Just got back from watching an early screening of the movie. Well I never played a single Silent Hill games before so I'm not sure how game accurate the movie is. However, the movie did play out like a game would, not in a bad way though. The monster scenes and such were nice. A few creepy scenes but cool nonetheless. The ending left me wondering if the main characters were dead or alive. I guess I have to buy a game and play this series, looks interesting. Good movie IMO.  

 

"Creepy" is the entire point of Silent Hill. If the movie didn't have plenty of it, it would be a horrible adaptation.

 

It had a few 'creepy' bits, but not a lot Haven't played any of the games, but i think they racked up the blood a few notches.

It wasn't bad, but it wasn't fantasic either.

Wish there was more of Pyramid Head in it mind you.

 

Pyramid Head was in it? Sounds like they mixed some of Silent Hill 2 in there.

 

Yep. AFAIK, there're no Male characters in the first game either.

There were probably a chunk of liberties taken with the whole thing to widen the (potential) market.

 

It's ok, we'll always have the SMB movie!  

 

Actually, the main character of the first game was male. Harry Mason. I don't remember any other men in the game though. I already knew he got replaced in the movie.

 

I meant that it had a few, but not a lot. But the few that was shown was ok.

 

Hey now thats a damn good movie, for $.50 on clearance.

 

To be fair the ENTIRE film has a creepy edge to it. There are some really creepy scenes though that ramp this up though, it's been years since I've played the game so really can't remember if they did the plot right. There are though several key scenes and mages that resonate as straight out of the game. Overall it's better than Resident Evil.

 

To be fair you don't have to put in a lot of effort to be better than Resident Evil.

 

I can't find the article now, but at one point I think the director said something like: simply putting a woman in a Jill Valentine costume does not make her Jill Valentine.

He should've taken his own advice. A bunch of rusty fences and evil nurses do not a good Silent Hill film make.

The movie is essentially a remix of the plot of the first game, with art and monsters from the second (hence Pyramidhead). It looks great, and is pretty faithful to the look (and even music) of the games ... but falls apart as soon as you start paying attention to the story.

This is not an accident -- the story of the first game was incomprehensible crap. It was the only thing about the first game that didn't work -- and is exactly why I got nervous as soon as I heard Gans wanted to base the movie on that plot.

Worse, it's occasionally creepy, but never truly scary -- something you could never accuse the games of (unless you're HARDCORE and don't ever get scared by horror games. Yeah, right.)

See, being scared by a horror film, and being scared by a horror game are two entirely different things. There's a distinct difference between being scared of a monster that's chasing your avatar around, and being scared of a monster that's chasing some person you have no control over on the big screen. The best horror games focus on immersing the player in the environment, then bringing out threats that feel real to the player. The best horror movies can't do that -- because you, as a viewer, have no control over what's happening on screen. They have to rely on other tricks to reel you in.

The people who made this movie (and, to be fair, everyone who's EVER made a video game movie) do not understand the difference. You cannot simply take scenes from a video game, put them on screen, and expect them to have the same effect as if you were physically PLAYING the game. One reviewer described the experience as like watching someone ELSE play a video game -- and he's exactly right. There's even a point in the movie where, when the heroine reaches a Key Location, a voice says "Congratulations!" and starts reciting what essentially amounts to a bad cut scene.

Even if the movie had the Best Plotting Ever, this fact would've kept it squarely in the realm of mediocrity.

That the movie has a plot straight out of Hollywood Script Generator 2003 XP doesn't help, though. There are lines in this film which even the best actor couldn't salvage with a straight face -- so this cast (in particular, Radha Mitchell, who is otherwise a solid actress) had absolutely no chance. The nonsense plot of the first game has been revised and augmented with ham-fisted cliche -- and it's anyone's guess which is worse.

It's a shame, really. The movie didn't HAVE to be bad at all. A better scriptwriter and someone who understands that movies aren't video games, and REQUIRE different approaches, could've saved the project. As it is ... well, the first half isn't too bad. If you happen to have to use the john during the second half, don't feel too bad -- you're not missing anything.

-XCN-

 

Or not.  

-XCN-

 

Thanks for the info , looking foward to seeing this.

SH2 is my favorite game from the series and sounds like they're basing most of the movie off it.

 

Saw it with my little brother today. It was kinda hard to really get into the movie with all the teenage dumbasses in the theater. Definitely a movie to watch with as little a crowd as possible.

 

Saw it last night. Really liked the atmosphere presented. Remeber when shit first hit the fan and reality got twisted, thinking just how nightmarish it really looked. I thought Pyramidhead was freaking insane looking.

 

Here's the review I wrote for www.filmsy.com

 

Great movie. About a 4 out of 5 altogether, but for a video game movie, it's the Lord of the Rings of the group.  

I didn't care much for the ending, but otherwise, a good adaption without using the exact plot of 1.


Minorish Spoilers for the GAMES below.

This is one thing that annoys me. H.P. Lovecraft and Silent Hill are as opposite as can be. Lovecraft is about Exterior Horros, the outside, the unknown, the universe itself. All of these come from outside of humanity. Silent Hill (although it's not really shown in the movie itself) is about Internal Horror. The reason why the monsters from each game change is because the person who comes into Silent Hill brings their demons with them and give rise to their fears in the town. That's why in 2 the areas gradually grow less confining and why Pyramid Head is in 2: James felt he needed to be "punished." In the same vein, Laura is free to walk about because she's an innocent. Another example would be the Nurses: James' sexual frustration is why they have bigger breasts in 2 than 1 or 3. The bosses in the game are also slightly sexual (to see my point, take a look at the first boss in 1 and compare it to the first boss in 3). I'm a big fan of both, but they really are like night and day.