for my moviegoing public: Silent Hill
May. 3rd, 2006 10:02 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
grrgoylThe first I'd heard of this movie was a review posted by wicked_wish, who in turn referred her readers to her husband's journal, moriarty6, both of which warned that the movie wouldn't make much sense to non-gamers. "Fine," I thought. "You elitist video geeks with the kind of free time I only dream about can KEEP your stupid movie. I don't need it." But then I counted magazines at Barnes & Noble and came across the latest Fangoria. I saw this picture:
and thought, "Fuck, yeah, I have to see this movie!" (Truthfully, this isn't the exact picture I saw, but Fangoria are being asshats and not posting pics on their site. This one is close enough.) I considered the warnings about it not making sense, but I think of myself as a person of somewhat above-average intelligence so I wasn't too worried about this. Like I said earlier, I bought the games but knew if I waited until I played them the movie would be in the $3 bargain bin of Walmart by then, so I plunged ahead. The good thing about this is that I won't bore you to tears with nitpicking and whining about inconsistencies with canon, and how what happened in level 5 of SH3 means that this character's actions make no sense, yadda yadda yadda, which is what I'm suffering through on the websites of the elitist gamers.
[nothing that I would consider a huge spoiler to follow]
The movie opens with the da Silva's searching frantically for their adopted daughter, Sharon (though you have to wonder what adoption agency releases a child to a couple who live within walking distance of an 80-foot cliff overlooking a waterfall. Walking distance, that is, after first crossing an insanely busy mountain roadway with zero driver visibility). Sharon sleepwalks, and occasionally cries out "Silent Hill!" while doing so; which, thinking back on it, is kind of cheesy and nonsensical. I can't imagine having any kind of dream that would make me call out the name of MY home town, "Lebanon! Lebanon!" But moving on. Determined to get to the bottom of it, her mother Rose takes Sharon back to Silent Hill, only to find it deserted and closed off from the world due to still-raging mine fires. She crashes the car, awakens from the concussion to discover Sharon missing, and thus thegame movie begins.
I appreciated how quickly the movie gets into the action, even moreso when it made up for lost time later with interminably long, boring scenes of scanning the landscape, which I sincerely hope isn't faithfully recreating actual gameplay. I've never played SH specifically, but the few first-person games I have dabbled in were enough to make the camera angles recognizable as possible homages to SH screenshots.
On the plus side, if the game looks half as creepy as the movie, I'm not at all sure I want to play it....at least, not alone in the dark with headphones, which was my original plan. Watching Rose's descent into what I now know is Silent Hill Otherworld had me freaking out quietly even before she meets any of its grotesque denizens (I was seated next to Ryan deliberately, as I knew he wouldn't misinterpret my arm-clutching as a come-on. I used him similarly in Saw II).
My terror may have blurred the exact sequence of events, so I'll skip on ahead to the lady cop, Officer Cybil. I wasn't too interested in her until she yanked off her helmet to reveal her short blond hair. Yowza. That combined with her painted-on leather pants had me clutching at Ryan for a different reason. There's a whole thread at imdb.com arguing the implied lesbian relationship between Rose and Cybil, but after years of watching Xena trust me, there's some subtext going on here. No, I don't think they were "doing it" (not sure when they'd find the time between searching for Sharon and escaping mutated hellspawn) but there's definitely a bond forged between them. The entire movie (and reportedly the games) is very female-centric; the only men present are either one-dimensional plot distractions like hubby Chris (Sean Bean), horrifying Se7en-like victims (the janitor), or mute, ineffectual human scenery like the five male cult members in the church. Or Pyramid Head.
Thank god I readwicked_wish's post before seeing this. She explained that Pyramid Head is nothing but a symbol of primal male sexual aggression, and to look for a purpose for his existence or motive for his actions is purely a waste of time. Therefore I didn't get hung up on these things, which isn't to say I wasn't disappointed that he didn't play a larger part in the movie. As a foe he was truly awesome, with a kick-ass soundtrack to match. I'm considering buying the DVD for his scenes alone. But ultimately he is not the Boss of this movie.
No, that title is reserved for Christabella, the cult leader and the third of our strong female leads (played with Alice Krige's usual creepilicious skill. Frustratingly, none of my companions had seen or remembered Star Trek: First Contact or Sleepwalkers. I need to find more movie buff friends to hang out with). Here in the third act we are given a whole lot of exposition quite rapidly in huge, undigestible chunks concerning Sharon's origins, involving what were to me hopelessly confusing explanations of lineage and town history (somethingmoriarty6 says is also very prominent in the games).
From that point on it turned into a dizzying, gory rollercoaster ride, but one that mostly had me thinking, "Wait! Go back! You lost me at that big, long monologue..." right up to the end. The ending will provide a good 10-minute debate between non-gamers -- from the forums I've read even game players are a little up in the air about it. The problem is the movie apparently scraps together all the best elements of the first 3 games so the ending isn't something that was seen in any of them.
The reviews are right: Even exceptional intelligence won't ensure you'll be able to follow this all the way through. I will most likely rewatch after playing the games. And I'm very, very sad (not for the first time) that I've truly become so damned jaded.
Nitpicks and general snarkiness:
wicked_wish, who in turn referred her readers to her husband's journal, moriarty6, both of which warned that the movie wouldn't make much sense to non-gamers. "Fine," I thought. "You elitist video geeks with the kind of free time I only dream about can KEEP your stupid movie. I don't need it." But then I counted magazines at Barnes & Noble and came across the latest Fangoria. I saw this picture: and thought, "Fuck, yeah, I have to see this movie!" (Truthfully, this isn't the exact picture I saw, but Fangoria are being asshats and not posting pics on their site. This one is close enough.) I considered the warnings about it not making sense, but I think of myself as a person of somewhat above-average intelligence so I wasn't too worried about this. Like I said earlier, I bought the games but knew if I waited until I played them the movie would be in the $3 bargain bin of Walmart by then, so I plunged ahead. The good thing about this is that I won't bore you to tears with nitpicking and whining about inconsistencies with canon, and how what happened in level 5 of SH3 means that this character's actions make no sense, yadda yadda yadda, which is what I'm suffering through on the websites of the elitist gamers.
[nothing that I would consider a huge spoiler to follow]
The movie opens with the da Silva's searching frantically for their adopted daughter, Sharon (though you have to wonder what adoption agency releases a child to a couple who live within walking distance of an 80-foot cliff overlooking a waterfall. Walking distance, that is, after first crossing an insanely busy mountain roadway with zero driver visibility). Sharon sleepwalks, and occasionally cries out "Silent Hill!" while doing so; which, thinking back on it, is kind of cheesy and nonsensical. I can't imagine having any kind of dream that would make me call out the name of MY home town, "Lebanon! Lebanon!" But moving on. Determined to get to the bottom of it, her mother Rose takes Sharon back to Silent Hill, only to find it deserted and closed off from the world due to still-raging mine fires. She crashes the car, awakens from the concussion to discover Sharon missing, and thus the
I appreciated how quickly the movie gets into the action, even moreso when it made up for lost time later with interminably long, boring scenes of scanning the landscape, which I sincerely hope isn't faithfully recreating actual gameplay. I've never played SH specifically, but the few first-person games I have dabbled in were enough to make the camera angles recognizable as possible homages to SH screenshots.
On the plus side, if the game looks half as creepy as the movie, I'm not at all sure I want to play it....at least, not alone in the dark with headphones, which was my original plan. Watching Rose's descent into what I now know is Silent Hill Otherworld had me freaking out quietly even before she meets any of its grotesque denizens (I was seated next to Ryan deliberately, as I knew he wouldn't misinterpret my arm-clutching as a come-on. I used him similarly in Saw II).
My terror may have blurred the exact sequence of events, so I'll skip on ahead to the lady cop, Officer Cybil. I wasn't too interested in her until she yanked off her helmet to reveal her short blond hair. Yowza. That combined with her painted-on leather pants had me clutching at Ryan for a different reason. There's a whole thread at imdb.com arguing the implied lesbian relationship between Rose and Cybil, but after years of watching Xena trust me, there's some subtext going on here. No, I don't think they were "doing it" (not sure when they'd find the time between searching for Sharon and escaping mutated hellspawn) but there's definitely a bond forged between them. The entire movie (and reportedly the games) is very female-centric; the only men present are either one-dimensional plot distractions like hubby Chris (Sean Bean), horrifying Se7en-like victims (the janitor), or mute, ineffectual human scenery like the five male cult members in the church. Or Pyramid Head.
Thank god I read
wicked_wish's post before seeing this. She explained that Pyramid Head is nothing but a symbol of primal male sexual aggression, and to look for a purpose for his existence or motive for his actions is purely a waste of time. Therefore I didn't get hung up on these things, which isn't to say I wasn't disappointed that he didn't play a larger part in the movie. As a foe he was truly awesome, with a kick-ass soundtrack to match. I'm considering buying the DVD for his scenes alone. But ultimately he is not the Boss of this movie. No, that title is reserved for Christabella, the cult leader and the third of our strong female leads (played with Alice Krige's usual creepilicious skill. Frustratingly, none of my companions had seen or remembered Star Trek: First Contact or Sleepwalkers. I need to find more movie buff friends to hang out with). Here in the third act we are given a whole lot of exposition quite rapidly in huge, undigestible chunks concerning Sharon's origins, involving what were to me hopelessly confusing explanations of lineage and town history (something
moriarty6 says is also very prominent in the games). From that point on it turned into a dizzying, gory rollercoaster ride, but one that mostly had me thinking, "Wait! Go back! You lost me at that big, long monologue..." right up to the end. The ending will provide a good 10-minute debate between non-gamers -- from the forums I've read even game players are a little up in the air about it. The problem is the movie apparently scraps together all the best elements of the first 3 games so the ending isn't something that was seen in any of them.
The reviews are right: Even exceptional intelligence won't ensure you'll be able to follow this all the way through. I will most likely rewatch after playing the games. And I'm very, very sad (not for the first time) that I've truly become so damned jaded.
Nitpicks and general snarkiness:
- The movie was slow-moving enough that I had time to be bothered that things weren't knee-deep in fallen ash, particularly the vehicles at the end. Although if, as some viewers speculate, they actually all died in the car crashes and were wandering in limbo the entire time, this would sort of make sense. Except for the end, when Rose gets back in the car and drives home. Was the car in limbo too?
- The sirens going off signifying the return of the "darkness" were very chilling and effective. If nothing else, I'm glad I saw it in the theater for these.
- I was gratified to read on the imdb message board that I wasn't the only one who thought the nurses looked like they were back-up dancers in a Michael Jackson video. If/when I watch again I will follow the advice to focus on just one of them.
- The police chief was annoying as hell and a horrible actor to boot. "Relaaaaaaaax, Chris, everything's under control here." Maybe he got on my nerves because he delivered his lines in exactly the same unctuous, bored tone with which my Home Depot manager delivers instructions at inventories.
- I did like how the road disappeared and they were trapped, kind of like how I imagine the game (though also ties in with the whole "limbo" theory). Also most of the secondary characters that seem to exist solely to dispense one bit of information were highly reminiscent of a video game as well.
- I'll admit I wasn't too broken up when Pyramid Head crumples up Anna like a piece of tissue paper. Or when Christabella gets impaled on Alessa's barbed wire tentacles. I fucking hate sanctimonious, judgmental religious types.
- I WAS sad that Cybil had to die, although could they have set up a more unnecessarily elaborate way to burn her at the stake? It positively reeked of "slow-burning candle at the rope giving the victim plenty of time to try to escape." Until she doesn't *sob* See my previous subtext comment on why this was construed as a homophobic act by me.
- I knew something was up at the end by how Sharon looked a little too careless and self-confident for having finally returned home after such an ordeal (leading me to believe moriarty6's assertion that Sharon is possessed by Alessa to try to escape into the material plane of existence).
In summary:
Ambience/Atmosphere: A+ (makes Se7en look like a Lindsay Lohan flick)
Soundtrack: A+ (very industrial and tension-building)
Special Effects: A (very little CGI, and too dark to tell the difference most of the time)
Acting: B+ (they have the awful, painful-to-watch police chief to thank for that)
Plot: B- (might be upped later after I've played the games)
