Silent Hill threatrical trailer hits the web

[Great Rumbler]

http://movies.yahoo.com/movie/1808718754/trailer

THIS is how you make a videogame movie!!

Edit: High resolution trailer: http://mp3content01.bcst.yahoo.com/proot...764261.mov

[Dark Jaguar]

It shows promise, but there's the issue of those soldiers. This better not be some sort of "cover up" thing. I'm also surprised she was basically "allowed" to contact the outside world.

All I can say is it better not suck.

[Great Rumbler]

The crazy lady said "Only the Dark Once opens and closes the door to Silent Hill", Cybil says "The whole town is cut off", and there's a shot of the woman looking down into a pit where the road is split apart.

Considering the amount of effort they've put into keeping this true to the game, it's HIGHLY unlikely that's it's going to be some cover-up.

Also, remember the town is said to have been burned down at one point. Which suggest some sort of portal into hades that unleashed a demonic presence into the city. Or maybe not.

[Dark Jaguar]

Thing is, I really don't think this is supposed to be your typical hell. Seems more like an Eternal Darkness hell. The actual lava seems out of place in Silent Hill... A gaping maw into nothingness has it's merits too.

But that's all beside the point. The real question is this. Are they just tossing in fan service with those lines, or are they actually going to make it good? Sometimes "true to the original" doesn't really mean it'll be good. Besides, we already know this is it's own story and not really Silent Hill 1.

[Great Rumbler]

It's not Silent Hill 1, but it takes a lot from it.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Ehhhh, I don't know. The trailer had some cool parts, but some cheesy ones, too. Seems kinda iffy. If I saw it in the theatre and never played the game, I'd probably scoff.

I'll have to see it before really judging.

[Great Rumbler]

:shake:

[Dark Jaguar]

What? We both think it has potential, and that it needs to be seen first. That movie does not make it clear that it will be good at all. Are you taking it all on faith?

[Great Rumbler]

I'm taking it on the fact that the trailer looks really good compared to any videogame movie that's been made up to this point. And the fact that it actually looks like the director/writer know what they're doing instead of just slapping somethings together with the name of a videogame. Just in the trailer they've got a ton of things from several of the videogames. Also Chistrophe Gans and Roger Avery are hardly new to movies.

[Dark Jaguar]

You realize of course that the movie Doom was "true to the game" as well right? That's where my skepticism comes from. I'm not saying it will be bad, I'm saying that previous experience gives me reason to doubt it and I have no reason as of yet to believe it will be good. The preview really doesn't tell me it'll be all that great, at least not just yet. It does show promise, but I've been known to indulge in fantasy now and again. The worst I can be is wrong.

The movie I really want to see? Jesuszilla: Son of Godzilla

[Great Rumbler]

You realize of course that the movie Doom was "true to the game" as well right?

It was also from the director of Romeo Must Die and Cradle 2 the Grave.

I'm excited about this because I want to believe that we're finally going to be getting a good movie that's based on a videogame. That and the trailer looks pretty good.

[Dark Jaguar]

So that's what it boils down to. You WANT it to be true. :D

So do I, but I will reserve judgement.

[Sacred Jellybean]

Also Chistrophe Gans and Roger Avery are hardly new to movies.

Roger Avary wrote the script?! This movie's gonna fucking kick ass.

:D Nah, I still won't jump the gun, but the fact that Roger Avary has a hand in this gives me more hope. This very well could be the best video game movie ever made. Unfortunately, that still doesn't guarantee that it'll be good.

BTW, I haven't seen that Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within movie, so I can't really use that as a point-of-reference. I've heard good and bad things about it. *shrug*

[Great Rumbler]

Spirits Within was decent enough, but it was just too generic to be memorable. About the only thing it did well was the CG. Also, as a videogame movie it was terrible.

[A Black Falcon]

I thought FF:TSW was fine... FF-like? I don't know... but it was a perfectly decent CG film. Nothing really special, but not bad...

[lazyfatbum]

The script was pure ass but I think that's mostly because of its producers. The only thing that said "Final Fantasy" in the film was the title.

I think with this film, we'll see a more true-to-game story. But I have a feeling that they're going to go outside the 'It's all in your head' structure. Which as far as story goes in SH games is the only reason I enjoy them.

Kudos to the sound editor for using remixed music from the game for the trailer. Hopefully that's a sign of the film using alot of in-game music.

[Weltall]

I think with this film, we'll see a more true-to-game story. But I have a feeling that they're going to go outside the 'It's all in your head' structure. Which as far as story goes in SH games is the only reason I enjoy them.

Exactly.

I love this series to death. I've played through SH2 more than 70 times. I'm novelizing the game for fun, and I've written almost every bit of it totally from memory. I have a very good understanding of the series and its various storylines.

This game is definitely based heavily on SH1. I love the concept of the snow actually being ash, that's long been a theory among SH enthusiasts. The ash is supposedly from a fire that devastated half of the town, and it may or may not be related to the character Dahlia, whose house also burned down.

I did not like the idea of Rose being able to contact the outside world with a cell phone. That's a breaker. (Besides, SH1 took place in 1983, they didn't have phones like that back then).

The Hell of Silent Hill is actually unique to whichever person is creating it (as each Silent Hill's alternate reality is SOMEBODY's creation). In this case it's supposed to be Alessa's... I really love how they captured the look and feel of it. I ESPECIALLY love the shot of the army of demon nurses, frozen in motion like that. That was some hardcore attention to detail.

All in all I am guardedly optimistic about this movie.

[lazyfatbum]

I like that too, the 'frozen' nurses in SH1 are freaky as all hell. It's probably because they hadn't loaded yet but when you saw them in the dark just standing there and then suddenly doing their spasm-walk towards you is just plain goosebumpy.

As far as the cellphone, it's still possible to incorporate that in the story as a reference to something and not a real-world device. Just something she holds on to as hope to communicate.

[Weltall]

Well, the 'frozen' bit actually wasn't the nurses in the games so much. The Mannequins in SH2 would stand perfectly still and not set the radio off. In SH2's side story Born From A Wish, Maria navigates the Baldwin mansion, and it's populated with mannequins. Now, she doesn't have a radio or flashlight so it's pretty creepy already, but the mansion has a lot of narrow hallways and blind corners, and on Hard mode you constantly turn one only to run smack into a frozen mannequin. Without the radio, the only way you know when a monster is there is to listen for its movement. The mannequins make soft clicking noises whem they walk, but if they aren't walking, well... *shits pants*

[Great Rumbler]

I went back and booted up Silent Hill 1 just for fun. Here's similarities that I immediately noticed:

Cybil, the motorcycle cops, helps out the protagonist.

There's a weird looking cultish lady.

Air-raid siren signals the shift to bizarro Silent Hill.

The town is cutoff physically [although it seems that Rose calls the outside world with a phone].

That weird nurse woman. She's not in the trailer, but I've seen still images from the movie and it's definitely the same woman.



The car crash at the first happens almost exactly the same way.

Near the first the protagonists both chase a little girl they see in the distance.

[Dark Jaguar]

I noticed all the similarities myself. The ash thing was an interesting twist. I never heard of fans hypothesizing as much as such, but it is interesting.

Is the air raid siren predicting a change in the world, or not? In that preview, you WANT that to be the case, but it's just as likely that someone intentially set it off to get all the survivors to run to that place they are all cramming into in the preview.

I still don't know if those strange gas masked people are supposed to be from the outside world or are some sort of crazy bad guy, but I'm thinking the latter because the main character hides from them.

Ya know, this should have multiple endings, like the movie Clue!

[Great Rumbler]

I still don't know if those strange gas masked people are supposed to be from the outside world or are some sort of crazy bad guy, but I'm thinking the latter because the main character hides from them.

They're miners. Read this: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centralia%2C_Pennsylvania

Is the air raid siren predicting a change in the world, or not? In that preview, you WANT that to be the case, but it's just as likely that someone intentially set it off to get all the survivors to run to that place they are all cramming into in the preview.

I doubt that bring something like that from the first game and then turn around and use it in a completely different way. Also it's right after that that they have the scene where everything turns, also Cybil says "It's" coming. It perhaps being the monster [or whatever] that makes everything change as some have conjectures, or the change itself coming.

[lazyfatbum]

But there is no 'change', as the fears or god tries to contact you what you percieve to be reality is altered in to a mechanical hell which is all based on the fears of the characters in the story.

The air raid sirens always threw me, but Silent Hill was a place during the Civil War as a kind of conceptration camp where POW's were tortured. In SH2 you meet the people in charge of the torture who are Pyramid Heads but the Pyramids only appear when you sin in the game - when you a kill a person, a Pyramid head shows up. By the end of the game, two Pyramid heads haunt you. So the 'essense' of Silent Hill comes to life as the god is reborn in to the world thriving off the 'energy' of the place and its hosts and using it to attack anything that tries to stop it.

So, the miners could be a part of that 'essense', just as the nurses and mean children from the nightmares of the little girl who holds the unborn god.

[Great Rumbler]

But there is no 'change', as the fears or god tries to contact you what you percieve to be reality is altered in to a mechanical hell which is all based on the fears of the characters in the story.

In Silent Hill 1 the air raid siren sounds as you enter the alley, the farther you go the darker it gets and things start to get weird. That's what I'm talking about.

Also, I've looked closesly at the trailer and I'm now convinced that the people climbing the steps of the church when the air raid siren is going off are the same people that are seen in a flash back leading a little girl [Allesa?] somewhere.

[Undertow]

Saw the trailer, I hope the movie is going to be good.

And it's good that the director included the sirens and some of the music from the first game. I also severely doubt the miner people are human.

[lazyfatbum]

Obviously there's some misconceptions about the games here.

1.) Nothing in any of the games are real except for most of the main characters. Some, like the wife from SH2 for example are not real and are from god trying to trick him. All of the monsters are conceptualized versions of child hood fears. NOTHING in ANY of the games is real.

2.) The air-raid sirens probably have something either something to do with the fire that broke out in the town or are just there for a cool sound effects (though I doubt it since everything in SH is made as a symbol for something).

GR/ That 'weird' is the god communicating to you, trying to scare you out of Silent Hill because in reality you're still in a car unconscious after crashing it outside of Silent Hill. If you dont stop the god from being born, you'll never wake up. If you stop it, you wake up and find a baby, who you raise (and play as in SH3 - she still has the unborn god inside her). That 'weird woman' you find is the religious leader of this god who lives in the limbo world of Silent Hill (made by the god). The female officer you find and the nurse who tries to help you are both brought forth from the little girl who has the god inside her because she wants to help you.

There was a huge fire in the town, it was started by that little girl and she survived but just barely. She's been in a hospital all her life and she cannot die until she gives birth to god. So think of it this way.

In America there is a town where, during the Civil war was a concentration camp and peopl were mutilated and tortured severely. That 'mass of death' left a scar on the physical place. When the weird woman started to try and bring this god back in to the world, it created a safe-haven for itself inside the essense of Silent Hill (that negative energy). In the energy, there are memories of the people who once lived there who endured those tortures and horrible acts, so when the god feels threatened it uses these things against who ever is attacking it.

The only way you are able to figure any of it out and get through Silent Hill is because when the god takes a host, that host then becomes a living god. Whatever thoughts you have can become manifest. So suddenly you're being attacked by nurses because the little girl the god is inside of hates nurses and is afraid of them. But the little girl can use memories of anyone else it wants to help people, give clues, give you a path way or even send you people to help. The god then tries to destroy these things, but if you can make use of the clues gven to you, you can survive Silent Hill.

If the movie is going to emulate the games, then those miners are figments of the imagination from the characters (main character, god, etc). I've beaten SH1, watched Ryan beat SH2 and played through most of SH3 and then read the story of SH4 so please believe me I know what i'm talking about.

All of the monsters in every SH game has a purpose; They mean something deeper. They're not there just for looks. So Undertow, when you say "I bet they're not human" it's kinda "No shit" because NOTHING is real in Silent Hill.

Unless, of course, the film decides to change the context. Which will piss off many fans.

[Great Rumbler]

GR/ That 'weird' is the god communicating to you, trying to scare you out of Silent Hill because in reality you're still in a car unconscious after crashing it outside of Silent Hill. If you dont stop the god from being born, you'll never wake up.

I wasn't trying to attach any meaning to what I was talking about. I went and played Silent Hill 1 again and as you enter the alley and the world around you begins to shift this is denoted by the air raid siren. I assume it serves a similar purpose in the movie. That's all I was trying to say, not get into a big discussion about what everything means.

[lazyfatbum]

Well, the importance of what the things mean aren't like a Kubrick film where it's just hidden for people to find; it's the actual story. I just want people to have a clear understanding based on what little I know about the series compared to some of the uberfans out there. It's important because if those true meanings aren't present in the film, it will bomb. But if people dont even know the true meaning exist, then there's no point to even playing the games or watching the movie.

But yes the air raid sirens show up in several places along with Mr. Crusifix whom Ryan said was actually Harry I think (his sacrifice to save his daughter/his daughter's sacrifice) etc. But if the film goes all willy-nilly 'Just Cuz', i'm going to puke.

[Great Rumbler]

Some new info has surfaced as well as an interview with Christophe Ganz in this month's EGM.

EGM: Did the stigma of working on a videogame-based film deter you?

Christophe Gans: Of course it w as challenging, but it was impossible for me to do Silent Hill and not be serious about it. It’s much easier to adapt Doom, even if it turns out to be a disaster- as we’ve seen (recently)- then to adapt Silent Hill. If you want to adapt Silent Hill, you must be ready to face all of the complexity of the story. For a lazy director, like the one who directed Doom, Silent Hill would be too big of a piece to swallow. I dreamed of adapting this game when I first started playing the first one six years ago. I prepared for this for years, knowing that every fan in the world would wait for me with an ax. I will be sniped when I go to buy my games at my favorite store if I do a bad job. And I understand that. I’m a fan of the games myself-I admire the work of Akira and his friends, and I feel like someone who joined the group and tried to transport that amazing piece of art into a different medium. I love the fandom, and I understand these people and how tense they get when they hear, “Your favorite game is going to be adapted by some French guy.” (Laughs)

EGM: It’s impressive that you actually tackled the mythology of the games rather than creating a simpler story…was that something you intended from the project’s outset?

CG: Yes. Although, when we first decided to do Silent Hill, we wanted to base it on the second game. It was very natural, since that game is the favorite of every fan, and it’s the one with the most beautiful world, and it’s the most emotional on of all four. Ever gamer who finished the game knows what I’m talking about…it’s a very tragic and romantic game, and it’s a beautiful adaptation of the myth of Orpheus- going to hell to bring back his love, Eurydice. It was not a real Silent Hill, though; the town serves as the background to the story, but it’s not really about the mythology. So, when we decided to do the film, we realized that it was impossible to talk about Silent Hill and not talk about why this town is like that. So we realized that we had to adapt the first one.

Of course, we were facing the fact that the characters that we love so much were designed for games, and not to be played by real actors. It became readily apparent when we began to write the script and had to deal with the (main) characters, Harry Mason. We realized after two weeks in the writing process that Harry was actually motivated by feminine, almost maternal feelings. It’s not that he’s effeminate, but he’s acting like a woman. So, if we wanted to keep the character, we would have to change other aspects of him…so to be true to the character, we changed Harry into Rose. Essentially, all the people who love Silent Hill are more interested in seeing the mood and atmosphere of the games rather then if a certain character is wearing pants or a dress.

Also when we decided to adapt the characters of Cybil and Dahlia, we found it difficult, mainly because they appear only sparsely in the game. When you have to create a narrative arc for these characters, you have to work really hard to make them work on the big screen. I didn’t want to do what they did with Resident Evil: Apocalypse when they put Jill Valentine onscreen. I mean, that’s a perfect example: I love Jill Valentine…in the game, but not onscreen. I mean, I’m sorry, but just dressing a girl like her doesn’t make her the character.

EGM: Akria, what do you think of the additions Christophe has made to Silent Hill world?

Akira Yamaoka: After seeing the film, I think that Christophe has really expressed the core elements of Silent Hill, and he’s really kept the themes alive in this new medium. Silent Hill is not just a horror game; there is human drama rotted very deeply in the story, and I feel that he expressed that very well with the visuals, sounds, and atmosphere in the film. By watching the film, I Fell that you’ll get a clearer and deeper understanding of the world of Silent Hill, more so than by simply playing the games.

EGM: IT doesn’t help when a critic like Roger Ebert says that games are not art…

CG: F*** him. You know, I will say to this guy that he only has to read the critiques against cinema that the beginning of the 20th century. It was seen as a degenerate version of live stage musicals. And this was a time when visionary directors like Griffith were working. That means that Ebert is wrong. It’s simple. Most people who despise a new medium are simply afraid to die, so they express their arrogance and fear like this. He will realize that he is wrong on his deathbed. Human beings are stupid, and we often become a**holes when we get old. Each time a new medium appears, I feel that it’s important to respect it, even if it appears primitive or naïve at first, simply because some people are finding value in it. If you have one guy in the world who thinks that Silent Hill or Zelda is a beautiful, poetic work, then that game means something.

EGM: How did you tackle the concept of evil in Silent Hill?

CG: Because Silent Hill comes from a part of the world where the line between good and evil is blurred more so than in the West, it’s very interesting to deal with that. Since you haven’t seen the film, I don’t want to go too deeply into that, but I will say that for me, it was interesting to define what exactly is evil in the world of today. I think it’s an important question to raise. Until five years ago, we were living in a world that was a product of the Second World War. It was very clear that we were on the good side. But many things have happened in the last few years, and now people aren’t so sure about that.

In Silent Hill, I don’t attempt to answer these questions, but I do try to illustrate them. And I think it’s one of the most important objectives of the horror genre, to ask the right questions. Horror is actually a very political genre. Silent Hill is a very disturbing game, because you’re not just alone physically, but also alone morally. That’s the world of today. Each day, we’re forced to reevaluate our own morality.

EGM: You seem so passionate about this project…do you hope to helm a sequel?

CG: OF course, I would love to come back. And of course, Silent Hill 3 is a direct continuation of the first game’s plot…I think that it would be very possible to do a sequel to this film. As I said, Silent Hill is a complete mythology, and I did what I could in two hours, but I would love to tell much more about the Red Nurse, Claudia, and the Doctor. Plus, there is a fifth dimension of Silent Hill-how it existed in the 18th century, during the Salem witch-hunts. It’s so big and so interesting, and I would love to jump back on the horse.

SPOILERS AHEAD

SPOILERS AHEAD

SPOILERS AHEAD

Silent Hill was at WonderCon today where they screened a never before seen clip of a scene we got a glimpse of in the trailer with Rose and Cybil running up the stairs to the church to get away from "something". Here's one description of it:
There is some dialogue between Rose and Dahlia Gillespie. Rose says she has seen Alessa and she asks why Alessa looks exactly like her own daughter Sharon. It was hard to hear the dialogue clearly as it wasn't loud enough and I was sitting toward the back of the room.

The entire time the air raid siren is going in the background and people are running up the steps. One of them (a younger woman) stops and shouts something at Dahlia (it was hard to hear) and then the ground and everything around them starts to turn black. Rose runs up the steps and she and Cybil start to enter the school. Dahlia points at the younger woman and as Rose and Cybil enter the school, Pyramid Head makes it to the top of the stairs. He grabs the young woman by the neck, holds her up in the air, with a single pull tears her clothes off. Then he grabs the skin of her chest and twists it and then rips the skin off of her entire body. As Rose and Cybil slam the school doors shut, he throws the skin at them and it splatters against the door, with blood seeping underneath it.

There was an effect where some of it splatters on the camera as it splats against the door.

Movie-to-Game comparison: http://www.youtube.com/w/Silent-Hill-mov...%20trailer

[Great Rumbler]

It opens in just three days!!

[Dark Jaguar]

I notice they are advertising it as a movie with absolutely no reference to the game it was based on. Two reasons for this I think. Adding "based on the game" is not needed for anyone that would actually decide to see the movie because of that, because they already can tell based on the title alone. Further, I think it'll draw the non-gamer crowd a lot better if they think it is actually an original horror movie title.

But that won't stop me from cringing when some ignorant person next to me in some game store says "oh hey, they made a game out of that movie, wait, 4 games already?".

[Great Rumbler]

It doesn't really need to make reference to the game in the advertisements really. Silent Hill fans already know and people who've never played Silent Hill before won't care. In fact, it's a good thing that they DON'T, given the stigma that's attached to such movies.

[Dark Jaguar]

DID YOU EVEN READ MY POST?! IT WASN'T VERY LONG! I mean, I can't possibly imagine how you could just say that as a COUNTER to what I said if you actually READ what I said.

In case you are about to continue without reading my post, I SAID EXACTLY WHAT YOU SAID, EXACTLY!

[Great Rumbler]

...

[Weltall]

I wonder how possible it will be to enjoy myself when I go to see this movie. I have the distinct feeling that I'll be shouting at the screen a lot.

While you wait for the movie, read the book!

[lazyfatbum]

lmao DJ :D "WHY ARE YOU COUNTERING ME, YOU REPEATED EXACTLY WHAT I SAID"

[Great Rumbler]

Just got back from seeing Silent Hill and I'm here to tell you that it's a terrible disaster. All of monster look really fake, like some guy in a wet suit. That's how bad it is. The writing was very stiff and jumped all over the place and the acting was very wooden and emotionless. Pyramid head shows up ONCE and Cybill kills him with her pistol. It was the lamest thing I've ever seen. The events surrounding Silent Hill turn out to be some kind of government conspiracy where they test this new drug but things go wrong and they set the fires to cover their tracks. I was shaking my head in disgust the whole time. On top of that, they throw in some stupid heavy metal tracks for no apparent reason at all. Awful, just awful. I had a lot of hope for Christophe Gans, but it was seriously like watching a Uwe Boll sequel. All that stuff he spouted about staying true to the game was just garbash meant to appease fans. What a mess.



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Actually I'm kidding, the movie was awesome. :)

[The Former DMiller]

Haha, that was pretty good GR. You had me going there.

[Great Rumbler]

Do not doubt the genius of Christophe Gans and Roger Avary!!

[A Black Falcon]

http://rogerebert.suntimes.com/apps/pbcs...S/60421001

Ebert, unsurprisingly, is less than thrilled with it...

[Great Rumbler]

Ebert, unsurprisingly, is less than thrilled with it...

So are lots of critics, but you know what? They're all STUPID.

By the way, check these out:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rspmq72yd...o%20ending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4KyaaEyJk...o%20ending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_t5jZvH7x...o%20ending

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GUDcSeUvk...g%20ending

[A Black Falcon]

I've seen the dog ending one, pretty funny... :)