Hi, everyone. "Moriarty" here with some Rumblings From The Lab...
It all comes down to what you consider a horror film.
Personally, I have trouble with a lot of what passes for horror these days. I’m a rabid fan of the genre. I don’t think there’s another genre that gets its own bookcase in my house, and as it is, my horror shelves are almost too full at this point, requiring a spill-over to a second bookshelf. I love old horror films, new horror films, and within that broad definition, there are dozens of sub-genres, some of which I love, some of which I don’t.
SILENT HILL worked for me because of the confidence and command of director Christophe Gans. I’m not familiar with the source material at all, so I’m not going to discuss it as an adaptation, except in the broadest terms. I can’t tell you how faithful it is to the already-established mythology of the various SILENT HILL games, but I can tell you that there are certain touches in the way the film’s put together that seem like a sly nod to the basic experience of gaming.
I think Vern nailed it in his review this morning when he evoked the name of Dario Argento, just as I think Harry was right when he compared this to certain films by Fulci. This is very much in line with a sort of surreal European horror that we don’t see much of these days. I think the reason I’ve always loved SUSPIRIA is because of how it begins. There’s no wasted time in that movie. It starts in the pounding rain, outside an airport, and plunges directly into a trip through the woods to some mysterious place, a sense of foreboding mounting from frame one. SILENT HILL wastes no time at all in getting right to the the business of mood and atmosphere, and it’s obvious that Gans is willing to assault you with sound and image, using every tool at his disposal to submerge you in a dreamstate that keeps you off-balance as you watch. It’s incredibly effective, and I’d guess you’ll know by ten minutes in whether this is the sort of film you enjoy or not.
Rose (Radha Mitchell) and her husband Chris (Sean Bean) are the adoptive parents of Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), a nine-year-old girl. She was originally left on the doorstep of an orphanage in West Virginia, and Rose is starting to suspect that only a trip back to West Virginia... and specifically to the town of Silent Hill... is going to help Sharon. She’s started sleep-walking, and in the opening scene, her parents find her standing on the edge of a cliff, ready to jump. That’s about all the exposition you get before Rose and Sharon are off to Silent Hill, an angry Chris left behind at home. Reality seems to vanish about the time Rose turns off the main road, and what unfolds fits the exact description of a nightmare. As Rose loses Sharon, then goes after her in this dessicated husk of a town, things unfold with a grim sense of inevitability. There’s a siren that sounds repeatedly in the movie, and each time you hear it, you’ll get more and more tense because you start to anticipate just what sort of madness that siren signals each time. A darkness rolls in over the town after the signal stops, and with that darkness comes a bizarre assortment of horrors. This movie may not always connect completely, but it’s ambitious, and it wants to show you things you haven’t seen in that last 30 lookalike horror films. It wants to get under your skin and unnerve you, and when that fails, it’s willing to grab you, shake you, and even yank your skin clean off if that’s what it takes to affect you.
There’s a mystery at the heart of the film, and as with many ghost stories, the answer is far more mundane than the build-up. Roger Ebert seemed to find the film’s explanations baffling even as he was impressed by it technically. I’m not sure why this would confuse anyone... basically it boils down to a vengeful spirit looking for payback against the town that did it harm... but I also think the answers are far less important than the way the questions are presented. For example... I have no idea what the fuck Pyramid Head is, or how he’s connected to the Demon, or what purpose he serves aside from freaking my shit out, and frankly, I don’t care. He’s one of the most striking images I’ve seen in a horror film in recent memory, and both of his big scenes are exhilarating. If you’re tired of teenagers in danger and you’re tired of remakes of Asian titles, SILENT HILL is a fascinating antidote. If you’re the kind of person who finds surrealism frustrating and you want something more traditional, this may not be your cup of tea.
All of the performances in the film strike me as arch, artificial, but I think that’s what Gans wanted. Even if this doesn’t seem realistic, everyone seems to be playing things in a similar fashion, on this heightened level of reality, and because of that, it works as a whole. Gans uses his camera to occasionally place you in a sort of gamer’s perspective, a third-person God’s eye view that reminds me of what it’s like to watch a game unfold. He doesn’t overuse it, but when he does it, it has the odd effect of investing me in the character I’m watching, as if their fate is in my hands. I also like the way one particular sequence depends on Rose memorizing a map of a location so she can move quickly. It’s exactly the sort of thing you have to do when you’re trying to beat a level in a game. Again... these are subtle ways of tying this to the gaming experience, but very effective.
I also appreciate that this isn’t terribly franchise-minded. It’s a stand-alone story, dark and unforgiving, and it doesn’t worry about setting up a sequel. Instead, it concludes its story, although I suspect the final images are up for interpretation and will lead to disagreements even among those who like the film.
The film sometimes relies on characters doing things that they shouldn’t do, a pet peeve of mine in horror films. But to be fair, when you’re having a nightmare, you frequently find yourself doing things that you know you shouldn’t do, moving forward even as you wish you could stop yourself. Some of the dialogue is almost suffocatingly expository, and it seems like there’s a lot of story that Roger Avary felt compelled to work into this film. It makes it feel dense, but I think a little less explanation for things might have actually made it work better. Still... this satisfied my craving for something new, and I loved the fact that this is a hard-R. There is much blood spilled, and much red meat shown onscreen, so gorehounds are going to flip. There’s a bit of CGI in the film, and not all of it is great, but there’s a strong obvious sense of imagination on display, and if anything, this just makes me want Christophe Gans to work harder. It’s been too long between films, and he’s too damn good for us to have to wait this long again.
I’m still working on transcribing a number of things for you guys, and I’ll also have up a MISSION: IMPOSSIBLE 3 review in the next few days. Until then...
"Moriarty" out.
