Nickel Odeon

What's this? TWO posts in one day?!?! Believe it my friend. And the reason for this flouting of the unwritten rule of the Dreamcast Junkyard is that I would like to impose my opinion of the latest film I have seen: Silent Hill.


Obviously, it's based on the 1999 PlayStation adventure of the same name, and while it's not really anything to to with the Dreamcast, I must say that it's a cracking movie - certainly the best game/movie crossover I've seen. The reason is that it is so faithful to it's inspiration. Granted, the lead is played by a Mother, rather than a Father looking for a missing little girl - but the whole visual style of it is totally identical to the game. The misty townscape, the freaky alternative world, the monsters...it's all fantastically realised. Oh, and there are some really gruesome deaths thrown in for good measure. One criticism I must lay at Silent Hill's feet is the decision to cast Sean Bean as the Father. Sure, the guy is a brilliant actor and will go down in folklore as Alec Trevelyan in GoldenEye, but in Silent Hill he puts on the worst American accent you can imagine...the dude is from Yorkshire for Christ's sake! They shoulda just got an American - it ranks alongside Keanu Reeves' English accent in Bram Stoker's Dracula for cringe effect.

This slight error in the casting department aside, Silent Hill is - like I said - possibly the best 'game movie,' that we've ever been privy to (who can forget the horror of Super Mario Bros, Resident Evil (no pun intended) and Tomb Raider?); and features some really good CG sequences that are genuinley unnerving in places. Highly recommended to fans of the games, and to anyone who just wants to see a decent horror flick. Here's the trailer:

7 comments:

gnome said...

Rotten tomatoes doesn't seem to agree with you though... Gues I'll wait for the DVD, or a bored Sunday on TV.

At least Uwe had nothing to do with it. Right?

Tom Charnock said...

It's not the best film ever (for that, see Aliens Special Edition), but it's the best movie that is based on a game.

Animated AF said...

Nothing to do with Dreamcast. BOOO.

Tom Charnock said...

I suppose if you played Silent Hill on the DC via the bleemcast disk it would be of some interest...?!

gnome said...

So, does this thing actually work?

Animated AF said...

I'm going to be making another article on Bleem! in the near future: with videos!

Animated AF said...

I wonder if the DVD will feature an alternative "UFO ending" like the game.

"I'm going to slient Hill and I'm gonna bust some heads!"
"Aww Dad, you're the coolest!"

XD