Review of Silent Hill

Introduction

Urgh videogames! you may cry. Yes indeedy, Silent Hill is based on a popular series of videogames from leading Japanese developer Konami, instantly familiar to those who aren`t afraid to pick up a joypad. Naturally, if you are of the misguided opinion that gaming is either solely the reserve of kids, a boys-only club, a haven for socially indifferent teens or the hobby of adults with too much time on their hands, or simply have never had the chance get your feet wet in this realm of interactive entertainment, you may appreciate a small primer.

Silent Hill is one of the more interesting franchises in gaming, belonging to a genre known as `survival horror`. Beaten to the market by the ground-breaking, genre-defining Resident Evil series in 1996 (which was, of course, turned into a series of action movies which were abominable basterdisations of the source material), Silent Hill would follow with it`s first installment in 1999. Much to the surprise of critics and gamers, it opted for a more subdued, psychological approach to survival horror. Where Resident Evil had set the precedent for shotgun blasting, jump-out-of-your-seat scares, Silent Hill instead relied on a feeling of suspenseful torment and abstract puzzle solving, showing you very little, while enticing fear out of every noise and shadow. It was clear that where Resident Evil had taken it`s cues from the early attempts at horror-themed videogames, Silent Hill actually owed more to great macabre literature and classic horror cinema as prime influences. The story told within the film is crutched on the solidly grounded occult-theme of the original game, and forgoes some of the more allegorical elements the series introduced in the sequels. The film also swaps out the first game`s male protagonist for a female, amalgamates elements from its sequels and makes small, but relatively significant changes to the plot:

Rose Da Silva`s daughter Sharon is plagued by sleepwalking and nightmares, each ending with her cries to be taken to a place called `Silent Hill`. Upon investigation, Rose discovers a ghost town in West Virginia bearing the name, and against the wishes of her husband Chris (Sean Bean), hits the road with her daughter in tow to find it. After sly hostility from neighbouring town residents and a run in with motorcycle cop Cybil Bennet (Laurie Holden), they eventually arrive at the elusive, fog-strewn backwater. Visibility impaired, Rose narrowly misses colliding with a small girl in the middle of the road, and after coming to, realises her daughter has vanished. Heading into Silent Hill to search for Sharon, she encounters the mysterious Dahlia (Debra Kara Unger) and again Cybil, the bike cop. But the town has an ominous secret, one which plunges the town into a mysterious darkness as a hellish netherworld filled with unnatural creatures takes a firm hold of reality. As husband Chris searches frantically for his wife and daughter with the aid of a local detective, Rose has to uncover the mysteries of Silent Hill if she wants to see her daughter again.

Video

As a 2006 release, of course the print is pristine, and is echoed in the clarity of the DVD release. Presented in anamorphic 2.35:1, `Silent Hill` boasts some excellent cinematography, specifically in terms of lighting. The `normal` Silent Hill has a grey, ghostly, subdued look that really marks it out as somewhere you don`t want to visit at the best of times. The `other` version of the town is exactly the gore-strew, viciously repugnant odium that it was meant to be - dark, dirty, industrial and detestable. The sort of place where you`d rather eat your own eye than drop in for a sandwich and a cafè latte. Thankfully, the film doesn`t suffer from the perpetual darkness syndrome that effects other horrors, with good contrast and composition highlighting the grimy production design.

The town`s nasties come to life courtesy of creature effects from expert Patrick Tatopoulos (`Pitch Black`, `Independence Day`). Although based on many of the monstrosities encountered in the game, he`s obviously added his own interpretation of what makes fine looking hell-spawn. They`re slime spewing, mindless abominations of human anatomy, moving in a graceless stutter - the game itself takes much of it`s inspiration for character design from the fetishistic look of the `Hellraiser` series of films.

Audio

With a Dolby Digital 5.1 track, `Silent Hill` attempts to take full advantage of the surround audio format. Sometimes it works, sometimes it`s a little off. For example, one hiccup occurs in a scene in the movie featuring a racing Rose smashing through a set of chained gates from the driver`s point of view - at impact point, the smashing of metal on metal is heard loudest from the rear, then traveling in due course to the front speakers. As a viewer, you expect the crash to start at the fronts, then to the rear. The 5.1 is put to better use for scenes in the rain, the full surround set up put to good use with some intense water effects, making you feel like you`re bang in the middle of a storm. Dialogue is mostly clear, although there is at least one instance where conversation audibility dips a little low. An overall decent track.

Most of the music in `Silent Hill` has come straight from the game series, courtesy of composer Akira Yamaoka. His beautifully melancholic compositions are intended to heighten the dream-like atmosphere, and work a treat. When it`s scary time, it`s down to the heavy, industrial noise and spot effects to ramp up the tension.

Features

Remember the days when a DVD release of a major film meant a package filled to the brim with miscellaneous extra bumf? Those days are firmly behind us, as the DVD release of `Silent Hill`, a respectably performing spring release, is given the old `Making Of`, `Theatrical Trailer` and `Photo Gallery` trifecta. Although the `Making of` is quite the runner at near the fifty-minute mark, this has to go down as a fairly lackluster set of extras.

Conclusion

Director Christophe Gans has shown we`ve come a long way from `Street Fighter` and `Super Mario Brothers` in terms of games that become movies with a faithful adaptation of the franchise in both narrative and spirit of Konami`s classic game. However, viewed as a stand-alone feature in the eyes of you average horror, or more general film fan, the chinks in the armour start to appear. Roger Avary`s script has stuck as close as possible to the source, and is bound to please most fans of the game (of course, there`s always that hardcore lot who balk at any creative changes). But for people whose idea of a Silent Hill is a time-out zone for naughty children in the garden, things are a little shaky; what imperfections can be overlooked when the story is wrapped up in a game aren`t going to get by on the silver screen, and as such, `Silent Hill` isn`t as accessible as a horror story built from the ground up for cinema.

For a start, it`s simply not scary. Not a bit. There are plenty of grotesque creatures with legs where there should be heads and heads where there should be other gross stuff, but as soon as they are given a second of screen time, the film delves into classic creature-feature territory - if you`ve got a gun, shoot `em; if you can`t shoot `em, run. You`re the protagonist, they`re never going to get you. Despite how faithful it is to the games, it`s still impossible to transfer that feeling of creeping terror that comes from entering a desolate town via an on-screen avatar for 10 hours of gaming into a 2 hour film. Perhaps that`s why our characters seem comfortable to spend a whole lot of time wandering around in Silent Hill as if it were a holiday resort, albeit on the miserable kind of day they don`t highlight in the brochures. Or maybe they`re just killing time waiting for the big exposition scene at the end when everything is supposed to make sense (complete with standard grainy film stock for that authentic `home movie flashback` feel) . Only it doesn`t, because give it a few minutes and you`ll find the final scene throws much of what`s been seen over the course of the two hours into question.

It should be mentioned that some of the dialogue is a little clunky. Actually, some of it`s a lot clunky. Sean Bean in particular gets the brown end of the stick here (although no-one is exempt from the bane of dodgy deliverance - especially the children). His phoney accent doesn`t help. Talking of Mr Bean, the film`s biggest flaw is that his character is completely unnecessary to the narrative. As the film moves between Rose`s search for her daughter and he in turn trying to find them, it dispels much of the tension as the focus shifts from the horrors inside Silent Hill to the relative safety of outside. Get rid of Sharpe`s scenes, trim the film down to a 100 minute running time, and you`d have a much more effective, flowing movie. It won`t fix all of the flaws, but it`d be a start in pulling the film along a tighter narrative.

All in all, It`s actually hard not to enjoy `Silent Hill`. A pretty girl running around dark, dingy environments with only a Zippo to light her way as a variety of creatures try to carve her up is always good fun. The art direction and cinematography are superb, and the music lifted from the game has that authentic dreamy tranquillity. There`s not a whole lot of sense to be made out of the first hour`s proceedings, and the attempts to clear everything up later will no doubt leave some viewers either annoyed or confused. But for fans of the game going in with an immediate understanding of the universe, it`s almost essential to check it out. Do you have to have played the games to enjoy it? No. But to get the best out of it you sure should`ve.