Silent Hill trailer finally out! Well, Teaser...

[Bobtheduck]

http://www.sonypictures.com/movies/silenthill/site/shell.html

Oops, forgot to say, SH is definately gonna be rated R material... There's nothing really graphic in the teaser (though the part at the end does look like the dog jumps through his chest, it's probably just going to fast to see it is, like, to the side or something) but consider this a warning...

Upon close inspection, I saw nurses and what looked like a dog... This is supposed to be mostly based on SH1, which was my least favorite, but it looks very SH like... Oh, and I saw Patient demons from SH2... Apparently, that thing that looks like it has a dog bursting out of its chest at the end of the teaser is Pyramid head, but I could never see it clearly enough to find out for sure...

Now, it looks like SH style, but some things bug me... Firstly, and this is where the other 2 complaints hinge, is that the interpretation of the games used for this movie is that Silent Hill is DEMONIC... That's not the interpretation I get from it, and I don't think that quite fits 2...

Now, the second thing that bugs me is that they used monsters from 2 games (at least) Now, while I'd love to see a big screen Patient Demon and Pyramid head, the point of the monsters in the games was that they always had something to do with what was going on inside the character's heads... SH1 was about Alessa... She made the monsters based on her childhood fears (Dinosaurs, Dogs, her abusive schoolmates) SH2 was about JAMES... The patient demons and Pyramid head and the mannequins were all based on the stuff James had done... In SH3, all of the monsters were simply grown up versions of Heather's fears... And SH4 was Walter's fears, once again: Wild animals in the forrest, the people he had killed, and the horrible conditions where he was forced to live... I sorta ignore the ghosts... Gah, that was the worst decission for that game... Anyhow, in this they just sorta threws some well known monsters together, and since Avary didn't accept that the monsters were specific to the psyches of the ones that brought them about, it just looks like "Whatever looks cool gets in"

The third thing is the plot synopsis given on IMDB... "A demon in the form of a child" Of course, that comes out of the interpretation of Silent Hill just being demonic... But, if these monsters are just demons and not something more, it sorta invalidates what Vincent said. "Monsters? They look like Monsters to you?" He may have said it was just a joke, but in the making of for SH3, the creators basically said he was telling the truth. It sorta takes something away from the games to reduce it to demons and nothing more... It takes away the layers that were built up in 2, especially...

Still, I'm not going to judge it until I see it... I don't expect it to do well. Silent Hilll doesn't have the following that Tomb Raider and Resident Evil do (and Mortal Kombat did), so it won't have rabid fans keeping the BO sales high like those ones did, and there is a large stigma on video game movies... Even if it is good, people won't see it SIMPLY because it is a video game movie... Well, I dont' care... If Silent Hill does bad, there won't be a Metal Gear movie unless Boll does it... I don't care much anymore... I've lost hope for stuff like this after Aeon Flux, which was a decent movie that flopped simply because of stigma, I think... I still hope SH is good, though. Despite the flaws I've pointed out... It sure FEELS like SH...

[dragonshimmer]

I'm too fond of the fact that they're making it more of a demonic thing rather than manifestations of the mind, but I'm still going to see this movie, since I'm an avid Silent Hill fan. So...I'm taking a guess it's CGI?

[Bobtheduck]

Nope... Actually, Gans said he was using as little CG as possible... He is looking to Lyne's Jacob's Ladder a bit, which was the visual inspiration for the games, which uses no post editing tricks and no CG... All of the effects in Jacob's ladder were done in camera... Now,he didn't say none of it would be CG, but they're trying to keep it to a minimum. Mostly it will be costumes and such.

[Sync]

yeah, that thing coming around to the side is definitely Pyramid Head, maybe bringing his knife down.
I'm still disappionted that Jeff Danna replaced Akira Yamaoka for the music composer, it wont really sound the same even though some music from the games will be reused ('Aint gonna rain' from SH1 is used in that teaser).
However it goes though I and my friends will be dropping the $8 to see this opening night.

[Mikomi]

Yes indeed, this movie definitely does feel like Silent Hill. I can't wait to see it! I love Silent Hill. It's so creepy!

[Bobtheduck]

I read an interview with Avary, and this line made me lose all hope I had for this film... In quoting Christophe Gans, he said this:

"I like women – I like to *beep* the American bimbo. I want to make a movie with no men and have sexy women throughout. Women everywhere. I don’t want to have all these men to deal with or the attitudes of men."

... I thought Pact De Lupes was interesting... Not in my top 20, but interesting... It says that Christophe was completely faithfull in in rendering of "Crying Freeman" (a manga adaptation? Or was Crying Freeman french to begin with?) So what's up with this? This sort of comment just makes me mad... I was a bit upset with Harry being turned into rose to begin with, but I let it slide because the trailer seemed to fit the Silent Hill atmosphere, but this... This just ruins all my hopes for this movie... At least, my hopes that it will be truly great... Whenever a movie is charged by sexuality, it just loses something... Now, I'm not talking about stuff like Jacob's Ladder and even the Silent Hill 2 game where they get into the psychology of sexuality, I'm talking about stuff where they use sexuality as a primary draw... So, in video games, that would be Bloodrayne and Dead or Alive and stuff like that... The big selling point is the sexy females...

Even if he wanted an all female cast, a comment like he wanted to "*???* the American Bimbo" Was that supposed to be funny? If the reason for making Harry into Rose was just that he wanted to leer at the women he was directing, he's very flawed as a director... I'm probably still going to see this... I'm too much of a fan of the games, but for Avary and Gans to say they respect the games and Gans make a comment like that, followed by Avary's admiration, is just stupid...

I thought that the "Mother's have more capacity to love" statement was rediculous (a Father-daughter dynamic is much more poignant than mother-daughter... I go by numerous examples of those relationships... There aren't many shotgun moms stopping the boys at the door... Maternal instincts are one thing, very broad, but Father-Daughter and the protective instinct that extends into adulthood is a lot stronger) but making it about wanting to leer at his actresses is nothing short of idiotic...

Harry's Character may have been somewhat blank, but it would have been just as easy to flesh out his character for that incredible dynamic as it was to create Rose...
I am ****...

Warning: The interview contains harsh language:
http://www.edge-online.co.uk/archives/2005/09/roger_avary_tal.php

P.S. Edit: After the initial shock of that comment, I decided to read the rest of the interview... Avary seems to have some sort of chemical disorder... I don't know if Bipolar is the word I'm looking for, maybe something "softer" that that... At times he is completely coherent and respectfull, then he disintigrates into petty insults and rediculous school-boy rants...

Also... Another Konami Title? Maybe Castlevania... That would actually fit Gans Brotherhood of the Wolf direction, because that film had the sort of atmostphere you'd want for Castlevania... I just hope it's not Metal Gear... I can see it now:

Colonel Roberta Campbell - Snake, have you reached the contact point yet?

Solid Snake - Yes I have. The guards appear to only be carrying .22's and mace.

Col Campbel - They weren't expecting any visitors. This is a sneaking mission... As normal, this is all OSP... Except for your specially made FoxHound bra and bionoculars, you're naked. You'll have to You'll have to arm yourselves with whatever weapons and tools you can find. As we zoom in on you to get a better look, you'll notice your bra is equipped with a special monitoring and communication device...

Ok, well, so far it didn't look like the characters were portrayed as sexual objects in what little they've shown, but that statement can only give me fear for the future...

P.P.S. Well, as I said, maybe it was just a joke I didn't catch... I truly hope it was simply a joke...

[inkjet1987]

I read an interview with Avary, and this line made me lose all hope I had for this film... In quoting Christophe Gans, he said this:

"I like women – I like to *beep* the American bimbo. I want to make a movie with no men and have sexy women throughout. Women everywhere. I don’t want to have all these men to deal with or the attitudes of men."

This quote has been debated in pretty much every Silent Hill forum. The majority consensus is that it is a joke. Just Avary poking fun at Gans.

[Bobtheduck]

Oh... Well, I hope it is... Avary seems to have a rather strange sense of humor...

[inkjet1987]

Oh... Well, I hope it is... Avary seems to have a rather strange sense of humor...

Haha, yeah. The guy is pretty much insane.

[dragonshimmer]

If it's a joke...I don't find it funny. Still. Would anyone really? This drops my hope for the movie...

[Rocketshipper]

I think the trailer looks pretty cool. Most of it looks like PS2 in-game footage to me, instead of live action stuff. I won't be surprised if the movie doesn't live up to the games, but I'm still going to see it because I'm a big fan. I HOPE it's good ^_^.

[Sync]

link to official trailer:
http://mp3content01.bcst.yahoo.com/proot1/PubShare02/yahoointernal/11/21764261.mov

Unfortunately they decided to give Silent Hill a physical location. Also they took the history of Centralia, PA and dropped it into the movie. Two things that weren't necessary

[inkjet1987]

That trailer is really exciting. I can not wait for this movie.

[Bobtheduck]

Yeah, I thought it should have been in Oregon, not PA... (Portland, and the fact that oregonians are crazy like the people in SH, hehehehe)

EDIT: That centralia thing... The movie was going to be called "Centralia" or at least that was a coverup, but it was supposed to be after a Stephen King novel, not a real place... That's crazy about the burning mines, but... Honestly, if there's that much coal and it's burning and polluting the air, I would think the government would at least try to put it out... Are you sure that's not a viral campaign for SH? If it is a real place, they should put the stupid fires out!

[Yojimbo]

Yeah, I thought it should have been in Oregon, not PA... (Portland, and the fact that oregonians are crazy like the people in SH, hehehehe)

EDIT: That centralia thing... The movie was going to be called "Centralia" or at least that was a coverup, but it was supposed to be after a Stephen King novel, not a real place... That's crazy about the burning mines, but... Honestly, if there's that much coal and it's burning and polluting the air, I would think the government would at least try to put it out... Are you sure that's not a viral campaign for SH? If it is a real place, they should put the stupid fires out!

Silent Hill was deffinetly meant as an Appalachia/East Coast ish town. My Silent Hill knowledge is a little rusty but I do distinctly remember a connection with the prison and the Pyramid Heads with the Civil War. I'm pretty sure they were executioners there at that prison during that time.

[Bobtheduck]

Silent Hill was deffinetly meant as an Appalachia/East Coast ish town. My Silent Hill knowledge is a little rusty but I do distinctly remember a connection with the prison and the Pyramid Heads with the Civil War. I'm pretty sure they were executioners there at that prison during that time.

Ooh, Civil war stuff... Completely forgot about that... Well, Douglas is from California and Heather is from "Portland" which is where I got my guess from, but Portland is in a number of states, and Douglas could have commuted from practically anywhere...

Oh, and to keep this from being just a plain grave dig, has anyone been following news on this? A scene was shown at Wondercon, and apparently they're really upping the gore on this one... Rather than being the "environmental" gore the games have, they actually feature a [spoiler=gross] A girl getting her skin ripped off and thrown at someone...[/spoiler] The scene was apparently very graphic. There were kids in the room, because it was betweena pixar panel and a superman panel, and they were warned to leave because of the graphic footage, but apparently almost no one left... And the warnings were right... This seemed really unnecissary... You never see a person or even a monster get ripped apart in the games... You don't see maria die, PH just sort of smothers the monsters he kills, even with the chainsaw, the monsters stay in one piece... It's not like they CAN'T do gore that you see happening (look at the Resident Evil games) but they just don't. That's part of what makes up the atmosphere of the games. Bloody, Gory environments, goreless deaths...

I sure hope this is isolated...

[Bobtheduck]

The date fast approaches for this, and by all previews, looks to be the first really good video game movie (not counting Advent Children, which is pretty much only worthwhile to fans of the game, or people who wanted a better ending to FF7)

I won't link to files, but 3 TV spots and a trailer are around, and ain't it cool news has a link to a "making of" promotional special on Starz... Seriously, Silent Hill fans need to check it out... They may have changed some details of SH1 and meshed a couple thigns together, but they stayed true to the heart of it, if this footage is any hint... So soon! 10 days!

The skin rip thing is... iffy, but gans said the film is NOT about gore, so perhaps this will be somewhat isolated...

[Stephen]

Skin rip off? Dang! I cannot really imagine that. I saw a trailor the other day, and the movie now has my intrest a bit.

[Steeltemplar]

At least it's not directed by Uwe Boll

It could be interesting. Being a horror fan, I'll at least look out for the reviews on it even though game-based movies have a tendency to be bad. Perhaps this will be an exception. And it's not like I haven't enjoyed a lousy horror film before (I have seen all of the Jason movies. You have to watch it with a friend in order to get the full bad movie experience, though.).

(a Father-daughter dynamic is much more poignant than mother-daughter... I go by numerous examples of those relationships... There aren't many shotgun moms stopping the boys at the door... Maternal instincts are one thing, very broad, but Father-Daughter and the protective instinct that extends into adulthood is a lot stronger) but making it about wanting to leer at his actresses is nothing short of idiotic...

Honestly, I'm sure that there is variation among relationships. However, the bond between a mother and her child of either gender can be extremely close and to say that the the mother-daughter relationship is not as poignant is, I think, incorrect. Perhaps you identify with the father-daughter more because you are a man, which I could understand. But it does not follow that the father-daughter relationship has any tendency to be stronger than the mother-daughter. I have certainly known women who are extremely close to their mothers and some who have a much closer relationship to their mother than to their father. Though obviously it can vary.

As to the "shotgun moms", this does have a certain aspect of gender roles and tendencies to it. Women tend to nurture, men tend to protect. So naturally in dangerous situations we do look for the man to step up as he should. But the protective role can be taken by mother and it often is in cases where it needs to be.

I do agree with the other part of your statement there. Making the movie about leering at the actresses is both distasteful and vulgar.

[Lynx]

wow... that looks awesome... i totally cant wait to see it!

[Bobtheduck]

The starz footage, I believe, is playing on FX tonight. So, if anyone has FX, you should check it out...

It may be different footage they're playing, though. It's supposed to happen in the breaks for whatever movie they're showing tonight... Probably "Don't say a word" I think it what's showing tonight, which is a good movie... If you haven't seen it, now would be a good time.

EDIT: It shows at 7:30... Which should be 6:30 central and 11:48 and 22 seconds mountain time...