Silent Hill (film)
| Silent Hill | |
|---|---|
 Official promotional poster for Silent Hill | |
| Directed by | Christophe Gans |
| Written by | Roger Avary Christophe Gans Nicolas Boukhrief |
| Produced by | Samuel Hadida Don Carmody Konami Team Silent |
| Starring | Radha Mitchell Sean Bean Laurie Holden Jodelle Ferland Deborah Kara Unger Alice Krige Tanya Allen Kim Coates |
| Cinematography | Dan Laustsen |
| Edited by | Sébastien Prangère |
| Music by | Jeff Danna Akira Yamaoka |
| Distributed by | TriStar Pictures (USA, Argentina) Focus Features (Australia) Pathé (UK theatrical) 20th Century Fox (UK DVD) Paramount Pictures (Spain) Alliance Atlantis (Canada) |
Release dates | April 21, 2006 |
Running time | 127 mins |
| Language | English |
| Budget | $50 million[1] |
Silent Hill is a 2006 horror film directed by Christophe Gans and written by Roger Avary. The film follows a mother who takes her troubled daughter to Silent Hill, the town the girl cries out for while sleepwalking. After being knocked unconscious in a car crash outside the town, she awakens to find her daughter missing and the town engulfed in a parallel reality of fog and falling ash. While searching for her daughter, she faces surreal reality shifts and suffering creatures while uncovering her daughter's connections to the town's dark secrets.
The film is an adaptation of Konami's famous Silent Hill survival horror video game franchise. The story, primarily based on the first Silent Hill game, also includes elements from Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3.[2]
Plot
The film opens with Rose and husband Christopher Da Silva (Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean) rescuing their troubled, adopted daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) from sleepwalking near a cliff. Sharon cries out for the town of "Silent Hill!". Desperate for answers, Rose takes Sharon to Silent Hill, despite Christopher's opposition due to dangerous underground coal fires in the town. During a rest stop, Rose finds that Sharon's drawings have been disturbingly altered. Sharon's cries alert a suspicious nearby police officer. As they leave, the officer attempts to pull Rose over. Spotting the turnoff to Silent Hill, Rose evades the officer. Rose swerves off road to avoid a young girl walking in the street and is knocked unconscious. Rose awakens in a limbo world of fog and falling ash.[3] With Sharon nowhere to be found, Rose enters nearby Silent Hill, where she chases the girl that she swerved to avoid (Alessa Gillespie), who resembles Sharon. An air raid siren blares and the town shifts into a dimension of darkness, a representation of hell.[3] She is soon assaulted by disfigured, burning children (the Gray Children) and passes out. She awakens to the dimension of fog and runs back to her car, only to be met by a large chasm cutting the road. She meets a ragged women named Dahlia (Deborah Kara Unger) who speaks of the terrible things done to her daughter Alessa by the townspeople. Rose makes it to her car and finds a drawing of a school. She calls Christopher for help, who only receives enough fragments of her message to know where to search for her. When he arrives near Silent Hill, he is stopped by Officer Thomas Gucci (Kim Coates), who agrees to help Christopher search.
Rose is found and arrested by Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), the officer she evaded. Cybil defends herself from the straitjacket creature (the Lying Figure) while Rose flees for Midwich Elementary School. Rose spots Alessa (Jodelle Ferland) and chases her into a school restroom. She finds a corpse bound in barbed wire wearing the name tag "Colin". Rose pulls a stone from his mouth that reads "The Grand Hotel" as the siren sounds and the world shifts into darkness. Colin reanimates and approaches Rose, who runs in terror and falls out of a window in an attempt to escape. As she regains her senses, The Red Pyramid (Pyramid Head) appears, frightening her. She runs away, passing Christopher who searches for her in the real world. He feels her presence, which gives him hope. Back at the school, Cybil pulls Rose into a barred room that The Red Pyramid attempts to enter. He soon departs as the darkness recedes. Back in the foggy dimension, they agree to head to the hotel to search for Sharon. Meanwhile, Christopher is ordered to go home after a failed search. Distrustful of Gucci, Chris breaks into Brahams' Hall of Records, where he finds information on Alessa. The police reports detail how she was burned with the town thirty years ago. Gucci follows him and arrests him for breaking and entering. He warns Christopher to let matters rest and releases him.
Cybil and Rose arrive at the hotel, where they meet Anna (Tanya Allen), a member of the religious cult. Cybil finds a clue in the mailbox and head for Room 111, where a painting depicting a witch burning is found. Anna mentions that the room is related to the first burning in Silent Hill. Inside, they leap to the neighboring building via a hole in the wall, where Rose encounters Alessa again and chases her. The siren blares as Anna cries out that they need to find sanctuary at the church. Upon arriving, they encounter other cultists running inside as well, summoned by the air raid siren mounted atop the church's bell tower. The Red Pyramid materializes behind Anna and Rose and Cybil watch in horror as The Red Pyramid kills Anna with his bare hands. Rose and Cybil escape inside the church, where the cult immediately condemns them as witches. Christabella (Alice Krige), head of the cult, silences them as she discusses Rose's situation. Christabella states that the demon, who resides in the town's hospital, holds the answers. At the hospital, a flashlight is given to Rose. Christabella returns Rose’s locket that was torn off in an earlier scuffle with the cult. She notices the picture inside of Sharon and declares that the child is a likeness of Alessa. The cult convict her as a witch as Cybil fends them off. Rose takes a broken elevator to the basement, where she finds her path is blocked by a number of disfigured nurses. Rose uses her flashlight to distract them as she escapes into a room past them. The screen turns white.
A girl praises Rose for following her clues and she tells her story. Alessa was a child born out of wedlock, the fatherless daughter of Dahlia. One day while being tormented by her classmates, Alessa escapes to the bathroom, where she is molested by the janitor Colin. The religious community of the town agrees that Alessa needed to be purified because of the "sin" she held. It is revealed that the community of the town is a puritanical witch burning cult. Inside the Grand Hotel, where the church held their cleansing ritual, Alessa was chained and burned. One of the chains broke and knocked the fire pot over, causing the fire to burn out of control. Dahlia returns with the police to find the hotel empty. A young Gucci frees Alessa and she is taken to the hospital and placed in an Intensive Care Unit. The voice is then revealed as "Dark Alessa", the girl Rose has been chasing. She explains that Sharon is a split of her innocence and good, and was hid at the orphanage and subsequently adopted by Rose and Christopher. Dark Alessa declares that the current state of the town is a personification of Alessa's nightmares, and they will not end until she gets revenge. Rose, wanting to save Sharon, gives herself as a vessel for Alessa to enter the church, which she cannot enter because of the cult's blind faith. Meanwhile, the cultists find Sharon hiding with Dahlia and both are brought to the church, where Cybil is tied up and burned alive.
Rose enters the church and and is stabbed by Christabella in the chest with a dagger. Dark Alessa frees herself from Rose's body through her blood. Rose's wound is apparently healed. The blood spreads, bringing the darkness and rotting away the floor from which adult Alessa, in her hospital bed, rises. She uses her barbed wire supports to exact her revenge upon the cultists of Silent Hill. Rose frees Sharon and shields her eyes, who peeks to see Dark Alessa peering down at her. Sharon passes out. Rose, Sharon, and Dahlia are the only survivors left in the foggy world. Rose and Sharon enter their car, which now starts. The road reappears and they leave the town. Their dimension is still shrouded in fog, including their hometown. Christopher naps at home in the real world as Rose and Sharon, still apparently invisible to him, enter the house. Though they occupy the same space, they are still separated. Template:Endspoilers
Cast
- Radha Mitchell as Rose Da Silva, the desperate mother who seeks a cure for her daughter Sharon's nightmarish sleepwalking by taking her to the town of Silent Hill. Director Christophe Gans said that casting the lead for the film is "a matter of feeling. If you play Silent Hill you know that each character has a very special poetic quality. They are both twisted and sophisticated. We tried to keep that in mind when we did the casting on this film."[2]
- Sean Bean as Christopher Da Silva, the father of Sharon and husband of Rose who opposes his wife's decision to find answers in Silent Hill. Bean's role in the film was originally kept to the beginning and the end of the movie, but due to studio pressure for a male lead, his role was expanded into a subplot.[4]
- Jodelle Ferland as Sharon Da Silva, the adopted, troubled daughter of Rose and Christopher, and Alessa Gillespie, the tormented daughter of Dahlia who was burned alive by the cult of Silent Hill. Gans saw Ferland as "the ideal actress" after viewing the television show Kingdom Hospital and her screen test for Terry Gilliam's film Tideland (film).[5]
- Laurie Holden as Cybil Bennett, the motorcycle cop from the city of Brahams who becomes suspicious of Rose and follows her into Silent Hill. Gans casted Holden after seeing her in The Majestic. Gans states, "in [The Majestic], she was beautifully feminine and I cast her so I could show her other side, make her strong and sleek. Laurie on the screen is, for me, a perfect manga image brought to life."[6]
- Deborah Kara Unger as Dahlia Gillespie, the mother of Alessa who walks the foggy dimension of Silent Hill after giving her daughter up for sacrifice.
- Alice Krige as Christabella, the leader of the cult of Silent Hill. To prepare for her role, Krige read the book The End of Days by Erna Paris, a book about tyranny during the Spanish Inquisition. [6]
Production
Director Christophe Gans attempted for five years to obtain the film rights to Silent Hill from Konami. He sent a video interview to them explaining his plans for adapting Silent Hill and how important the games are to him.[7] They were so impressed, he was rewarded with the film rights. Konami Japan and Team Silent, the development team responsible for the Silent Hill game series, became directly involved with the production of the film from the pre-production stage all the way to the post-production stage. In 2004, Gans and Roger Avary began writing the script, which would be the first film in a series of Silent Hill films.[8]
Writer Roger Avary had said that as a boy, his father, who was a mining engineer, used to tell him stories about the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, United States where coal deposits from the local mine caught fire and released toxic gases into the town. This forced the majority of inhabitants to evacuate forever. Avary was fascinated since childhood by the idea that fires underneath the town would be burning for such a long time and the story of Centralia was used as the basis for the township of Silent Hill.[5] When the script was finished, a studio memo was sent to Gans and Avary that voiced concerns about the lack of a male presence in the film, since the original story contained a nearly all female cast. Gans and Avary added Christopher's character (named after Gans) and subplot and the script was approved.[4]
The film was greenlit on September 19 2003, and was filmed in both Brantford, Ontario and Hamilton, Ontario as well as on sound stages in Toronto, Ontario in 2005. The film is considered a France-Canada-Japan co-production. Later, American studio Sony bought the distribution rights for $14 million for the United States and Latin America to be released under its TriStar genre film subsidiary.
The movie was filmed in Super 35 video format, except the scenes with the darkness, which were filmed in High-definition,[2]because of its ability to cleanly capture light and digitally manipulate it in post production. The film contains around 107 different sets[9] specifically used to represent the different versions of the town. The bipedal creatures in the film were played by professional actors or dancers covered in latex and makeup. After filming, over 619 visual effects shots were used in the film,[10] with the most prominent uses being the fog that drenches the town, the transitions to darkness, and the insects that surround Red Pyramid. Some of the creatures were also touched up in post-production, with CGI effects such as the burning on the Grey Children, the changes in the dimensions of the Armless creature's legs, the disease that the Janitor spreads, and the barbed wire during Alessa's revenge. However, most of what is seen on film existed physically during production.
Budgetary concerns caused a few scenes in the film to be rewritten. The meeting of Anna in the film had been envisioned differently. It originally featured Anna being attacked by an injured armless creature, where she is saved by Cybil and Rose. Due to budget concerns, the scene was simplified and rewritten.[4] As well, Gans stated that his original vision of the film's finale revolved around six Red Pyramids appearing inside the church, each carrying a different weapon, and slaughtering the cult members in reference to Dante's Inferno.[4] When budgetary constraints prevented this ending from being filmed, he created the new ending that revolved around the barbed wire slaying of the cult by Alessa, which was inspired by the erotic anime called Legend of the Overfiend.[4]
Reception
Rotten Tomatoes shows a freshness rating of 26% (with a 0% rating from the 'Cream of the Crop' critics),[11] and Metacritic's average review score is 30 out of 100.[12] The film shows a user freshness rating of 58% at Rotten Tomatoes,[13] an average user score of 8.2 out of 10 at Metacritic,[12] and a weighted IMDb average of 6.5.[14]
The film opened in 2,932 theaters and earned $20,152,598 domestically on its opening weekend and opened at number one at the US box office. As of January 3, 2007 the film has grossed $46,982,632 domestically and $97,576,444 total worldwide.[1] Silent Hill is in the top 10 video game film adaptations listing on Box Office Mojo (from 1980 to present). Silent Hill is at #6, between #5, Resident Evil: Apocalypse which grossed domestically $51,201,453 and #7, Pokémon: The Movie 2000 which grossed domestically $93,758,684.
According to The New York Daily News, the film's poster of a mouthless Sharon was the subject of some vandalism in New York City, Los Angeles and elsewhere, with many artists drawing cartoon mouths (smiling, screaming, sporting vampire fangs, etc.) or placing stickers where her mouth would be.[15]
Relationship to the video games
Although the film is an adaptation of the first game, it does contain numerous connections to the rest of the series, many of which are purely thematic or aesthetic similarities to the games' distinctive style. There are also various features which appear to be direct translations of their in-game counterparts. Concerning these, Christophe Gans has stated that the film is an adaptation of the first game, with the emotional melancholy of the second, mixed with the dialogue delivery of the third, with some camera movement inspired by the fourth.[7]
Characters
Many of the characters from the original Silent Hill video game appear in the film. Director Christophe Gans has described the protagonist Rose Da Silva as a female version of the Silent Hill video game protagonist, Harry Mason. Police officer Cybil Bennett retains much of her same attitude and physical appearence from the Silent Hill game, but her ultimate fate is different. The young Alessa Gillespie and her mother Dahlia also appear in the film, though the relationship between them is quite different from the Silent Hill game. In the game, Dahlia was the leader of the polytheistic diabolist cult known as The Order and it is she who burns Alessa in hopes of invoking the child's dark powers and using them for her own means. In the film, Christabella leads witch-burning Puritan cult bent on purifying Alessa and thus following their interpretation of the word of God. The Red Nurse is based off of the character Lisa Garland from the Silent Hill game.[3] Their particular situations are also similar, as they are both caretakers of the bed ridden Alessa.
Creatures
Christophe Gans has stated that, along with the games, the imagery of the film creatures were influenced by artists Alberto Giacometti, Francis Bacon, and Hans Bellmer.[5]
The Grey Children that Rose encounters in the alleyway are from the Silent Hill game. The Armless creatures found on the street by Rose and Cybil are known as the Lying Figure or Patient Demon in the game Silent Hill 2. The film version of these two creatures are very similar to their video game counterparts.
The Janitor, found in the Midwich bathroom in the film is an original creation by director Christophe Gans and makeup effects artist Paul Jones. The Janitor is based on a decorative corpse that is hanging similarly in the bathroom in the Silent Hill game. Where he stays stationary and is of no real importance in the game, he comes to life as the punished form of Colin in the film.
The Red Pyramid is known as The Red Pyramid Thing or Pyramid Head in the game Silent Hill 2. In the game, Pyramid Head is a manifestation of the male protagonist's guilt, while in the film he is a punisher commanded by Alessa. In the film, Alessa's psyche determined his shape, dress, and physicality.[16] Both versions share the character's trademark brutality as well as his weapon, the giant blade. The Dark Nurses in the film and in the games are nearly identical in appearance and action, although their general appearance recalls the nurses from the Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 games.
Scenes and themes
Three scenes from the beginning of the Silent Hill were recreated nearly shot-for-shot. The first features Rose and Sharon driving towards Silent Hill, only to crash after swerving to avoid a ghostly figure in the road. The second shows Rose walking down an L-shaped alley, minutes before the third scene where Rose is ambushed by the Gray Children after discovering a mutilated body crucified on a chain-link fence.
A number of scenes were also taken directly from the game Silent Hill 2. When Rose enters Room 111, she finds a hole in the wall leading to another building, where she must jump across to access. This is a nod to the apartment areas of the games, which included scenes similar to this. The bed ridden adult Alessa's appearance mirrors the final boss from the Silent Hill 2 game. The scenes where Christopher receives calls from Rose but only gets white noise is a reference to a scene in Silent Hill 2 in which James first discovers the radio and hears a voice that sounds like his wife's, only to have it garbled by static interference.
Some dialogue from the film mirrors the games series as well. When Rose meets Dark Alessa face to face for the first time, she says, "You could be her twin". James says something similar when he first meets Maria (who bears striking similarities to his wife) in the game Silent Hill 2. In the hotel, Rose grabs a knife from Anna. A similar knife is given to the protagonist by a supporting character in Silent Hill 2.
The town itself has been recreated with a striking attention to detail, down to the names of many of the town's shops. As a result, the street scenes are almost indistinguishable from those of the Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 games, including the desolate streets, the fog, and the peeling world transitions. The falling ash in the film is a reference to the snow that falls in the Silent Hill game.
Midwich Elementary School from Silent Hill also appears, along with Brookhaven Hospital (from Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3). When Rose wakes up after the Grey Children attack, she wakes up in a bowling alley that is very similar to Pete's Bowl-a-Rama from Silent Hill 2. Also, the hospital map that Rose investigates while looking for Sharon mimics the maps in game series. It is also worth noting that the random quotes seen in the background of some scenes draw parallels with the ever present letters, facts and notes found throughout all the games journeys. The animated end titles are also similar to the titles used in the video game series as well.
The film also shares some visual symbolism from the games. The persistent mentions and visions of fire suggest Alessa's burning and suffering. The images of wheelchairs (in the alley, school and hospital) are suggestive of Alessa's hospitalization and death in the town. The symbolism of fans, a loop representing Alessa's constant death and rebirth,[17] can be seen throughout the film much like the games. Fans are seen in the alleyway at the beginning of the film, outside of the school when Red Pyramid makes his first appearance, and in the room where Red Pyramid makes his first attack.
Release
The film was released to theaters on April 21, 2006 in the United States, Canada, United Kingdom, and Ireland. France, Belgium, Hungary, and Greece also saw April releases. The film was later released in 19 other counties in 2006 which include Russia, Germany, Italy, Japan, and Mexico. The film was rated R by the MPAA for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language, 15 by the BBFC for containing strong language and bloody horror, and MA 15+ by the OFLC for containing strong horror violence.
DVD
On August 22 2006, Sony Pictures Home Entertainment and TriStar Pictures released the DVD, Blu-Ray, and UMD versions of the film in North America. The DVD and Blu-Ray were released in both Anamorphic Widescreen 2.35:1 and full screen versions and both included a Dolby Digital 5.1 audio track.[18] The releases also included a number of special features, such as film previews and a six part making-of Silent Hill documentary. The film was also released on UMD for Sony's PlayStation Portable on August 22 2006. There are no special features but the disc includes a 1.78 widescreen format, Dolby Digital 2.0, and subtitles.
Director Christophe Gans will supervise a remastered 2 disc collectors edition DVD release of the film for release near completion of the second Silent Hill film. It has been hinted that the release may be a HD DVD/DVD bundled package.[4]
Music
The score to the film consists almost entirely of music from Akira Yamaoka's soundtracks to the four main games in the series. They were arranged by the film composer Jeff Danna (Resident Evil, The Boondock Saints), with some tracks appearing in almost identical form to their in-game counterparts, while others were recreated entirely.
Sequel
Christophe Gans announced in December 2006 that the sequel, Silent Hill 2, is "well on the way". Gans has said that he might not direct the sequel due to his next project, a movie version of the Capcom game Onimusha. The second film will be written by Roger Avary, produced by Samuel Hadida, and distributed by TriStar Pictures.[4]
Notes
Writer Roger Avary states about Silent Hill that
"the base idea was that this is not a haunted house, it's a haunted town, y'know, separate from our reality, but it also exists within our reality. So you effectively become a ghost during your time there. And it's a very terrifying emotion, that you are a ghost of yourself. Frankly I think it's a theme that's followed me."[19]
References
- ^ a b http://www.boxofficemojo.com/movies/?id=silenthill.htm
- ^ a b c Wilson, Stacy (2005-07-17). ""Silent Hill" Interview with director Christophe Gans". About.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c Bettenhausen, Shane (2006-02-23). "Silent Hill Movie Interview: The Director's Cut". 1UP.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c d e f g Prin, Kevin (2006-12-22). "INTERVIEW : CHRISTOPHE GANS (SILENT HILL) PARTIE 1 (French)". DVDRama.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b c Ferry, IIan (2006-04-02). "Master Class Silent Hill (French)". Ecranlarge.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ a b "Silent Hill - Production Notes". Sony Pictures.
- ^ a b Douglas, Edward (2006-04-20). "Exclusive: Director Christophe Gans". ComingSoon.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Gans, Christophe (2006-03-10). "Silent Hill - Notes from the director Christophe Gans - "On Preserving and Contributing to the Mythology of the Games, On Interpreting Silent Hill's Monsters"". Sony Pictures.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Thorpe, Valarie (2005-07-17). "Really Scary Visits the Set of Silent Hill". Really Scary.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Bielik, Alain (2006-04-21). "Silent Hill: Nothing Quiet About These Horrifying VFX". VFXWorld.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/silent_hill/
- ^ a b http://www.metacritic.com/film/titles/silenthill
- ^ http://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/silent_hill/reviews_users.php
- ^ http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384537/
- ^ Dziemianowicz, Joe (2006-04-12). "Read my lips, a film poster inspires self-expression". New York Daily News.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Gans, Christophe (2006-04-06). "Silent Hill - Notes from director Christophe Gans - "On The Red Pyramid"". Sony Pictures.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Entertainment, Konami (2003). "Book of Lost Memories (Translated)". Konami Japan.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Woodward, Tom (2006-06-19). "Silent Hill (US R1 DVD)". DVDActive.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help) - ^ Withers, Matt (2005-04-20). "INT: Roger Avary". JoBlo.
{{cite web}}: Check date values in:|date=(help)
External links
