Starring: Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Jodelle Ferland, Deborah Kara Unger, Alice Krige, Kim Coates.
Director: Christophe Gans.
From the director of the gorgeous movie-that-doesn't-end Brotherhood Of The Wolf comes a video game adaptation that, at least in my addled memory(more on that in a moment) was far better than it had any right to be. I saw it in a pretty packed theater and enjoyed myself. It's been awhile since I've sat down and watched it but, as I alluded to earlier, I'm not really in the mindset to watch anything that will require more than 50% of a video game life-point bar(or whatever you call 'em) so this will do.
I'm super tired from becoming (gasp!) a morning person despite every fiber of my being despising that exact routine, plus a bunch of really heavy postmodernist philosophy reading on Becoming-Animals and Sorcerers and the primacy of the alpha-who-is-not-actually-important and whatever the hell else. But I've fallen impossibly behind on this project, basically to the point of this becoming completely meaningless, but I suppose it's important to me to go the distance and I need to get back on the horse. So, with all that in mind: here's friggin' Silent Hill.
I kind of meant to do this after I watched the actually-occasionally-kind-of-okay Dark Matter show, where Jodelle Ferland shows that she apparently grew up and stuff but, alas, I didn't get to it then. But here she is as a child-Christ, this movie is ten years old, you guys-shrieking names of spooky towns in the face of Radha Mitchell. This activity is now on my bucket list: if I die before shrieking SILENT HILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL in the face of Radha Mitchell, I will come back as my own dark-twin-thingy in a burning town and...man, I don't know if I can even describe the plot of this movie in a precise enough manner to actually form a joke.
That was, in the end, what I think attracted to me to the film overall a decade ago: the movie has a sort of unbridled insanity that was kind of charming. My relationship with the game series (well, video games in general, really: they never were entirely my thing) is convoluted: I had a great time playing the original game with a friend where we took turns controlling the dude, shrieking at the bizarre imagery and monsters, and working together on puzzles. I think I watched a friend play bits and pieces of the second one. Then, when I picked up my PS3(which is basically just a big box that makes my netflix and WWE network happen, and lets me watch Blu-Rays), I bought one of the later games (uh, "Downpour," maybe?) and played for about seven hours before becoming immensely irritated at my inability to find an in-game soda machine that, for whatever reason, would allow me to cross a fence or something even though I totally had a goddam axe, you guys.
But, anyway, the movie: Gans obviously has affection for the source material, as evidenced by the total transplant of the games score (which is pretty excellent: the main theme of Silent Hill still remains my favorite video game song ever) and visual cues lifted directly from gameplay (I don't think we could have asked for a better film representation of that familiar white-out fog and drifting ash). I'm not going to be the guys who complains about the gender reversal of the lead-in the game, Dad is the hero-even though I would have watched the shit out of a movie that featured Sean Bean punching weird zombie creatures in the face. Instead we have Radha Mitchell, who is an excellent actress in her own right, still rocking the trademark brown trenchcoat of the games hero. Mitchell is also refreshingly unsexualized in the film, too-even if my Postmodernist class would probably argue that, in lieu of her being a sexual object she is instead a Mother, but I'm not going to get into that-sporting a pretty solid "final girl" look of sensible clothes, hair and footwear.
Along with Radha, we have the excellent Laurie Holden as Cybil, whose appearance is also directly lifted from the game. I often think of her introduction in this film, as it's one of the simplest yet most effective introductions of a character I've seen: she hears little Sharon protesting and, being a good cop and a compassionate human being, comes to investigate. When she asks Sharon a question, Sharon rolls up the window and says "don't talk to strangers." Cybil smiles and quietly says "Good girl." With that one scene, we totally understand Cybil and why she becomes involved. To an outside observer, after all, Rose's stressed demeanor and Sharon's hysterics would be textbook signs of abduction or abuse.
I will say that the visual effects of this film don't entirely hold up, but that's really not any fault of the film. Times have changed, technology has advanced, and the simpler forms of green screen are awfully glaring. But so is the green screen used for the Star Wars prequels and those were state-of-the-art where this movie probably cost just over a million to produce. There is a nice use of practical effects whenever possible, though, such as Rose seeing the man with the gas mask strung up on the fence. It's a great image (the entire scene is ripped directly from the opening of the game), and the sudden arrival of weird monsters (in a particularly massive swarm) and the admirable use of sound (causing it to drop out, simulating a ringing in the ears) is a pretty intense one. I can't imagine what the reaction of an audience that was entirely unfamiliar with the source material would have been. But, really, I think this movie's best quality is that it specifies fan service while sacrificing as little quality as possible, and without being condescending or overwhelmingly self-aware. This movie knows EXACTLY who its audience is, and doesn't feel the need to be ashamed of that, and that's admirable.
However, if this movie has a failing, it's the mostly meaningless, flailing Sean Bean subplot. I understand the need for historical exposition-which is the only function of the subplot (along with, I suppose,the specification of alternate realities but...I think we probably could have put that together)-but really it never picks up steam. It's mostly just the following repeated over and over again:
Sean Bean: How do I get to Silent Hill?
Rando: You can't.
(Sean Bean looks perplexed and, eventually, frustrated. Also:concerned.)
They even manage to keep the maps and bus stop element in this film and have it make sense within the narrative (Rose doesn't know the town, after all), which is rather neat. There's some strong set design here, too, when they aren't green screening (which, blessedly, seems to be kept to a minimum): the creepy, dilapidated hallways, offices and hotel rooms not only look good for settings ripped from an atmospheric video game but for a horror flick in general. It's true that they are a bit generic (the game is mostly responsible for this, and that can't be helped, really) but they look well-thought out and carefully constructed. Hmm, it apparently was designed by the guy who also did a bunch of set design for Guillermo Del Toro, including Crimson Peak, so that makes sense.
Oh, man, the scene with the razor-wired Janitor in the bathroom stall is gold. Sure, it's entirely based on the simple audience expectation of a jump scare and, as such, is rather manipulative, but it has a strong pay off. She knows she needs the key from the dead dudes mouth and slowly moves in to take it. Nothing happens. She attempts to leave the bathroom and is spotted by creepy dudes in gas masks, so she goes back into the bathroom when the familiar siren hits and the dead Janitor becomes some weird shrieking razor-wire spider beast thing. It's unfortunate that the "otherworld" effects were largely unachievable without CGI, as the transition and most of the visual effects required greater things than set designers are capable of (though the make-up effects on the monstrous Janitor are excellent, and they do manage some sets quite capably in smaller sequences). I think sometimes this movie does get too reliant on video game nods but, again, I'm not going to begrudge a video game adaptation the desire to LOOK like the video game it's adapting, even if it does make for an occasionally weaker film in spots.
I know Pyramid Head is really big with the fanbase but...he is kinda absurd. I mean, that massive sword and...he's just silly. I will admit that he was scary the first time we saw him in the video game, but really it was only because he was this random entity with no explanation wandering around looking menacing. Plus, y'know, you couldn't kill him. In the film he just doesn't have the same effect. I know he was necessary and all but...man, it's just not as cool.
I had said I don't want to get too heavily into gender roles (more than I had to, I suppose) and I don't, but there is the slightest hint of nuclear family roles placed onto Rose (Wife/Mother) and Cybil(Husband/Father) throughout the narrative. It almost makes me wish that they HAD kept the male lead, if only so that dynamic could have continued unchanged(as in, Chris as Wife/Mother and Cybil as Husband/Father). It isn't super pronounced at any rate, for which I am very grateful as that could get pretty messy if directly approached. But even the simple image of Rose in a skirt and Cybil in a cop uniform does relay certain symbols, if even unintentionally. I think it's a good thing, though: Women playing both sides of traditional(emphasis on "traditional" not "correct") gender conventions is actually pretty progressive.
Maybe it's the exhaustion talking but this movie seems to have really slowed down a lot in the third act. I know it's getting to be exposition time but...well, cutting to Sean Bean dropped a lot of dramatic tension, and this halting conversation between Rose and Alessa really isn't super riveting, either. Maybe it's also the somewhat random insertion of a new character, too. I don't think we needed this Anna character to go all Amanda Plummer for a few minutes. I need to watch So I Married An Axe Murderer again at some point. I had a huge crush on Nancy Travis for, like, five minutes when I was Eleven. Also liked Lea Thompson. Those crushes feel like they say something about me...
Yeah, Anna really wasn't needed. Any rando could have had their skin ripped off by Pyramid Head, really: the visual is really all that was intended but they just inserted her as a plot device anyway. The entire Cult thing does feel kind of extraneous but, again, the film needed more plot cohesion than the video game did (since the game is play based and is SUPPOSED to take time, and functions on entirely different narrative conventions, such as puzzles and strategic combats), and a hook for the last half. But, at least we have Alice Krige, who is a national treasure. I'm not sure anyone does the combination of creepy and kooky quite like Krige. Maybe Marcia Gay Harden as Mrs.Carmody in The Mist is as good, but Krige made a career of it. I mean, seriously: Sleepwalkers, Star Trek:First Contact, Habitat, the list goes on. She has that weird, interesting little mouth and those razor cheek bones.
Apparently my memories of this film were entirely based on remembering the good stuff and forgetting everything else. That unbridled insanity I spoke about at the beginning was what I retained, and had forgotten about the clunky exposition and meandering cult backstory. It's almost like the movie literally stalls its engine, too: no sooner have the characters left the spooky cult church then Christophe Gans decides to get creative with the camera. I think there was some intention of creating a sense of calm within the church but, if that was the intent, it fails pretty solidly and (worse) just stops the movie in its tracks. But I think it picks up from here, though.
I feel like the in-movie mythology is kind of lacking, too: the two realities and dual natures and all that is actually quite muddy. Performances and energy keep it from entirely falling apart, primarily by keeping the viewer too stimulated to look too closely at the script problems. I know, I know, it's all borne out by the game (for the most part, anyway) and it's magic horror movie stuff but still...the presentation of plot is still sorely lacking. But, who cares when you get those weird motion-sensor nurse demon zombies? I mean, really.
 |
| Fffffuuuuckkk.... |
And then clumsy backstory flashback. Eh. I've seen worse, I suppose...but still. Other than the shock value of lighting Jodelle Ferland on fire-and that IS pretty harsh-it's mostly pretty atypical dramatic irony...but, yeah, the totally horribly burned kid and all that IS pretty rough. Not sure what the crinkly, old-timey film stock is about, either. It's stylish but doesn't really add anything. Couldn't Alessas' weird little deal with the devil couldn't, y'know, fix horrible burns and that shit? I get that she split her good side off for some reason but, still, you could have at least enjoyed the hell you rained on your tormentors instead of maintaining the appearance of a char-broiled steak and laying in a tiny dirty room at the center of a basement.
Cybil's death is another of those "unbridled insanity" moments that tend to speak to me as a movie goer. In a different film I may have protested at the inclusion of the scene because it is pretty manipulative and, if I'm being honest, a little unnecessary but there's something about this movie that justifies its own aggression in a way that isn't contemptuous or attempting to willfully harm its audience. Maybe it's the commitment to camp that does peak its head out here and there, or maybe its because of the simple fact that it's a video game adaptation. In the end it's probably a combination of those elements and just the fact that its non-video game influences are rooted in B-movie values. Plus it sets up the totally over-the-top slaughter scene that makes up the climax and, hey, the movie needed that big time by this point.
It is somewhat odd that this film manages to walk a lot of lines without crossing over certain unwanted territory. Like I said, there's some camp(as soon as Dark!Alessa shows up with chainlink razor wire, loud Organ music just leaps with reckless abandon into the soundtrack. How that can that NOT be intended to be tongue-in-cheek?), there's a LOT of aggression, there's even a great deal of silliness but it keeps itself grounded, at least until it decides to just go for it (like Alice Krige getting razor wire up the bajingo and torn apart from the inside out, only for Dark!Alessa to dance gayly under the falling blood...I remember sitting and the theater and laughing out loud at the moment, and not out of humor but out of some weird "I don't know what I'm seeing anymore" hysteria). I mean, this climax couldn't be any less subtle if it wanted to be. Clearly, it doesn't. But that audacity and aggression is paid off nicely by that abandon in the end.
The film's final moments don't really work for me, though. Once the chaos has ended and we have the whole "stuck in an alternate reality" thing...just kind of leaves me cold. Not the most satisfying way to end such an insane film.
Final Thoughts: Taken for what it is (which is, let's face it, a video game adaptation. No judgement, it's just that it is), Silent Hill works considerably better than it has any right to. By all accounts, this movie should have been unwatchable (if we learned anything from Doom and Super Mario Bros and countless others, it's that Hollywood doesn't have a great track record with video game films) but still manages to be a lot of different things for a lot of different people, and that's no small feat. The actors all seem to be pretty committed, as does the production team and (most importantly) the director, not only to making a good horror film but a good adaptation to boot. Not everything works: a really clumsy and even a little dull third act, occasionally underwhelming effects, muddy story...but, there are enough inspired moments of lunacy to keep things going. It's no classic, but it's certainly an entertaining enough watch.
Final Rating: Three Stars.
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