Since there are people who’ve seen it, we should make a new thread to talk about it, as someone suggested. I didn’t care for watching Laurie Holden die; I liked her and her character.
Drat drat drat! I just posted to the other SH thread, thinking that nobody had started another one. Oh, well. I hope it’s okay if I copy n’ paste my response here, as I don’t want to have to parse my thoughts on the movie again.
I think it suffered from Hitchiker’s Guide to the Galaxy Syndrome. It stayed true to the spirit of the games, but there were a lot of changes that were a bit jarring. For example, I just couldn’t wrap my mind around the town “cult” being against Alessa, Samael et al. They were portrayed in the movie more like Puritans than the demon/goddess/whatever-worshipping Order they are in the games. In the game series, they helped create Alessa to bring about a “new paradise” and were a force to be reckoned with. In the movie, however, they were just scared scavengers. That just seemed wrong.
That being said, the visuals in this movie were frickin’ amazing. The child demons looked just how I imagined (had to thanks to primitive PS1 graphics) and I was pleased to see the patient demons make a cameo appearance. The overall look was spot-on to the games, and that is no small accomplishment. It also had that feel of trapped hopelessness that is central to the series.
However, I have some questions.
WTF was Sean Bean doing in this movie? I really like him as an actor and was disappointed to see he had so little to do in the story. Most of the exposition he provided could have been done by others. So what was the point? And why have Rose and Sharon in a different dimension/plane/sphere/whatever than Chris in the end? What did that accomplish? Also, why keep Cybil alive after her beatdown just to burn her later? Cybil deserves better than to go down like that.
So all in all, a mixed review. The visuals were great, the feel of the game was there, but there were some jarring changes and plot elements that didn’t make sense, even in the SH world.
Like I said in the other thread, it was a good movie for the first hour or so, but then took a turn for the worse. It’s like they abandon the creepiness and visuals to explain everything for the last half of the movie, then kinda throw in some more gore at the end.
A bit confusing at the very end, though. Were they dead? Or just in another parallel reality?
Anyway, if you haven’t seen the movie yet and want to, take my advice: Leave the theater once they go inside the church. After that, you’re not missing much.
Well, personally, I thought that the finale with Alessa going all Hellraiser on everyone was absolutely beautiful. Possibly my favorite scene, actually.
Okay, I admit that part was alright, but it didn’t have the suspense of the other monster scenes: you knew the main characters would come out unscathed, and the people that deserved it would all die horrible painful deaths.
I thought that was the point, that she had done her part of the deal and now it was time for Alessa to get revenge on the cultists. She could kinda sit back and watch the show. I liked the little look Alessa gave Rose after she trashed the big goon that was threatening her while she was trying to get to Sharon. Sort of a “got your back” look.
Did feel bad for Cybil, though, that was a bad way to go. :eek:
A friend of mine who went to see it with me (not his type of movie at all, but he paid for it as a B-Day gift) said he didn’t care for the way the movie seemed to be hard on women and children. My reply was that since the only real characters WERE women and children, there really wasn’t anyone else to be punished. Who’s right? Was there an anti-woman theme present?
I would have liked to have Pyramid Head show up in the church. I’d have preferred to see him as the big gun in the alternate Silent Hill as opposed to just another monster. Also, it would have been cool to show where Alessya got the idea for him from the cultists’s outfit. What can I say, he’s a favorite.
One thing that was amusing: when Rose meets devil-Sharon and the screen goes white, a kid in the front yelled “Ow” and put his hands up. I agree, my eyes were dazzled. :eek:
I thought that even though the dialogue was poor, and the acting wooden, the atmosphee, visuals, and general creepiness made up for it nicely. Not a great movie, but I think it did it’s job.
And yes, we had several people sa “Ow” when the screen went white!
Well like pretty much everybody else I thought it kept to the game’s visuals and spirit very well. (I’ve only played both games a little, got a little too scared and so played some GT instead) So it’s a good movie for those who know the games.
One question I liked the first song at the end credits. Is it on the soundtracks for the games?
Yeah, it’s the main theme from SH3, and it comes on a CD that comes with the game.
Some random thoughts about the movie
-I liked the begining of the movie. It was really close to the games. But the movie IMO went downhill from the moment we are introduced to the cult members.
-The acting is wooden, but so is the acting in the games too.
-I believe Alessa was really a demon from the get go (having no father and all).
-It seems there are three alternate worlds: the real world, a semi-demonic world (where there are some monsters and the roads are cut-off) and the real demonic world with the rusty cages and all. When they return home at the end of the movie, they seem to be still trapped in the semi-demonic world, while the father is in the real world.
-I didn’t like the transition effect (walls burning down) from semi-demonic to demonic world. IIRC, in the games you entered a room and suddenly you were in the demonic world. It was more scary that way.