Kind of a shame

[Red Munin]

While I can see your argument, I think it makes sense to point out that in the movie Rose had to prove her self, just as Harry did. All Alessa knew of mothers was that they were weak and could not save her. Rose stuck to her guns, faced the fears and over came them. In the early part of the game Rose had not yet proven this to Alessa. And Pyramid Head had no reason not to attempt to kill her. Also at that point in the games the sirens blast and the darkness ends before Pyramid head actually has a chance to harm Rose, perhaps this was intensionally done by Alessa? Calling back the dog, to put it simply.

Also, I believe it would be wise to consider the fact that, yes, Pyramid head is fan service. But its for a good reason. Fans of the games know what he is and what he symbolises, therefore he is familar to them. Putting him in the movie in that familar guise means fans will know what a true threat he can be for our protagonist. I also do not believe he was 'tacked on', his role is quite an important one. He is a pursuer, as well as punisher. The roaches preceeding his appearance. Upon Rose seeing him in Silent hill, and escaping from him, he gives a greater sense of how truely threatening the darkness is for the cult members and indeed for any one caught in the dark. Like a boogy man I suppose, or maybe King of Boogymen, because he is far more frightening than the laying figures.

I hope that made sense.

[Whoomp]

>watched it, good effects, scary at times, prefer game, gans did not do justice to the games

Well, at least Uwe Boll didn't get his hands on it. Then it would have been a total and utter mess. Heck, he would have even throw in a sex-scene just for fun, there would be a big shootout between the main character and some nurses and Pyramid Head would probably assault Rose (or whatever character he would put in it) in the end by removing his "pyramid" and licking her with his perverted tounge... Yes I have seen The House of the Dead.

[dsagent]

A lot of the Silent Hill games are like that too. Darkness covers the beautiful details for some of the objects. Also, few people actually notice how detailed and well thought out some of the monsters are.

[angelofROOM302]

It really was a shame that the monsters weren't shown that much. Especially since there were actual people behind them.
About the symbolism, i'm sure that the whole point of the movie was not that objective. They mostly wanted to make a good "horror" movie. I'm sure nothing means anything. Pyramid head is special representation to James, as most people say and they slapped him into this movie so i'm sure that kinda proves that symbolism wasn't their motive at all.

Um, about the ending... very random & in a way, it doesn't fully make sence to me.

[SilentMadness]

yeah, they had great potential of adding more straightjackets and they even made them through the deleted scenes. The final version that they had didn't cut it because to begin with, they were barely visible (when cybil looks up through the fence and sees a hord of straightjackets)
But then again, how many grey children were there? A lot! And they had the pack of nurses so I guess that should count for something. But, I agree, there should have been more spread out across the movie.
about the symbolism, being it an alternate universe of silent hill, even if they seemed out of place and flet they were "slapped on", they did have their own version of symbolism. I think they all had to do with the suffering from the citizens of silent hill and pyramid head as the punisher for the cults. Why he attacked rose adn cybil is because the people the pyramid head sees are the cult members and if it's not alessa/cheron or dahlia, they are cult members in his eyes (that's how I look at it).

[angelofROOM302]

That makes much sence!

[shinkeidei]

Yeah it looks like if they didn't think much of simbolism for monster and stuff but remember this is a movie intended to appeal masses and not just fans, anyways that's why forums like this are for, we can create our own simbolism for the monster. Actually most of the Sh mythos has been created by us fans.

[Empty_Eyes]

yeah, they had great potential of adding more straightjackets and they even made them through the deleted scenes. The final version that they had didn't cut it because to begin with, they were barely visible (when cybil looks up through the fence and sees a hord of straightjackets)
But then again, how many grey children were there? A lot! And they had the pack of nurses so I guess that should count for something. But, I agree, there should have been more spread out across the movie.
about the symbolism, being it an alternate universe of silent hill, even if they seemed out of place and flet they were "slapped on", they did have their own version of symbolism. I think they all had to do with the suffering from the citizens of silent hill and pyramid head as the punisher for the cults. Why he attacked rose adn cybil is because the people the pyramid head sees are the cult members and if it's not alessa/cheron or dahlia, they are cult members in his eyes (that's how I look at it).

As far as the amount of monsters... I think there should have been more... and the "Thriller" nurses, could have been used a little better. I didn't want such a choreographer dance seen. I think the nurses should have been spread out better in the basement scene, made it seem like running through the halls of the game. Instead, they were created as a wall, which was symbolic.... but it really was misguided. One final test of courage, but it was shoved down the movie going audiences throat, assuming that people were even paying attention. Still it was a solidly done scene, just not the way I would have done it. I would have really built up the tension in that scene. Tension is something the series uses constantly and honestly there was not enough tension in the movie. I should have left the movie feeling exhausted.... much like when you play the game, you get fatigued due to the tension.

I hate to just battle this next point... but Pyramid Head was just not well thought out. The way you describe it, he is a mindless drone. I don't feel that way about him, movie or game. I think it was just a misguided use of him. I defiantly think that Rose and Cybil rightly feared him, but I think they should have eluded to the idea that instead of trying to destroy them, he was slowly helping them along, leading to the destruction of the cult. It would have felt more gratifying to me. I mean don't make it painfully obvious (think James on the Roof in SH2, when PH pushes him off, he was helping James to understand his demons better without necessarily harming him.), just enough that you could put pieces together. Fear doesn't have to come from the threat of direct violence... implied or even better, being unsure of violence can create more fear in a person.

[JKristine35]

All of the monsters, with the exception of Pyramid Head, make perfect sense in Alessa's world. It takes very little brainpower to understand how any of these creatures relates to Alessa and one really should open one's mind to other interpretations of the same monsters. They weren't just there to be "scary". Gans picked monsters that were Konami-made, but which could easily represent the terrible things Alessa suffered. Once again, PH is not included in that.

[Nillin]

Ehh, Pyramid Head was just put in there for the fans, but if you look at his more masculine appearance, it's a possibility he was intended to be a father-figure. Alessa needed someone who was strong and could protect her from the cultists (not that she needed protection, mind you), and she never knew her actual father, so creating one was probably all too easy for her after creating an entirely new dimension.

[JKristine35]

I also got the idea that it COULD be said that Alessa could have just as easily seen the same painting in the SH Historical Society as James- and then created her own version off it. But I highly, highly doubt Gans thought of that.

[michinobu_zoned]

I watched this movie again last night, but first I watched the extra features on the DVD. And I got to thinking about how absolutely full of detail the costumes are. And then I felt a bit sad watching the movie, because it is so darkened and fixed with CGI, that you can't really see a lot of the immense detail that wen't into the costumes in the first place.

I mean, the Grey child ( or whatever you want to call it) was a full body suit, down to the feet, with a swelled stomach and extensive paint to create this mottled skin effect- but you just don't see it in the movie. Just imagine the hours it took to create those effects. I know, I know Silent Hill is supposed to be dark, but I just felt we could have had a better look at some of the monsters. Just my opinion ^^

Most people assume that the entire movie is shot in front of a green screen like the Star Wars prequels. This is one of the main complaints movie critics give to the movie, that it's all about "good graphics" like they even know the truth.

I also got the idea that it COULD be said that Alessa could have just as easily seen the same painting in the SH Historical Society as James- and then created her own version off it. But I highly, highly doubt Gans thought of that.

Of course, you do realize that Gans never meant to retell the game's plot. He most likely sought to skip SH2 altogether and start the sequel off with the third in the series.

Unfortunately, because of movie critics and fat, retarded fans' bitching he's not even going to work on the sequel. I just hope that (assuming they do produce the sequel) some hacks don't just look at this game-to-movie adaptation like they do with ALL other game-to-movie adaptations. Psychological horrors are hard to write, and not meant to be taken lightly. They delve into the unconscious mind and into the deeper chambers of the human soul, they don't equate to fucking "House of the Dead".

I eagerly wait in anticipation for the sequel to come out, or for any real news on its development. But, I also look at it with some hesitation because it's better left alone if they can't do a good job in the first place.

[JKristine35]

michinobou, you're not understanding what I was saying. You don't have to base an entire movie off a game to have a reference. If James saw the painting of PH in the SH Historical Society, then Alessa- during her life growing up in Silent Hill- could just as easily have seen the same painting.

[Yunee]

Ah yes, the sequel. That should be interesting, though I can't help but wonder...

Anyway I guess the only point I wanted to make when starting this thread was that the lady spent so long in the costume, only the costume itself it really not visible in the movie, mostly just the CGI fire from the twisted face. All the effort that went into painting skin and veins and whatnot, it's just a shame it's not seen a little bit clearer.

As for PH- lol. A lot of people have problems with him even being in the movie. I personally think his scenes could have been darkened, made more mysterious, more sinister. Then people might not have took so much notice to his feet ^^

[dagoth_jeff]

Exactly what I was thinking! I watched the making of and was so impressed with these detailed body suits.... and I was like 'where is it?' when the movie played. I think the friggin CGI ruined that aspect of it. Take Star Wars, for example (is it legal for me to mention Star Wars?). The old ones were so awesome because of real models and details. The new ones were like 99.9% CGI. Even Yoda was faked. I wasn't very impressed with this non-realism angle to it. In this day and age, CGI is always evolving and improving - but we ain't there yet. If it looks like CGI, and the average viewer can tell, it isn't good enough! Why even try it?

[DistantJ]

It's a common thing which seems to happen in movies lately, really dated costumes/animatronics concealed in darkness. In a way, the darkness helps hide any flaws in the costumes, but it can be sad that you can miss so much of it.

The way I see it, better to have costumes in darkness than to cop out and have all CG, which ruins a lot of films for me.

I always think people could take a tip from Jurassic Park - make your CGI an identical copy of your puppets/animatronics (or suits) and use a combination of the two depending on what angle you're looking from and what kinds of movement is required etc. This way the limitations of puppet/suit movement are gone and the limitations of realism of CG is gone too

Anyway, I think Silent Hill is a good movie for effects. The only time I can remember there being clear CG was from the little children monsters (the first ones Rose encounters) and the bugs. It's nice to use a mixture of everything rather than just throw out all of the old methods in favour of the newer, easier ones.

dagoth_jeff brought up Star Wars and, while I find the prequels to be underrated, I can totally see where they rely almost entirely on CG now, even for the backgrounds. Mind you, the puppets and animations in the original movies look AWFUL by today's standards if you ask me, but going entirely CG is very cheap (I'd say Episode 1 did it better, with puppets and CG co-mingling, but even then rather than using the best method for the best shots they just sort of picked which creature/object should use which method rather than utilizing both for everything).

I think SH used CG only where necessary, so that's brilliant. I agree that it's a shame some of the amazing suits were so obscured by darkness, but making a scene brighter than intended for the purpose of showing the costumes is no better than showing off how good your CG is, really. It's about the artistic direction and the movie should come out however the director has envisioned it. The detail of the suits help suspend your disbelief, the darkness helps the atmosphere, but nothing is about impressing us with how much detail there can be - that's reserved for video game nerds