Sunday, July 27, 2014

The Silent Hill Movies


When it comes to talking about meaningful survival horrors out there, Silent Hill is one of the most respected franchise in that pantheon.

For does who don´t know, Silent Hill is (in the world of the games) a cursed town, a place where any person who steps foot in the place will live their worst fears, the town will know what are their worst nightmares are and will put them all in front of them. If the person is weak, is scared or don´t know what to do will be trapped in the town until he or she does what the town wants and that sometimes results in them going mad... on the flip side if the person is strong enough to overcome their fears, they won´t just walk away with their lives but also has a much better person.

The monsters the protagonist of the games find in their trek through the town are manifestations of their fears and insecurities, and this monsters will try to kill them, so it´s not only their pretense but also their capacity to kill what ultimately makes the town an actual ride through hell; their lives are in actual danger while they are there...

Now that I have given you a general idea of the games, let´s talk about the movies based on this games.

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The director behind the first film is not some director for hire they got, Christophe Gans is a fan of the video game series and before the movie, he was on a ongoing attempt to earn the rights to make a movie; so it feels great to know that he finally got his opportunity. For the most part the first movie is actually good... it´s far from being a great movie, but I can see a great deal of love and care that Gans put into making this movie.



The story fallows the plot of the first game; it introduces new elements my biggest complaint in this movie is the fact that they felt the need to replace the main character of Harry Mason for this "Rose Da Silva", and the reason is because the creators though that a father looking for his daughter was not has powerful has a mother looking for her daughter... Why? Does a father has no right to love his daughter? Is it too painful to look? If it worked in the game, why change it for the movie? It´s a really dumb decision and I don´t get it. The explanation for why they kidnap the child is also different than in the game, but it kinda makes sense within the world of the movie, although I still think that the game worked it very well (maybe even better). For all my ranting it must look like I hate this movie but I actually don´t, in my opinion, it´s one of the best movie adaptations of a game out there; is not a masterpiece and I would´t call it a great movie, but is a good fun little movie that deceivers it´s credit where credit is due.



Silent Hill: Revelations is the sequel to the original movie and if you are a fan of the franchise and you hate the first movie than you are gonna be discussed by this film. The story tries to be an adaptation of the game Silent Hill 3 has well has a sequel to the movie; makes sense considering in the game series, Silent Hill 3 is a direct sequel to the original video game, by continuing the story and giving it a worthy conclusion to it´s story... that´s not the case with this movie. It´s a disaster from the start; there is no substance, no style, no passion and no overall effort... it feels like the story was written in one draft and they just went with it; the characters are uninteresting and just complete idiots has well has all the changes in the characters made from the game is almost insulting. The motivations of the movie don´t fell genuine and the acting is pretty weak...

I have to point out that I have a sour spot for this one because Silent Hill 3 is one of my favorite video games of all time; I love the story, the characters, the atmosphere, the lore and the game itself is terrifying. When I see this movie, I feel like it´s making fun of not only this entry in the series but also franchise and the intelligence of the audience... weather you are a fan of the franchise or just a casual viewer; this movie is a definite skip...

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