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Rating: The universe of Silent Hill is a waking nightmare, metallic noises, blood and rust, fog and blurred shadows, a slow and painful melody that devours the soul in the middle of nowhere. This wonderful nightmare lasted all too briefly when Team Silent decided to sleep peacefully and leave this nightmare in the hands of others, often unprepared to create a new chapter in the saga. We witnessed its slow decline after an anxiety-inducing and disturbing third chapter and a fourth very experimental one, where the programmers dared much more, a distorted nightmare criticized by the purists of the saga. After that, only the blurred shadow of hell made video game, with titles that succeeded only partially and a few highs (e.g., shattered memories of 2008).
In 2006, the French director Christophe Gans decided to adapt the video game into a film, scripted by Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction). If I were a director, I would personally have envied Gans because he had so much top-quality material in his hands: Silent Hill is a well of symbolisms, psychology, terror.
It could have been an excellent film. Unfortunately, despite the concept and the atmosphere of the original games being perfectly represented (thanks to stunning cinematography), the "juice" of the plot was poorly squeezed. Or perhaps that juice was not "commercial" enough for a vast, mostly Western audience...
If you played the first episode, the beginning might feel familiar: Sharon, a girl with nighttime problems (recurring nightmares, sleepwalking), often dreams of a "ghost" town, Silent Hill. The mother, after several episodes of this kind, decides to take her to that place to evoke a memory or something that might help little Sharon to heal, but the foggy purgatory hides many secrets. There is an actual "cult" whose task is to destroy evil, personified by the "pagan God" created by the nightmares of their victim Alessa, a girl resembling Sharon in every way.
A plot that initially maintains high levels is weakened towards the middle of the film, reworking the original. Why? Was it necessary for Silent Hill? It's not about creating a new product, but an existing one, which, if transposed faithfully enough, could have been perfect in a film. Moreover, the idea of witches was marginally rendered even for Silent Hill, which was packed with mysticism and symbolism (particularly the second one), and here it is practically nonexistent. Also marginal are the historical figures of the series: Pyramid Head (also played by an Italian) appears little and seems like a flashy and super Saiyan version (???) of Leonidas in "300" (silly comparison, but it was to say "let me throw in the villain for the coolest scenes" -quote producers-) and Lisa appears for only a couple of seconds, yet I must admit that her scene gives us a slight shiver indeed.
Surely the disappointment was high given the name behind the screenplay. Avary had a different opinion on writing the story: according to him, for Silent Hill, the most important things are the settings and their transformations (the otherworld) alongside suspense and pathos.
The problem is that the almost purely aesthetic factor cannot be the salvation of a film (unless everything is concentrated solely on it, see "Tree of Life") and Silent Hill is not just that but much more. Only that Avary probably had the Sega Saturn at home and would have gone to play the chapters at his friends' house, what can I tell you...
For the rest, we still remain at good levels of acting and special effects (even if not very "real") and, most importantly, Sean Bean does not die in this film! Nice!
What a shame indeed. A golden opportunity to see a little masterpiece lost. It remains a well-directed and well-adapted film (at least until halfway through) but far from being unforgettable. And the sequel sucks, but that's no surprise.
We want to remember Silent Hill like this. Happy nightmare to all ;-)
Rating 6.5|10
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