[7/12/06] Silent Hill Movie, Dissection - spoilers Options

[Agozer]

I came from the screening roughly 6 hours ago, and I absolutely loved the film. So I though that I just might as well dissect this movie and voice my opinions about the whole thing, since peole seem to have problems grasping certain aspects of the whole thing.

If you want to avoid any spoilers, don't read any further. You've been warned.

-More thorough explanations about certain things on my second post- (post #4)




The movie itself is based very loosely around the story of Silent Hill on the PSX, but Christopher Ganz made so many different choices that most parallels between the movie and the game amount to the bare-bones version of the story and the locations.

The cult
Well, Silent Hill used to be just an ordinary town with the exception that it had a cult of religious zealots. The cult's beliefs revolve around getting into paradise and destroying all evils that might stray them from this "absolute salvation"; basically, outsiders and those that might question their faith. Getting rid of these evils is to cleanse them with fire.

In the movie, Cristabelle leads the religious zealots and is the one who burns Alessa Gillespie. As we learn from the movie, things go wrong an this burning ritual is the cause of the Great Fire in Silent Hill.

In the game, the story arc is considerably more complicated. Sure, there is the cult and they are obsessed about getting into paradise. However, the catalyst for this is a drug called 'White Claudia' (which in some part in Silent Hill's history is the first means to get in touch with the Otherworld, or rather, their paradise). The cult doesn't burn Alessa, and the central evil figure isn't Cristabelle, but Dahlia Gillespie.

Cristabella
Out of all the characters in the movie, I had most trouble with her. She is hellbent on destroying the demon and she's Dahlia's sister. She doesn't appear in the games in any way, which makes getting into her character even more difficult. :/ She's most likely a reference to Claudia in SH3.

Alessa Gillespie
Like the movie points out, Alessa was different from the rest of the people in Silent Hill. Other children called her a witch and always picked on her. The adults seemed to be just as uncaring, and the cult treated her as a demon, one that prevents them from finding their way into paradise. So what does the cult do? They separate her from her mother and seal her in Room 111 and later burn her in "the sacred fire".

Things go wrong and the Great Fire engulfs most of the town. Those that survived were taken to Brookheaven Hospital, including Alessa that survived even though her whole body was burned. As time passed, Alessa's anger turned into hate. As her hate grew stronger, the Dark Alyssa took form, the one that would make everyone suffer as she did.

Thanks to her rage, The Otherworld came to be.

In the game, Alessa had telepathic powers of some sort. People feared it. Her mother, Dahlia Gillespie feared her even more and shut her in her room with basically no contact with others. Again, Alessa started to hate the world around her, and the people in it. The Otherworld was formed because of this hate and her powers.

Sharon
Like Dark Alessa explains in the movie, Sharon is the personification of the good that was still left within Alessa. She says "The little girl is what's left of her goodness. We hid her away in a world outside this hell..." so Alessa's Dark incarnation took the little baby that was born and left it at the steps of the Wish House Orphanage. Rose and Christopher later adopted this girl and named her Sharon. Since sharon is connected to Alessa in every possible way it's a no-brainer that she ends up back in Silent Hill.

Cybil Bennett
Got stuck in Silent Hill simply because she followed Rose. Sees the same Otherworld as Rose, because Alessa hates adults. Most people have trouble understanding the ending on Cybil's part, so here's my take on it: Because of how the Otherworld works, should one get kill in it, you also die in the real world, so to speak.

In Cybil's case. she is burned by the zealots. During this time, The Otherworld was at full work outside the church. So as Cybil died, she died in The Otherworld. At the same time, she died in the foggy Silent Hill by careening of the road and crashing through a guardrail. End of story. That's it.

The town of Silent Hill
After Alessa's rage vented out full force, the town got it's trademark fog. The fog itself is used in the both the movie and in the games as a reminder that the there is a fine line between reality and dream. The fog prevents you from from getting a clear picture of things and it clouds the person's judgment; even ordinary things that are far away can easily look unnatural and scary. Silent Hill looks different to different people. Cybil and Rose are lost in the fog, while Christopher and Gucci see nothing more than an deteriorated ghost town.

The foggy Silent Hill as well as the Otherworld are Alessa's doing. Rose and Cybil are trapped because Alessa wished for it. "Only the Dark One opens and closes the door to Silent Hill."

The Otherworld
My absolute favorite. <3

The Otherworld is the manifestation of Alessa's hate and rage. More specifically, it is how she saw the world. She saw the the world around her as dirty, with no hope or love in it. She acts out her revenge through the manifestation of The Otherworld and its creatures. In this world there is no light, only darkness similar to Alyssa's heart. The transition between the foggy Silent Hill and The Otherworld isn't given a good explanation in the movie, apart from the menacing siren. In the games, it is explained as the protagonist getting deeper and deeper into his or her own delusions and nightmares, to the point where reality ceases to exist and only one's personal nightmare remains.

Well then, the creatures.

The Grey Children: Quite obviously Alessa's classmates who she saw as demons who haunted her day and night.

Armless Men: Ordinary townsfolk. Transformed because Alessa saw everyone as a threat.

Dark Nurses: The Brookheaven Hospitals staff. In Alessa's mind they were no better than the rest. They kept her bound to her bed and didn't socialize with her, always being on the otherside of the white screen that covered Alessa's bed.

The Roaches: Taken from the game, Alessa feared bugs. Big time. In the game, the roaches weren't associated with Pyramid Head in any way.

Red Pyramid/Pyramid Head: I LOVE THIS GUY!
In the movie, he is the personification of Alessa's rage, passing judgment on the damned souls, the ultimate spawns of The Otherworld. If you were paying attention in the movie, Pyramid Head is basically the school's janitor. PH's sole purpose in the movie is not to really kill Rose, but to push her towards the final confrontation with Alessa. Not so with the cult zealots.

Alessa: When we finally get to see her towards the end of the movie, she's actually a mix between Alessa and Mary from SH2. Like mary, she's bound to her rusted bed, and the severe burns have left her mangled. Her restrainst have turned into barbed wire, very likely because of how she saw them. As for the adult Alyssa, she's literally the better half of herself. A beatiful woman apart from her slashed eyes. She has slashed eyes because she didn't wish to see the disgusting and horrible world around her. Adult Alyssa spends all her time beside her hospital bed, because doesn't want to have anything to do with the rest of the world.

Finally, the ending
For most people, the ending is possibly the most WTF? moment in the entire film. To me, it made a surprising amount of sense now that I think about it, and it leaves a definite cliffhanger for the sequel.

So what's it all about then? The whole idea behind the Otherworld and Silent Hill is that it's a nightmare. So as a desperate last measure, Rose and Sharon decide that what they have gone through is just a nightmare, nothing more. But the Dark Alyssa still has a few aces in the hole because Sharon is still a part of Alessa.

The kicker is that both Sharon and Rose aren't completely free from their nightmare even after waking up because of the obvious presence of the fog when they get back home. What makes it even more obvious is that Christopher is not there, even when we just saw him sleeping on the couch in the real world, waiting for them.
It is hinted both in te games and in the movie that the real world and the foggy edge between reality and delusion are connected. In the movie this is quite evident when Christopher says to Gucci that he can feel/smell Rose's perfume. The second time is at the end when Christopher wakes up and finds the front door open.

Alessa's ace in the hole is basically revealed the last time we see Sharon. Because well, it isn't really Sharon anymore, but a mix between Sharon and Alessa. Paying attention to Sharon's eyes during the final scene shows that they're emotionless and scary, similar to Alessa's.


Good lord, look at the time! My rant is over. I'd really like some feedback, especially about Cristabella and Gucci.