My Thoughts on the New Silent Hill Movie

Now let's begin with some disclosures. The first is that I'm a huge Silent Hill fan. The first game I played was SH 3 and from there I've been in love with the series. I recognize they've had some missteps... namely with Homecoming where they mucked with the gameplay too much and took out all the scares. The series' most recent game "Shattered Memories" was excellent though and hopefully Silent Hill 8 will follow in its footsteps.

The second thing is that I was not a huge fan of the Silent Hill movie. It's probably one of the better game-to-film adaptations (I also really dislike the RE films) out there in my opinion, but when I put it next to the games I see a lot wrong with it. That's just me though, I'm a nitpicker about these kind of things.

I'll be honest, I was surprised to hear that they were making a new SH movie. The first debuted to average reviews, but I'm not too sure how much money it made. Clearly it was enough to warrant a sequel. When the announcement came the biggest question I had was which game were they going to adapt? Were they going to go in "order" and go for Silent Hill 2? Or were they going to continue the story in the first movie with adapting Silent Hill 3. Unfortunately for me, both options were something I was afraid of. Silent Hill 2 easily has the greatest story in the series and Silent Hill 3 is my favorite of the series.

Alas, they chose to go with Silent Hill 3. Fine. I wasn't going to freak out yet because they'd chosen a different writer and director (who are the same person actually), but I was wary. The next thing that scared me was the casting. I love Heather. I dunno why, but I do. I also love Vincent. He's probably one of my all time favorite SH characters. He played both sides of the field all the time. You never really knew if he was helping Heather, or trying to get her killed. He also had some of the best lines in the game. Douglas, how could you not think he was awesome? He was always there for Heather.
I was worried about who they were going to get to play these characters. As of today, almost all the major characters except Douglas have been cast. Of course things could change and Douglas may not even be in the movie at all. They've also decided to bring Sean Bean, Rahda Mitchell, and Deborah Kara Unger back from the first movie. I thought Sean Bean was awesome so I'm glad he's back. I'm not too sure why the other two are back because their characters never appeared in the game, but then again Cheryl never had a mother in the first game either.

Anyways, like I was saying, they've cast most of the major roles now. Adelaide Clemens will play Heather. Now, I never had anyone picked out in my head to play Heather in a movie so I can't complain about this choice yet. At least she looks the part. Kit Harington (Game of Thrones) has been cast as Vincent. When I saw this, I was skeptical, but figured I'd wait to see a photo of him in costume (an important part of Vincent). Now that I've seen the photo of him and Heather (below), I'm not pleased. They've got the vest, sure, but everything else seems off about him.

Adelaide Clemens as Heather Mason and Kit Harrington as Vincent.

Carrie-Anne Moss and Malcolm McDowell were just announced today as Claudia Wold and Leonard Wolf. Carrie-Anne seems like a really good choice actually. She's a very monotone actress who I think could play a very quiet and dry villain (if that makes any sense). I had originally thought McDowell was playing Douglas - which would have been an awesome choice - but it seems that Leonard's role is being expanded a great deal for the movie. He wasn't in the game a whole lot so I'm not too sure what to think yet. McDowell is a fantastic actor though, so there is hope.

I admit though, that most of my opinions based off of a few pictures and what I thought of the previous movie. This is a different director and writer so there's a chance things could change for the better. Unfortunately they're going along with the whole 3D craze. It's even in the title which bothers me a lot. I don't see why they couldn't leave that off and just advertise it in posters and trailers.

In the end though, a large part of me is excited. This excitement is mostly driven by curiosity, but what can you do? I'm a huge fan of Silent Hill and will consume it in any form possible. So yes, that means no matter how bad the reviews of this movie are, I will wind up seeing it. How healthy I am after it's over though, I can't say yet (but it's looking grim so far).

Please God... Just give me a trailer.

What do you think about the movie. Are you a fan of Silent Hill? Are you a fan of the cast? Or are you wary and worried like me? Sound off in the comments below! I love a good debate!

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