Silent Hill the Movie – Psychological Scare
Silent Hill the movie is rated M18 in Singapore and has many horrifying and terrifying moments so you’re warned. The movie is a spin off from the popular horror cum action PlayStation (PS) game where players control a character and tries to solve puzzles all the while trying to survive in a deserted town called “Silent Hill”. Having played the very first installation of the game many years back, I bought the movie disc from my local store a few days ago because I have been thinking of catching it for ages but it always slip my mind.
The movie stars Radha Mitchell as a determined and brave mother, Rose. Her adopted daughter, Sharon, has been having weird nightmares and does weird stuff (like attempting to jump off a cliff) when she sleep-walks at night. Hence, Rose brings Sharon back to her birth town (which is Silent Hill) to find the cause. Silent Hill is rumored to be a ghost town because it was burnt down in flames 30 years ago and the majority of the town folks’ bodies were not retrieved. Worse, there were even rumors that the fire that had occurred 30 years ago is still burning underground even after so long.
I won’t exactly call myself a pro in the Silent Hill genre because I have never completed the very first installation or played the other installations. Worse, I was scared to death by just controlling my character to run around in town for hours. However, I did find the movie a top notch production from a game spin-off because it has successfully adopted many of the game elements to make this a successful spin-off.
First up is the setting and the atmosphere of the movie. The town, Silent Hill, reminds me of the very foggy town that my character had ran around for an hour. With no one in sight and a fog-like town near the start of the movie, one can already imagine how oppressing the movie is set in. Other than the typical low visibility fog-like setting, others like dark alleys, run-down buildings, and underground passages are typical in both the movie and in the game. If there is no fog, the setting would be either darkness or near darkness with a little sunlight. Thus, what lies or is hiding beyond would be an issue.
To complement the dark and foreboding atmosphere would be horrifying elements like ugly looking creatures and the many gory scenes. If not for my forensic science lecture, I would have found the scenes disturbing as there were some with blood spilling everywhere and body parts hanging around.
One of the more memorable horrifying scenes is where Rose has to navigate pass a group of faceless nurses in the basement. I run on the logic where the further one is away from monsters, the safer. Unfortunately, Rose needs to get to the end of the basement and what stands between her and the exit is a group of lethargic looking undead nurses that might move and attack her anytime. The other scary scene would be the one that involved “Pyramid Head”. Pyramid Head resembles that of a human figure but has a pyramid-shaped metal casing as it’s head. It wields a big fat sword which resembles the size of Cloud’s sword in Final Fantasy VII, and is naked waist up. What’s horrifying is that it uses that sword to slay humans and has claws so sharp that it they aid him in human torturing acts like skin ripping.
The visual and audio effects all contribute to the atmosphere. The creepiness of the town and the many loud bangs when the general environment should be quiet shocked me a few times. Other than Rose, the other character that I was cheering for is cop Cybil Bennet by Laurie Holden. Who else is there to cheer for? Cybil has cool hair style, cool attitude and is a brave woman like Rose but its her bad luck to end up in that place.
Overall, the movie is more terrifying than horrifying. There are movies spun from horror cum action games like Resident Evil where I get petrified into submission by the goriness but the effect will subside once they are not right in my face. Yes, the images in Silent Hill have a degree of scare too but the movie overall provides more of a psychological scare instead. The plot especially has many degrees of realism where the real and unreal are blurred.
Thought the movie has been out since 2006, feel free to visit the Silent Hill’s Official Site for more information but be warned, they have disturbing graphic flying right into your face when you’re at that site. There is also a mini game, where one can navigate Rose to the end of the basement, at the site.
Silent Hill’s awesome. IMO, its one of the best “game-to-movie” ever, with Resident Evil 2 a close second. DOOM was horrible, in fact, did they make a movie on it? I’m pretty sure it doesn’t exist.
And oh, I enjoyed seeing my favorite monsters appearing there. Pyramid Head and the Nurses are love.
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Oooh this one’s great for a Halloween marathon! I really like how the psychological aspects are put together in this film just like how the game did. The creatures are like manifestations of Rose’s fears and other stuff that’s going on in her mind right now. Lol agree with you on the nurses! They were freaky funny ^_^… That gives me the idea of dressing up as a nurse this Halloween XD…
@Stifler
They have a movie for DOOM?
I think the most recent Resident Evil movie has strayed so much from the game that its all guns and action without the terror element anymore.
@kanzeon
Nurse cosplay?
Actually there are many pictures of Silent Hill nurse cosplay found on the net (Silent Hill nurses are popular).
Silent Hill is probably the only good game to movie made.Sure it switches some things but it stays overall pretty true to the Silent Hill games.Ive seen it some years ago and totally forgot about it.I think ill rent it once again to enjoy it.The great thing is that it works on the visual aswell as the psychological front.Most movies only fight on one of those sides leaving behind a mediocre taste.
Dont get me started on the Resident Evil movies…An Insult to the whole series…I have to see Resident Evil Degeneration tough.Its a Capcom made CG movie with all the Cheesyness we love about RE
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i didn’t watch this. never was a fan of horror movies. the last horror i watch was the hills have eyes 1 and 2.
still have iron man and indiana jones DVD haven’t watch yet.
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The movie overall just didn’t seem that scary to me (and I’m a very easy person to scare), and after a certain point got needlessly convuluted, and was resolved in an unsatisfactory way.
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As compared to the gore you have seen in lectures, this is nothing eh?
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Woohoo, this show looks awesome. Thanks for reviewing-ish it, ‘cos my friends and I were actually looking for a show to freak us out :D
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@blowfish
What? They even have a capcom game on it?!? I think the 1st Resident Evil movie was overall enjoyable because it was something new and the feel of the game is there. The 2nd movie is ok but the producers are pushing things a little but the 3rd movie is Oh-My-God. It side-tracked to produce some psychic human Alice + clones and all those made me go mad.
@gordon
I’m not really a horror fan but maybe I should catch the hills have eyes.
@Omisyth
Hmm…give me the names of some movie titles that you found scary. I’ll check them out!
@The Sojourner
Yup the movie’s gore is a piece of cake.
@blissmo
Other horrifying Hollywood movies would be 28 days later, 28 weeks later, Resident Evil 1/2/3. As for terrifying movies, One Missed Call 1 & 2 should do the trick. Ju-On is boring. do not watch.
I don’t usually delve into this genre willingly, but I was sleeping over at a friend’s place when he decided to watch this. The scares were so predictable I burst out laughing here and there. That said, it wasn’t a bad film per se, but a rather well done adaptation.
Silent Hill movie was pretty good for a game-to-film adaptation (though obviously pales in comparison to the real games), have it somewhere stashed in with my other movies. Actually, the movie and watching an X-Play review got me started on the whole thing.
The only thing I can seriously gripe about when it comes to the film was Pyramid Head not actually doing much; he killed a couple people onscreen and that was it. (Well, only one if you count the first guy as being killed by getting eaten by those big bugs. >.<) If you think he was scary in the movie though…just wait till you meet him in in Silent Hill 2. God I still remember what he did to those poor mannequins… yes I do…
Wow pyramid head is even scarier in-game? I’d guess so too since he/it did not do much in the movie except to walk around with his huge sword. Its a pity that I don’t get to play the other Silent Hill series except for Silent Hill 1 on my Play Station.
I heard that there might be Silent Hill the movie 2 but its all rumors I think. I wonder how it’d play out if there’s one.