Take 53: Return to Silent Hill
In Return to Silent Hill, the protagonist, James (Jermey Irvine) receives a letter from his lost love, Mary(Hannah Emily Anderson), who hie met years before when he inadvertently causes to miss her bus as she is trying to leave her hometown of Silent Hill, beckoning him to return. On his quest to find his lost love, he encountered terrifying figures, some old and some new that cause him to question his very sanity.
This is actually the third film and it is loosely-based on the second game in the Silent Hill video game series and is in many ways a reboot of the series as very little to do with the first film that came out in 2006 that I may or may not have seen. I was trying to remember if I had seen that one or not. I mean, it’s been 20 years (wow, how is that even possible?) and I decided that it really didn’t matter. And that’s what I felt most of the time while watching this- it really didn’t matter. The stakes just weren’t there for me. I wasn’t very invested.
I did try to play Silent Hill 2 when it came out. I hadn’t played many horror games and there is a reason for that: I am a chicken when it comes to that. I get very immersed in the experience so in theory, they always sound fun, but once I get involved, my anxiety just won’t let me enjoy it. I remember a zombie attacked me from underneath a van and it creeped the heck out of me. It was rather satisfying to see that moment homaged in this film. As brief as my exposure to the game had been all those years ago, I remembered THAT moment so it was cool to see it was here. I am sure there are plenty of other moments like that throughout this movie. I wish I could have gotten more of them. This movie would have made so much more since if I was better versed in the game. Or maybe not, the adaptation is pretty loose, but I am sure a working knowledge of the source material would have helped.
Visually, I will admit it was pretty cool. There are moments that are really stylized and darkly beautiful. There is one scene in particular involving a group of misshapened zombie-creatures with there ridiculously exaggerated contorted bodies that really in my mind, could have been a Gaga video. So twisted, but so cool. It’s just dark enough without going as grotesque as some of the movies I have seen recently (note to self, you are due a good-old comedy soon), that I never really felt overwhelmed.
The story itself as fine. Nothing to write home about. There is an attempt to tell a good amount of the story through flashback, which I normally like. Here though, it’s just confusing and is relied upon a a bit too much. I was confused about how we got here. Like, what exactly led us to any moment in the present. And then t the ending… I really try to avoid spoilers, but I was just left scratching my head. It just didn’t add up and it made everything seem so unnecessary and futile. Like what was the point? I just didn’t get it.
Over all, I really didn’t hate it. It was fine. Definitely not the worst I have seen but it all just felt so unnecessarily pointless. Fortunately, my expectations were extremely low so pretty hard to disappoint when the bar is that low. My score: 6.8- mostly because the aesthetic was a cool at least.
Unable to remain silent through this review? Sound off in the comments. And until next time (hopefully it will be something more upbeat….)
