By Michael Andrillon | Staff Writer
Who would’ve thought a trip through one’s own personal hellscape of monsters and madness would be this boring?
It is now approaching 20 years since director Christophe Gans was in the driver’s seat of the very first Silent Hill movie. A flawed but noble attempt at adapting the first game in a long-running series of horror titles that shaped horror gaming as we know it. What have we learned since then?
Not much, it seems. The plot, on some basic level, isn’t all that different from the source material. James Sunderland has returned to Silent Hill to find his beloved Mary, and he will have to endure trials and tribulations, as Dante did, and will encounter all kinds of tortured souls in the process.
I’d say it’s where the film deviates from the source material that things go astray, but it runs much deeper. Changes in adaptation are crucial across all mediums. What we ended up with here, however, is shoddy fanfiction that removes the subtle touches and Lynchian dream-like essence for something that feels like it would’ve dropped direct-to-DVD back in ‘07.
Nurses in “Return to Silent Hill” | Photo via Bloody Disgusting
Cringe-inducing writing and handling of crucial moments meant to highlight themes on sex, memory and grief had my fellow theatregoers and me in sneers and laughs. At least in those instances, there was something to resonate back to the screen.
The rest of the movie, on the other hand, adds all kinds of ridiculous layers of context that really highlight how much those games, released over two decades ago, understood the mysterious yet graceful touch of just leaving things to the player’s imagination.
Quite literally, everything down to the plot’s twist is spelt out in ham-fisted acting. It’s genuinely impressive how much of the substance is lost in translation, and how the new stuff can’t stand on its own. You’d really think there’d be a director out there, really willing to make that kind of arthouse Silent Hill interpretation on par with the sensibilities of some of the truly great horror movies to come out in the past few years.
If there’s anything positive to note, it’s that the monsters have some amusing designs, and the use of the game’s score for the movie is a noble touch. Even now, the unique tracks still prove effective but have me, like James, in denial, clinging to those past experiences with the games, PS2 controller in hand, longing for something more.
I grow hopeful that someone with an interesting lens into the psychosexual and macabre can one day get at the heart of what makes the name Silent Hill so interesting.
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