Silent Hill - Boring But In A Nice Way

Silent Hill (Christophe Gans CAN/FR 2006)
Film4 - 9pm 3rd December 2008

Silent Hill is a film based on a computer game that I have not played and know nothing about. I think it is testament to the games charm that I had little idea what was happening in the movie. What I think is interesting is that the game was heralded for its cinematic qualities. Yet the film doesn’t really work as a narrative. Where it is successful is in its pursuit of atmosphere. It’s a rare mainstream film that is most engaging when nothing is happening. The first half of the film – a chase scene and an underground scene aside – offers little more than a mother hopelessly searching for her daughter. I was numbed by the lack of narrative. Though at the same time it gave me the opportunity to enjoy the visuals with their treated lens effects. This is in contract to most modern films that I see, where the pace is frantic and the visuals are flimsy. In those cases I get frustrated because don’t care where the film is going and I don’t believe in the world it is set in.

In Silent Hill you don’t care for the characters a lot, but a ghost town is an inviting spectacle. I think the best example of the treated-ness is the blue fog that is present. I swear it must have been used to hide pop-up in the game. Yet it is calming and ever-so slightly threatening. It was also so unusual to feel swept away in a film that is a money making exercise. There was another moment that I really liked, one that softened me up as oppose to giving up on the film. It was the first instance of the air raid siren. I really didn’t know what to think when it happened, and the moment didn’t feel silly or pointless. Yeah, the actual reason is a lot less compelling, but I shouldn't condemn it for being effective occasionally.

Since I don’t play many computer games the only reference point I can think of is Valve’s Half-Life 2 (2004). In that game we are afforded lulls between the fights and gun battles. H-L 2 also has a level of detail (that I’m sure is replicated in most games these days) that is superficially engaging in Silent Hill the film, but was probably a strong part of the game. I suppose Silent Hill is pretty much a computer game movie And nothing more, but at least it is a game that could have made of a good movie experience.

Mark Kermode’s prepared attack for all computer game adaptations is that watching one is like watching someone else play it. I think that is a fair criticism of the spate of First-Person-Shooters and Beat-‘em-Up games. But the question I wonder is whether the plethora of popular role playing games (like World of Warcraft for instance) will produce games more suited to the cinema. Whatever the results the likelihood is that they will feel like retreads of better films rather than distinct entities.

Silent Hill began originally enough ploughing fertile ground of a ghost story, but dived into the eighties horror movie cycle with a belly-flop in an ungraceful Hellraiser (1987)-like climax. Really! Even if it was in the game there is no need for that!