and even the soundtrack/score.
Unfortunately, this is also where its shortcomings lie - It felt too much like the game to really have much crossover potential. It struggles to carry any conviction (or fear) within its wafer-thin plot, and often felt like a simple explore-a-thon with very little to do. Throw in some psychotic pious townsfolk whom could have been plucked straight out of any b-movie, and this starts to lose any integrity it gained in its initially effective build up. Unfortunately it just goes downhill from here, right up until the messy CGI laced climax.
Silent Hill is far from bad - and I am not one of the 'haters' who automatically want to knock this (I expected worse to be honest) but as both a horror movie fan, and a gamer who has played all the Silent Hill games, this simply did not cut it. However, that being said, if you dont set your sights too high, you could do worse than check it out.
I hate to read reviews like this because there is no way any one could reccommend this movie without a major asterix.
I agree the sets were pretty and I dug the music too. The special effects were top notch as well but the story and dialogue was so laughable that it's actors become cringeworthy. There are also extremely boring parts of the movie where you want something to happen.
I've said this on many other websites.. its like watching your friend play Silent Hill on the ps1. Its not fun unless you are actually playing it yourself. You want to be scared but it never happens.
This movie relies on gore for entertainment and lacks a single "scary" or "creepy" moment.
The scene with the nurses was the absolute worst as everyone in the audience was waiting for them to bust out dancing Thriller style.
There is stuff to like but waaaaay to much to hate. Don't waste your dollars. Wait for DVD... to rent.
neaux, you don't strike me as a fan of the series. The videogames rely heavily on deliberately slow cut-off points, the overly long walk into the forest in SH2, the slow burn after the amusement park 'dream' in SH3. In the film it was clear that Christopher's scenes were seperate entities compared to the world Rose inhabited, while I would say that they did perhaps draw you out of the main proceedings they were also used to curb what could have been an erratic pace. When you're dealing with an affair that lasts 2 hours and 5 minutes I think it's essential that it's comfortable in setting it's own pace and for me it it did this competantly. A batch of scares in immediate succession would have exhausted the audience by an hour in. As for not getting off on the scares well I can't help you there, they certainly hit home for me.
HOT SEXY NURSE ON NURSE ACTION
I haven't seen this one yet ,but Gans has put out an enormous piece of moviemaking with Le Pacte des Loups.Can't wait to see Silent Hill, too.
I went to the preview last night in Toronto and I was quite satisfied with the adaptation. I feel the movie captured the essence of the video game. It made me remember the creepy and confused feelings I got as traipsed through the town trying to find the child I lost and getting caught in the town’s damnation. It captured all the grime and dark places and so realistic in its illustration of an all enveloping hate and maybe evil too.
I feel you don’t need to play the game to enjoy the film. Just for once take off your reasoning cap and just let the story take you down a more primal path. We don’t need to know and be spoon every little detail. Enjoy it for what it is, a dark place with a dark past and no redemption.
Never played the game(s). Gans (and screenwriter Roger Avary) drew me completely into the world. Crept me out. Townsfolk were a bit of a disappointment. Finished an hour ago. Still trying to bleed it out of my system so I can sleep properly. But that's just me...
I just watched the movie. My girlfriend wanted to go, because I wouldn't shut up about the games, when I got Silent Hill 4 and she was really curious. Ha, ha...
Anyway, although it wasn't a perfect movie by any means, I have to state that I loved it!
I think the major flaws of the movie are:
a) They kept a couple of seriously cheesy lines
b) It was too simplistic in the wrong areas
c) Although the fans (such as myself) appreciate and love him for it, Chris Gans made something that was too faithful to the spirit of the games for the mass audience
It's going to be a cult hit for sure.
I would have to agree with some points Gummo made about the film. As a fan of all the silent hill games, I too felt that the plot was lacking, and could have been a much deeper, dark one. The special effects, and musical score were what I especially enjoyed from the film, but without a significant plot to back that up, it kept me yawning all the way to the climax. What can we expect next? A sequal Perhaps?
maybe i have a biased opinion because silent hill was filmed mostly in my home town of brantfrod ontario, and it usually looks like that on a good day. but i enjoyed the movie, i only ever played SH for dreamcast, but it was a good pace change from resident evil. playing on teh fear of open sapce as aposed to confined mansions. i agree that a movie with such great concepts needed better writing, and a better explanation for a lot of scenes, but i agree that the evil characters were very creepy. that part with those burned babies scared the hell out of me.
i plan on going to see it again becausei dont get the ending. are they technically dead, or just in soem other dimension. was her reward getting her daughter back but never beign able to leave silent hill?
-GOOD: atmosphere, production design, sound, music, monsters/fx, ending, intesity (pretty frickin' bold).
-BAD: acting (OH MY GOD), dialogue, acting (that cop? ugh), dialogue, the whole thing with her husband (no reason to be crosscutting with something out of silent hill. just kills tension).
*i'm pretty torn. while i was watching it, the people in the theatre and i were laughing quite a bit at the lines and deliveries in the movie. i seriously wonder if a foreign director has the same understanding if dialogue is delivered believably in another language.. i speak spanish and sure as hell couldn't tell if a spanish actor was alittle bit 'off'.. so it kind of felt pretty cheesy while watching it, but then afterwards my friends and i realized that we were pretty shaken. some of the images in the movie were just so intense and memorable.. first time i felt uncomfortable in the dark by myself in a long time. sooo, some powerful imagery, good dreamlike atmosphere.. but could of been amazing.
Just got back from watching Silent Hill at the Uber-large Downtown Chicaco East River AMC. Big screen, nice sound. Awful crowd to watch a movie with. Lots of talkers, mumblers, etc. Nonetheless....Please skim my 1am Ramblings below if you so desire. They are not particularly co-herent, but neither is Silent Hill.
Silent hill is a fairly large misfire for Christophe Gans & Roger Avery, but a serious selling-point for DP Dan Laustsen (well that is when the atrociously awful CGI doesn't get in the way. I mean, what is up with that? In a game which practiced restraint, why go the ballistic CGI approach, it kills the tension dead. The whole film is a bit on the soulless side. Now I wasn't expecting Kieslowski, or even a David Lynch clone (which I think Silent Hill was aiming for that style/feel), but I felt like I was watching the end of the Devils Advocate or End of Days or God Forbid, The Mummy Returns...And that is just unacceptable). The film is a step backwards from Brotherhood of the Wolf for Gans. BotW was muddled, uneven, and unnecessarily padded, but the willingness to go outside the realm of expectations, and some looney energy did it a favour in my book. Oh, and it didn't have mounds of bad CGI in it like Sildng Hill does. Also, if one excludes the awful, awful opening sequence, the acting is pretty good in the first half of the film, and then goes waaaay bad, in fact almost completely contrary to the characterization in the first half of the film. Sean Bean is not only wasted, but totally unnecessary to the entire motion picture; well, other than a woefully overwraught (but positively subtle compared with much of the middle) closing shot. Sure there are some fantastic images, and one act of extreme 'deskinning' wihch might make a DVD viewing worthwhile, but I just dare to to resist fast-forwarding through much of the rest. If this is supposed to be a fever-dream drama, then well, I'll take the American Dark Water or Mulholland Dr. first thank-you very much.
I was not a fan of Gilliam's Tideland, partly due to the flat, almost dull look of the cinematography, and an extreme lack of focus (even by Gilliam standards) but mostly because Jodelle Ferland was not quite up to par with carrying the film on her novice-actress shoulders. Here she is much, much worst most of the time, and somewhat improved some of the time. She doesn't have the screen time in SH as she did in Tideland and that is a probably a good thing. Perhpas she will get better as she gets more roles, but she remains woefully inconsistent (which is an unintentional theme of Silent Hill, unfortuantely). Radha Mitchell is equally inconsistent, which makes me believe that Gans didn't have a clue what he was doing directing these actors, or putting this movie together. The less said about Alice Krige (and actress who I quite like most of the time) and Deborah Kara Unger (ditto) the better. Ham like Easter, Ham like Christmas, Ham like Green Eggs and ___. In Unger's case, no thanks to the costume and make-up department which make her look riduculous.
PLEASE ALL FILM-MAKERS OUT THERE...PLEASE STOP MAKING CGI HORDES OF BUGS...The day people hommage Stephen Sommers, is the day I stop watching movies.
Roger Avery, amoung other things, has a thing for the Wickerman, and I'm cool with the party in Rules of Attraction; but his big reference scene Silent Hill falls completely flat next to his inspiration. Oh the bad dialogue, oh the atrocious pacing. This film needed several more re-writes, including the elimination of several characters, the orphanage, the cop, and Beans character for starters...
Somehow despite all of my complaints, Silent HIll is still better than most Video Game Movies and a scene or two is occasionally inspired...But that doesn't say much. Silent Hill may have been ambitious, and I can't fault that, but it derails itself far too often.
One final thing. I've got positively no issue with a film which favours mood and tone over rational explaination. But the mood and tone have to be executed in some sort of competent manner. Gans is a bit spastic in that department.
Kurt, I'm seeing it tonight at the AMC City North 14 up in Logan Square. If you think the crowd is bad at the shimmering River East, it's not nearly as bad as this one. Especially on the $5 Tuesday nights: screaming infants at the 11pm showing of, say, The Devil's Rejects, cell phone arguments, occasional gang brawls, everyone inappropiately yelling at the screen, etc.
It's AWESOME.
Hmm, I didn't realize Twitch did a review of this movie but here's my opinion of it.
I was HIGHLY disappointed in it. But as an frame of mind, I am a huge fan of the games and the best part of the games to me is the bizareness of the plot and how things make only partial sense until you think about it more and draw together clues.
From the movie I was expecting a lot. I was expecting to be enthralled like I am during the games. I wasn't. And frankly I couldn't get over one change in the movie. All the other differences from game to movie I could handle except for one: the purpose of the cult.
In the game, the cult was sinister. It filled you with a sense of dread with it's strange mythology and ultimate goal (to create a paradise but this requires unleashing evil upon the world first). In the movie the cult was... just backward witch burning hicks. I went through the whole movie thinking "my god, this cult is retarded."
So basically I hated the story line. The visual effects tho were great. I thought it was very low on the scares myself though with too much hicky cult members and too little bizarre creatures.
But, having thought about it, i think it should have either 1) stuck to the silent hill 1 plot closer, then they could have done a number 2, and done a plot like Silent Hill 3.
Or...
2) they should have done the plot, characters and monsters for Silent Hill 2 - and never make a number 2!
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