Who else is looking foward to SILENT HILL (2006)?

Call me crazy but I can't wait to see this. I have absolutely no knowledge of the game outside of renting it out to people back in the days of video store slave labor. But I am always looking for horror films that take themselves dead serious and have tons of atmosphere. Judging from the trailers and what I have read, SILENT HILL looks like it will fit that description. The creatures (done mostly through practical effects rather than CGI) look unique and the trailers give off a great Lovecraftian mood. Plus, I am a fan somewhat of Christophe Gans (liked CRYING FREEMAN & his NECRONOMICON entry; thought BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF was awful). So, anyone else going to check this one out?

I'm not entirely sure that it's going to be dead serious...it's scripted by Roger Avary, who tends to maintain a dark humored sensibility within his writing.

Looks fun, though.

I thought BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF was fantastic, which is the only reason I'm interested in SILENT HILL; I sort of like the look but I'm cool to the guy with the big birdcage on his head... looks a little too Clive Barker to me and that's so 80s. Like Rhada Mitchell and the largely female cast... eh, who knows.

This post has been edited by Richard Harland Smith on Apr 20 2006, 11:21 AM

I'd take HELLRAISER, NIGHTBREED, and LORD OF ILLUSIONS over most of the drek that passes for horror these days.

This post has been edited by Terry Barhorst, Jr. on Apr 20 2006, 09:52 AM

Maria Bello is nowhere near this movie. And upon revisiting HELLRAISER again last night, I think we need more movie magic like that today. (and if that movie is "so 80s" why are most 80s horror movies one-liner joke fests?)

SILENT HILL is directed by Christophe Gans and shot by his BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF director of photography, production designer Carol Spier (MIMIC, BLADE 2, just about every Cronenberg) is onboard, and the game... well, back when there were precious few good horror movies back in the 90s, I got into X-Files and Playstation games for my horror fixes and the Silent Hill game was the scariest and most stylish of the bunch. I used to play this game squinting and holding the controller as far away from my body as I could. Generally, I wrinkle my nose at the thought of videogame movies, but this one has a really good scary story to work with. Plus, it's got Sean Bean, Deborah Kara Unger, and Alice Krige.

Yes, I am very pumped for a big serious gothic horror movie filled with monsters. And not just new versions of vampires, werewolves, or slithering slugs, but entirely new concepts! Oh, I am so very pumped for this one. And if I was invited to a free screening tonight, I would most likely be prohibited from saying anything about it online, wouldn't I? So, I cannot confirm or deny any reviews that might pop up later...

This post has been edited by William D'Annucci on Apr 20 2006, 09:57 AM

I give up-- why?

HELLRAISER was kind of the beginning of horror deciding to throw a bunch of effects at the audience to divert them from the reality that there was no scare there (to paraphrase Gertrude Stein). It's not the worst offender by a long shot, but it's not a particularly interesting (to me) horror movie either. And LORD OF ILLUSIONS was just a shameful vanity project; Barker should have gotten Scott Bakula to pop out of a cake at his birthday party that year and save us the 2 hours.

So the six FRIDAY THE 13TH films preceding HELLRAISER didn't exist?

I think there is quite a bit of substance to HELLRAISER. It isn't particularly scary but I don't think the elaborate effects, which are actually quite minimal save the resurrection and ending, are there to distract. Shame that Barker bloke never made another picture though.

I'm observing (and you may not) a distinction between practical gore effects (which were the F13 series' stock-in-trade) and the kind of digital legerdemain of HELLRAISER and its sequels, which (as I said above) work to blind the audience with an audacious flash that is chiefly concerned with masking an insubstantial story.

Well, gore effects notwithstanding, most FRIDAY 13ths were 'horny teens, slash, stab, poke, rinse, repeat'. plotwise. Not to my taste, but I know there's plenty that grok it.

Special effects of one kind or another have been married to the genre since the gitgo.

It seems like most of the big horror movies we've seen lately have been centered around human monsters of one kind or another. If I want to see human monsters all I have to do is turn on the tv news or read a paper. That's one of the reasons why SLITHER was so refreshing, and with any luck SILENT HILL. I want something out-of-this-world to be scared of.

This post has been edited by Terry Barhorst, Jr. on Apr 20 2006, 12:43 PM

But I can't think of a single digital effect in the original HELLRAISER. The sequels are definitely guilty though.

I think plenty dig it but may not grok precisely why they do. But anyway. Like them or not (and I do and I don't), the F13 movies are linear, folkloric (or urban legendary) and simple. HELLRAISER, et al, is more ambitious, more informed by dream logic and fetish and should be commended for that... but it also (for me) falls short of actually doing anything with those exquisite elements.

Thank you John Brosnan! The point of my original post was not to bash special effects, but rather to show that BOOGEYMAN and current movies that throw a lot of CGI at the seemingly genre-specific third act problem of how to tie things up might owe a debt to HELLRAISER and its sequels.

Funny you should mention John Brosnan. He died a year ago this month, in the third week of April. Somehow fitting for this thread.

Who am I to argue with a 'Mobian God' (!!!), but are you really saying the effects in this film aren't mostly CGI? Based on the trailer, it looks like it's all CGI to me. I was slightly intrigued by the poster art for this, but then I saw the trailer. Honestly, the trailer convinced me not to see the film. It's the same dumb formula trailer that I always complain about - the slow build-up to the inevitable montage of quick clips, ending in one final dumb jolt. Of course, just that the trailer is so derivative and dull doesn't mean that the actual film will be so. Unfortunately, however, it all just looks like another CGI-fest from what you can see in the trailer. I think that's why lately I gravitate away from fantastical horror and more towards reality-based thrills. I'm just so sick of this CGI cartoon stuff. I'd rather watch Bugs Bunny.

The only way to know for sure is to sit through it, which is often its own reward...or punishment. Or wait for the reviews, but there are plenty of movies adored on mobius that haven't been treated kindly by critics and/or reviewers. SILENT HILL may be one of them or not. Video game movies haven't had the best track record.

Oh no...I can't believe I have reached the much rumored 'Mobian God' status. Thanks/no thanks for pointing that out.

As far as the effects, I am only talking about the creatures that I mentioned in my original post. In an interview with Gans I read, he said that almost all of the distorted creatures were done with on the set with people in costumes and make up. Judging from the trailer, there is plenty of CGI trickery to go around in the film but the creatures are supposed to be legit. Even if the movie is terrible, I am just glad to see that the monsters were done in the real world, something I far prefer over CGI.

This post has been edited by William S. Wilson on Apr 20 2006, 03:19 PM

Bob, as Homer Simpson: "Alice Krige...arrrllll (happy drool)."

Bob loves him some Alice Krige, the only reason to ever watch Ghost Story again!

Why haven't we seen any reviews for this yet?

Did you catch her on a recent episode of LAW & ORDER, as an opera diva whose daughter is found dead in the opera house airshaft and conductor terrible Julian Sands the prime suspect?

Clive Barker took the horror world by storm because he had substance to go along with the scares. When I'm in the mood flash over substance I watch Euro- horror/gialli, though Hill looks it will fill that bill as well.

Here is the first one. I didn't read it except to glance at the rating at the bottom.

http://www.horrorchannel.com/index.php?nam...wcontent&id=902