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edit: Boco, you are the king of the double-post. This is a bad thing. With respect to jacob's ladder: Actually, it's made pretty clear in the movie that what's happening is Jacob's transition from life to death. Not a coma-induced hallucination. quote: If you're scared of dying, you'll see demons ripping your life away. But if you've made your peace, they're really angels, freeing you from the Earth. blah blah blah. It's bothering me that you kids keep talking about Silent Hill 2, and comparing it to the movie, as though you hadn't played the other three. Silent Hill 2 is a completely different idea. I won't disagree that the movie's silent hill is a representation of limbo, but I DO disagree that the movie's silent hill IS limbo. Furthermore, I keep seeing people digging for explanations, when in truth, it's just a horribly flawed script. That said, I see no reason to speculate. Once again, I say there ARE NOT dozens of ways to interpret the first silent hill game. It's a pretty pre-packaged story, with clues that give you all the information you need to know what's happening. I agree, that in the movie, you have to think, but I disagree that you have to think so far outside 'the box' that you haven't even got anything connecting your ideas to the box itself. The movie requires thought, but not so much thought, that it is necessary to fabricate a structural system for which there is only a speculative basis, when there's a concrete basis right there in the film. ...I have a feeling that we're going to end up in some ridiculous argument where you guys argue art for arts sake, and I start arguing the intention of the artist. Sure I can speculate on any of the games, if I want to, but there's plenty of evidence within the games to show that those speculations are actually wrong.

It's NOT just a scary town run by evil magic. Despite what you may think, the only times that the games' PLOTS are open to interpretation is with multiple endings. The games are pretty clear about what's going on. Furthmore, with the advent of Silent Hill 3, the first game lost a lot of its ambiguity, as Silent Hill 3 Really hammered in the plot of silent hill 1. SO, once again, I have to cry when people take the allegory that the movie is using, and then apply it literally, as though the allegory is no longer an allegory, but rather the real plot. No, my friends, it's just an allegory, for pete's sake.

I simply meant reusing the idea of a letter from beyond the grave inviting to silent hill, not the actual plot of the second game. Particularly since the plot of the movie is so divergent from that of the first game, the word Gans has created is very different from the SH world, unfortunately.

I was more interested in hearing any theories about what exactly happened in Ernest's life before Maria came aong. You can gather some facts, but I'd like to nkow the whole story.

...Has there ever been any discussion on the "Born from a wish" scenario? I think I'd like to delve into that.

I understand that Gans has played the game, and that Avary has too, but my quarrel is with the idea that What happens in silent hill in the movie is just a cop out 'it was all a dream' ending, rather than reality. It seems to me like maybe they got the bad ending one too many times, and thought it was the real one. I can accept them all being dead if and only if they'd intended a sequel based on Silent Hill 2, using Sean Bean's Character as James. However, until that sequel appears, I reject the literal-metaphorical heaven/hell/purgatory interpretation entirely.

Anyone else wanna cry with me over this one? edit: Gans had a big 'fuck you' to say to Ebert before Ebert had even written his review. I say the same.

awww steve. your staunchness disappoints me.

Mormons love puritan cults, rape and gore, didn't you know?

You fail at silent hill. If your theory's true, Gans didn't understand the game at all.

You'll DEFINITELY have to wait until at least monday night. I've got exams today and tomorrow all over.

That's a nice interpretation, ifrit, but What's rose guilty of? Helping the Dark Alessa? Why is that a problem? It seemed to me that all of the other people were guilty of creating the dark Alessa. Why shouldn't she be able to come home? Why is the misty reality even separate from the reality that Christopher lives in? It doesn't seem to be that way in the games.

Oh, I just remembered something. Spoiler: Did anyone else think it was a little goofy how they had Rose drop her knife as she jumped between buildings? It was just like in the games where its 'you use an item, you lose it', since she'd used it to rip the painting. I just thought it was a little silly to do that, since there was really nothing else she could have done with the knife. EasyP, nobody knows why the movie ended with the foggy dimension still existing. It's pretty ridiculous. The only explanation is that there were plans for a sequel, Roger Avery is dumb, and that they died in the car crash, making the whole movie a pointless venture. Kauffman does not appear in the movie, as this movie is not a direct adaptation of the game, so Kauffman's character was unnecessary. In a sense, his character is almost replaced by (spoiler) Colin, who rapes/molests alessa (possibly impregnating her...)

Has anyone ever come across semi-high quality videos from the Lost Memories/Art DVD? I'll buy it if I have to, but I'm a poor poor man.

It wasn't screened for US critics, but it was for international critics. The reason for this (from what I gather) is that Gans felt that the US critics wouldn't be able to handle the ambiguity, and the content.

Yes, they do. It's based on a video game. Oh. I thought it was because of the lazy writing, plot, acting, and pacing. It's just me I guess. I've seen a plethora of TERRIBLE movies in my time, and this is not one of them. Either you're too picky, or your opinion is the polar opposite of everyone else's, in which empassioned (but flawed) writing becomes lazy writing, plot must not exist in order to be plot, and none of the actors should ever say anything. Also, the movie should only be 3 seconds long.

broken tag there, A-man. edit: liek omg fixed already I dunno, I kinda got the impression that Cybil faked shooting cristabella, rather than ran out of bullets. She seemed to have already accepted her fate, after having given rose her chance to escape. It occurs to me that I must have really liked this movie, elsewise I'd have been in bed by now instead of blabbering on about the movie in various forums.

Well, Pyramid Head ended up being out of place. I thought MAYBE they'd tie it in, but since there was no explanation whatsoever, it doesn't even leave room for any LOGICAL speculations. So, essentially, "nice to see you PH. Thanks for making a Cameo in our movie."

Speaking of music, we need to remember that we are a video game music community. We know video game music. The crowning disappointment in terms of music should be that the music was not original, and not that it was used more than once. If you pay attention in almost any film, you'll notice that the score music is often used more than noce, or is at least thematically similar. The problem with us, is that we recognize the soundtrack as 'songs' because we listen to them outside of the game, or we are too familiar with them. Songs are more foreground material than background material, and so, rather than the drones and whines of typical horror movie crud, we get real music in Silent Hill, which is so easily recongizeable, that it annoys us. So basically, we suck, and if we'd never played the game or heard the soundtrack, we wouldn't care. (though, apparently we might giggle at some cheezy organ music around the end, which was pretty cheesey as it was.) Edit: speaking of bad acting (of which, Anna seemed to be the least good at line delivery)... I found the voice acting in Silent Hill 2 to be FAR worse than the voice acting in Silent Hill 1. Silent Hill 2 made me cringe almost every time James or Laura said anything. Harry's only groaner was 'radio...what's with that radio?'

Well, it stands to reason that the two people I keep finding myself clashing with in this thread are the two people who seemed to have found the movie the least entertaining. For pete's sake, white out your spoilers, jackhats. Edit for magic spoiler goodness and confusion: The time frame of the movie is screwed up. The detective is like 40 when Chris meets him, and yet he appears in the flashback from 30 years ago. In fact, the only people who seem to have aged at all are Dahlia and Allessa. OOPS'd Edit again: Razor, you seem to be assuming that everyone in the theatre had played the games. Who knows what they were laughing at, but also: who cares?

Well, I just saw it, and it was pretty good. I was a bit disappointed with the way that the audience is seemingly spoonfed the exlpanation. The explanation definitely did not need to be narrated. The end, though cool, was less cryptic than I'd expected. Spoilers HO!: If I'd been masturbating during this movie, I would have ejaculated at the point at which Anna's clothes (and skin) go bye-bye. Also, the ending that Claado speaks of was alright, but unnecessary. They should have ended the movie as soon as the car left the town. Oh, yeah, this movie is more like "Silent Hill Lite" than an addition to the series. It's more like an introduction to the series than an installment. (By series, I mean the games, obviously.) It's pretty scary, but if you've played the games, and if you're desensitized to violence, you'll be pretty 'meh' about it. The girl I was watching it with probably only saw a fraction of the movie I saw, what with her face being buried in my armpit (Which I can only hope smelled like sexy man). Yet another edit: Uwe boll can sit on a spike. This IS the best game-to-movie adaptation out there.

"Remember the cheesy demony voice from the commercials as she says, "I am the Reaper"? Gone." --Faith Restored. actually, there are some pretty glowing reviews on imdb (as well as a few negative ones that appear to be written by the same people who thought Donnie Darko and I Heart Huckabees were stupid because they "didn't make sense") Also, some whiners were complaining that it wasn't gory enough for them. Oh boohoo. I bet I'll puke.

I'm put off by the lack of people going OMG AWESOME!... there seems to be an epidemic of 'meh' coming from the viewers. This vexes me.

The game is not at all based in christian religion. 'Angels' is an english translation for western people (who are primarily christian). It does not necessarily translate back to 'angels' in japanese.

I neglected to mention that Epo is AWOL as well