Salka

Silent Hill - The Movie

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I really, really enjoyed this.

Bob and I are both fans of the game, although Spaff has never really played any survival horror games... but all three of us thoroughly enjoyed this movie. Much to my delight, it remained faithful to the games (pretty much)... I mean, the delight of hearing actual real Silent Hill music made me want to explode. And at one point, Bob pointed at the screen and said, "Oh my god, it's the same camera angle as that same alleyway in the game!" and then proceeded to tell us exactly how the camera would move for the next minute or two...

Besides remaining loyal to the games, it was also a good movie to watch. It was GENUINELY terrifying... when that siren blared out it made my skin creep... pyramid head made me want to crap my pants... oh man it was awesome!!!

It also had a few good references to the video game, my favourite being when the cult leader says, "Take a look at this map. Memorize it!" (and the map is the very same as the Silent Hill map from the game! Win!)

This movie pleased me on many levels. Besides being quite a good movie, it remained loyal to a series of games which I really love. I watched the extras and it is obvious that the people that made that movie, played the game and liked it.

I'm going to buy it on DVD, and hopefully there'll be some kind of awesome Special Edition...

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It's out in the UK tomorrow (Monday, 4th September).

Coincidentally I sat down to rewatch this last night and it's still just as good. And not just good "for a video game movie" either; it's a genuinely nasty and frightening popcorn B-flick. Being able to spot the landmarks (from playing the games) is just a nice, 'clicky' bonus. :tup:

Sean Bean's fucking awful though. :(

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Saw it a couple of days ago... It was ok, but not good. Visually it's very nice, especially the dark moments. Music was very good too. However, the acting fails to impress, characters do not act like real people, the plot is weak...

Most of the time the movie completely fails to be scary, although there are 2 or 3 scenes that were pretty impressive and some shocking moments (razorwire boy, Pyramid Head's trick to Anna, the nurses). Most of the creatures just look silly. Pyramid Head doesn't even really seem threatening.

I've never played the games. Well, I liked the ending at least.

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He isn't very... active, is he? He messes up a door and at one point works up enough energy to kill a person, but other than that he mostly walks around very slowly. These things may work in games, but the head and the sword just look silly.

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He isn't very... active, is he? He messes up a door and at one point works up enough energy to kill a person, but other than that he mostly walks around very slowly. These things may work in games, but the head and the sword just look silly.

That's down to an individual's perception and interpretation of fear and terror respectively.

Scared the shit out of me though--and I've never played any of the games further than their (limited) demos. I thought Silent Hill was an excellent example of a 'paranoid isolation' horror film. I also thought the mother/child interplay and narratory drive was believable and consistently used to great effect.

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I think it's a terrifying concept... a faceless individual devoid of any personality or voice... just relentlessly persuing you... and you know he's coming when darkness falls and there's no way you can stop him, all you can do is run, and run, and run...

I don't know why but yeah, the idea of someone's face being entirely covered is... er... scary... does anybody know what I mean? Mind you this coming from somebody who is scared of broken plumbing... ¬¬

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Mind you this coming from somebody who is scared of broken plumbing... ¬¬

Eh.. WHO ISN'T?! :(

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I don't know why but yeah, the idea of someone's face being entirely covered is... er... scary... does anybody know what I mean?

"Looks human at first glance, but definitely isn't upon closer inspection." Finding unfamiliarity in what you thought/hoped was familiar.

Bit like ginger by all accounts, then...

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I think it's a terrifying concept... a faceless individual devoid of any personality or voice... just relentlessly persuing you... and you know he's coming when darkness falls and there's no way you can stop him, all you can do is run, and run, and run...

Relentlessly? He didn't seem to put any effort into it. The guy moves so slowly the darkness is over before he can really try to catch you. But yeah, the concept is good, I just felt the execution was very lacking. Still, when he does Anna in is very effective. In that scene he seems sadistic and menacing and cool, but the rest.. meh.

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"Looks human at first glance, but definitely isn't upon closer inspection." Finding unfamiliarity in what you thought/hoped was familiar.

Bit like ginger by all accounts, then...

Er... what? You mean like my friend Ginger or...? Ginger people in general? Or... the root Ginger?

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When he does Anna in is very effective. In that scene he seems sadistic and menacing and cool, but the rest.. meh.

...so the fact that, once he's cornered Rose and Cybil in that small room, he smashes through the door with that :cens0r:-off great cleaver of his before desperately, hungrily trying to rip that iron bar from across the entrance isn't enough to spark Brown Trousers Time in the brkl household?

The Red Pyramid (to give the character its proper name) is an extremely evil, near unstoppable, tank-like SOB--the film did an excellent job of relaying this.

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Er... what? You mean like my friend Ginger or...? Ginger people in general? Or... the root Ginger?

Your mate wot licks peoples "columns" down the pub. (Apparently.) But I'll shut up with that now as it's obviously unfunny, and I don't know this person from Adam.

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desperately, hungrily trying to rip that iron bar from across the entrance isn't enough to spark Brown Trousers Time in the brkl household?

More like gave it an off-hand effort, but quickly stopped trying.

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More like gave it an off-hand effort, but quickly stopped trying.

If you noticed, Alessa began switching the world back to light--that's why he stopped trying; he couldn't exist any longer.

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More like gave it an off-hand effort, but quickly stopped trying.

Just like Ginger!

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Oh maybe somebody can explain the ending to me though... I didn't quite get it. Was she gonna be there forever or what? :(

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Oh maybe somebody can explain the ending to me though... I didn't quite get it. Was she gonna be there forever or what? :(

Yes; Child Alessa tricked Rose into staying with her in the ash world (Silent Hill's "light side").

Basically, either Alessa 'killed' Rose when Rose allowed Child Alessa to enter her body. Or Christabella killed Rose when she stabbed Rose in the chest; Alessa would have kept Rose 'alive' for her own purposes then, such as crawling over the seal and opening that gate to hell through which Burnt Alessa - her fuller demon manifestation - was able to enter the church and get busy with the fizzy.

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I liked the gore in that scene ;) Yeah, the ending was nice and bleak. I didn't expect it at all, it was great to notice the fog didn't go anywhere when they drove away.

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I liked the gore in that scene ;)

I didn't like the whole barbed-wire rape scene when I originally saw the film. On second viewing it made more sense and provides a fitting climax to Alessa's story.

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I watched this last night, it was a lot better than I expected. Yeah the exposition movie reel was heavy handed, but I appreciated it having only a vague knowledge of the games. I enjoyed trying to figure out how the various monsters fitted into the warped dream of Alessa's history.

Pyramid Head wasn't in it much. You guys made him seem like a really important figure, but to me he was just one more demon freak, like the acid spittting torso, just a bit more dangerous. Also: easy to open, twist-and-pull for the stomach wrenching win...

The whole thing to me seemed a little like Hellraiser, if it had been made by Stephen King instead of Clive Barker.

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