Horror in the Aughts, Issue 7: SILENT HILL Does Video Game Adaptation Right
I love video games. I love movies. Up until the past few years, those two have never really mixed well together when companies began to turn video games into tentpole movies. While I do have a mild obsession with the level of ineptitude on display in early adaptations, such as 1993’s Super Mario Bros and 1994’s Street Fighter, they still are complete misfires on realizing what made the source material so compelling in the first place. 1996’s Mortal Kombat was the first real step in embracing the video game adaptation at the right level, mixing a sense of cornball cheese with great production design and love for the game itself. Even after the success of Mortal Kombat, studios just didn’t know what to do with these video games. In 2001’s Tomb Raider, they made the impossible realized by having a rollicking Indiana Jones-style adventure end up being completely boring (despite the presence of our goddess, Angelina Jolie). 2007’s Hitman and 2008’s Max Payne continued the trend of great source material turned into truly boring action flicks. Even my much loved and adored Resident Evil got a so-so start back in 2002 (though I feel that series hit its stride in later installments). We did get one good video game adaptation in the Aughts that clearly respected the source material and did their best to have it fully realized on the screen through incredible production design and practical effects (with a tad of bad CGI for good measure). May I present the 2006 adaptation of the Konami psychological horror classic Silent Hill.
Silent Hill is a successful horror franchise that spans decades across a multitude of consoles, all starting with the release of the original back on the Sony PlayStation in 1999. While the survival horror genre was alive and kicking back then, started by the immense success of Resident Evil in 1996, Silent Hill was able to match it in terms of design and quality but brought something more to the table than jump scares and Romero-like zombie horror. The game was a psychological horror title that delved into the madness that can be placed on a person’s psyche and put forth the prevailing thought that horror can be more than just surface level scares. This was heady material to lay down on an unsuspecting gaming audience that was still getting used to games moving into 3D and becoming more realistic. This psychological angle that the series took reached its apex with the utter classic Silent Hill 2 from 2001 on the PlayStation 2. When it came time to adapt this material into a feature film, French director Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf & an admittedly HUGE fan of the games, a plus right out of the gate) wanted to start with the initial title and hopefully turn this into a major franchise.
This adaptation sticks to the main beats of the OG game with some tweaks at various points. The game is centered on protagonist Harry Mason as he searches for his daughter Cheryl in the town of Silent Hill in the aftermath of a car crash. In the movie, we still have the car crash instigating incident, but we shift attention to a female protagonist, Rose (the impossibly gorgeous Radha Mitchell) as she is searching for her lost adopted daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) in the titular town. We still get creepy mysterious figure Dahlia Gillespie (Deborah Kara Unger) though she has been made more sympathetic and her more sinister aspects were pushed onto another character. We still get the warped creatures such as the armless monsters around town and the faceless nurses inhabiting the hospital, though we also inexplicably get the iconic creature from Silent Hill 2 – Pyramid Head (its clearly done for the recognition factor, but it makes no sense knowing the meaning of the character itself from SH2). All in all, the movie works for me due to the sheer love that was put into the visual and audio presentation of the film. The production design, the special effects, the filters and visual nods to the game, the score. Everything in frame for the two-hour run time is paying loving respect to the game and respecting what it brings to the artistic medium. The movie may rely on CG effects more than you would hope, but they relatively hold up well today, and this doesn’t discount some of the insane in-camera stuff also accomplished (the imposing Pyramid Head and the “feet tied to head” dude – Colin I believe – in the school are A+). This goes in stark contrast to most video game movies before, which tended to land more on the cheaper side, seemed to be somewhat ashamed of their inspiration and sometimes even wanted to make the material more than it what it needed to be. There is nothing wrong if you are adapting schlocky material, and there is nothing wrong if you are adapting high art. It’s all gravy if you show the respect that it deserves while able to deliver a quality product to the audience.
I was glad that this movie didn’t hold back in the gore and violence department. Silent Hill is a disturbing world with monstrous creatures, gory displays of mayhem and truly sobering locations that you traverse through (one section takes place in an elementary school with tiny child-like creatures trying to stab you). The movie adaptation retains these elements in various spots. We get the town covered in ash and disturbing creatures, we get cult shenanigans and unsettling vibes in various parts around town, we even get a sacrifice of a child + a woman getting her entire skin peeled off in one shot for good measure. Gans doesn’t hold back. The performances from Mitchell, Ferland and Unger are all well executed. Laurie Holden brings serious blonde crew cut awesomeness to police officer Cybil Bennett (a carryover from the first game), a person in the wrong place at the wrong time. We also get a truly camp-tastic performance from Alice Krige as town matriarch Christabella (as stated earlier, she is part of the Dahlia character from the game now split into two – Krige’s evil cult leader and Unger’s sympathetic mother figure). She is truly an evil religious figure and boy does she get her comeuppance in the end. If I had to nitpick one aspect, it would be the needless inclusion of men. The story Gans is trying to tell is centered around motherhood. This is a woman’s tale to tell and Gans mostly keeps the focus on them. However, we must spend time intercutting back to Rose’s husband Chris (Sean Bean – I love him, but not here) and officer Gucci (Kim Coates, who always looks grimy) as they look and search for Rose and Sharon. Their parts are needless, don’t contribute to the overall story arch and just take time away from the strong female performances we have its core. From what I understand, their parts were mainly due to studio mandates and interference before filming began, so I can’t 100% blame Gans on this.
Silent Hill is a perfect example of doing a commendable job at adapting the source material of a video game and translating its vibe, look and overall feeling to the screen. It has a director who, on record and interviews, has a clear love and adoration for the material. It’s not a scary movie necessarily, and honestly the game isn’t either. It’s about mood, frayed nerves and tension. It’s about what lurks in the shadows and fog, not what jumps out at you. The game can be obtuse and abstract about its true meaning and people can take different angles on what it is trying to say, and 2006’s adaptation does its best to have it palatable for a mainstream audience while keeping the spirit of the game alive. We are finally getting the follow-up to this flick (I am not counting the pure banality that is Silent Hill: Revelation) in late 2024/early 2025 with Gans returning to helm an adaptation of Silent Hill 2, called Return to Silent Hill. Consider me one of the people hyped for what that will be. If I trust anyone, it’s Christophe Gans.
