Title: Silent Hill
Year: 2006
Dir.: Christophe Gans
Producer(s): Samuel Hadida, Don Carmody
Writer(s): Roger Avary
Company: Konami, Davis Films
Starring: Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates, Tanya Allen, Alice Krige, and Jodelle Ferland.
A video game is released in 1999…
We’ve had Resident Evil. Mortal Kombat. Super Mario Bros. Assassin’s Creed. These are some games that have been adapted for the big screen and, well, haven’t exactly been the best. Granted, Resident Evil has spun a franchise with some “success” and Mortal Kombat is my personal favorite out of this bunch… I don’t acknowledge that awful sequel.
However, there’s one that comes to mind when thinking of the video game genre; Silent Hill.
The story of Silent Hill in the film is something I can’t quite remember, except a mother looking for her adopted daughter and that’s all of the plot I remember. And of course the daughter has a connection with the town Silent Hill.
And the backstory of the daughter and the climax scene which I won’t spoil.
That’s not a good sign. But I do remember visuals for the film, especially of the “villains” so to speak. Pyramid Head, the nurses, the creepy cool toned atmosphere that was clearly unsafe.
That is the biggest takeaway of this movie, creating the environment that the video games does really well. It makes you feel secluded, in danger, there is no sort of warmth as in colors or emotions that makes you feel safe. The greys, blues, whites, it just drowns the town and that’s what I really like about this film.
I do have to give a small shout out to the SFX for doing the nurses and Pyramid Head quite effective.
Silent Hill is a bit of an interesting, fun, movie in my opinion. The story line could be better. And yet the highlights are the special effects, the costumes, the set design, basically secondary categories used to further enhance the movie.
It’s almost like how Bram Stoker’s Dracula has the amazing costume design, special effects and sets as “story” or “main character” and the rest was secondary. That’s how I feel about this film. But that’s the problem with a lot of video game adaptations as well. The story is “meh” but the entire look/feel of the movie is on point.
Would I suggest watching Silent Hill? Sure, why not. And if you’re into video game adaptations, feel free to watch the others listed above or also the original Tomb Raider (2001) with Angelina Jolie, Hitman, so many others.
Shots of Horror 