Silent Hill

Pretty much every film I have written about on here was a review after the film was released, I realized I haven't really hyped any film very much over the past couple years. This changed once I realized they were adapting the game "Silent Hill" into a movie. I've been following it as best I can and had been checking in on the progress being made every now and then, but frankly I didn't want to ruin any awesome surprises or stumble upon some spoiler that would ruin it for me. I can't hold it in anymore and this is probably my most highly anticipated film of this year and from what I've read and seen it seems like it will absolutely meet my expectations. So...let's begin!

"Silent Hill" was a horror-based video game released for Playstation in 1999. The game was released by Konami which, regardless of whatever they produce, will always be remembered by me as the producer of arcade games across the nation that proudly displayed the blue screen with the government's anti-drug message randomly. The game was well received, however, it was often compared to "Resident Evil" which had pretty consistently received better reviews. The difference I found, while playing these games, is that while "Resident Evil" would spook me with something shocking, "Silent Hill" felt like it had an overall creepier atmosphere that I found more entertaining. The series then continued with the games "Silent Hill 2," "Silent Hill 3," and "Silent Hill 4: The Room," and eventually the film was announced. I was wary of the film because each of the games changed the cast of characters and also because I have seen both (and own both) "Resident Evil" movies. I then began reading articles that changed my mind and I am totally confident in this film.

Christophe Gans is directing the film, his major credit right now is "Brotherhood of the Wolf" which was an enjoyable film about a wolf-like creature in 18th Century France that likes to eat people. I still wasn't totally confident in the film crew until I began reading gossip which turns out to later be confirmed, that the team making the movie actually met with the creator of the original "Silent Hill" game Akira Yamakoa and discussed the ideas surrounding the game. That alone was enough to make me convinced that Monsieur Gans actually was going to make a decent movie and that it wouldn't be an Uwe Boll film, a "Street Fighter," "Mortal Kombat," or pretty much any video game to film adaptation ever. Besides that, Akira Yamakoa is also credited as being the composer for the film which leads me to believe that he made sure the feel he gave the games will be retained in the film. Finally, I have not found any confirmation (because I haven't really investigated it that much) but most rumors state that there were "3 people from Konami on set at all times to give input and review the dailies." A video game company that actually cares about what happens to their license in the hands of someone else? HOLY SHIT! My mind was now made up that this would in fact be better than "Garfield 2: A Tale of Two Kitties."

Then I viewed the trailer online (http://www.apple.com/trailers/sony_pictures/silenthill/index.html) and felt that this film will not butcher the name of Silent Hill but will further help it to maintain its place as one of the best puzzle/horror/awesome titles ever. I recommend watching the trailer rather than reading the IMDb description because frankly, the IMDb description makes the premise sound incredibly stupid. While watching the trailer a second time, something caught my eye...PYRAMID HEAD!

For everything you've ever wanted to know about Pyramid Head, you can read here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pyramid_Head but I'll give some basic information so you can get a feel for the guy...er...thing. He's a creature that looks like a human male, he's about 8 feet tall or so, and wears a giant fucking pyramid on his head. The pyramid resembles the executioners' hoods that executioners in the town used to wear, and he wears outfits made of human flesh. He's got a massive machete and everytime you encounter him the game he's either raping something, killing it, and in general is probably one of the best characters in a video game ever. Here's a couple better pictures of him:



Since I posted the poster of Pyramid Head (which didn't win), let's discuss the brilliant idea Sony developed for the poster. Sony decided to hold a contest where fans create movie posters for the film and the winner will get his or her idea chosen for one of the final Silent Hill posters. This not only allows fans to make posters which will tempt other fans of the film but also allows for Sony to save a shit ton of money by saving them the cost of hiring a professional designer to make a poster. Brilliant!

Anyway, basically this entire post was an excuse to post the above two images and in general just express my incredible level of anticipation for this film. This film could easily become one of the cheesiest, stupidest movies ever in the hands of someone like Uwe Boll, however, I feel that this film, even for people that have not played the games, will stand up as an excellent horror film, which there has been a major lack of in the last couple of years, on its own.