RETURN TO SILENT HILL

**

Directed by Christophe Gans.

Starring Jeremy Irvine, Hannah Emily Anderson, Evie Templeton.

Horror, US, 106 Minutes, Certificate 15.

Released in Cinemas in the UK on 23rd January by Entertainment Film Distributors.

I will admit straight away that I know very little about video games these days. Of course I know who Super Mario is but when it comes to the rest I am in the dark. My knowledge of Resident Evil goes little further than knowing George Romero wanted to make a film of it, it has zombies in it, something to do with an umbrella manufacturer and now Zach Cregger is making a film of it. When it comes to Silent Hill it gets even worse; I think there’s a baddie called Pyramid Head and a big tall woman. Other than that I’m pretty lost. It has been twenty years since Christophe Gans’ adaptation and a recent rewatch to prepare myself for this revisit still leaves me slightly mystified. That was a film from an era when video game adaptations were universally derided, unlike today when the likes of THE LAST OF US, SUPER MARIO BROS and MINECRAFT find much more acclaim from audiences and critics alike. Judging by this latest effort, Gans apparently wants a return to the old ways with this latest adaptation that more often than not feels like we are sitting idly by watching someone else play a game from years ago, a feeling helped in no small part by an abundance of unconvincing VFX and a lack of story, plot and interesting characters.

The film dives straight into it all with the introduction of James, played by Jeremy Irvine, who a lifetime ago was starring in the likes of Spielberg’s WAR HORSE. Driving recklessly through winding country roads, James narrowly avoids a major traffic accident but as a plus he meets Mary, portrayed by Hannah Emily Anderson. A bond is quickly forged as James offers to take her back to the beautiful looking town of Silent Hill which she calls home, even though two minutes before she seemed absolutely desperate to be rid of the place. This meet cute is soon interrupted by a flash forward to years later when we see James as a lonely drunk plagued by nightmarish visions of his lost love. Receiving a letter from her, asking him to return, James does so, only to find the small town enshrouded by ash and fog and near deserted but only for a host of nightmarish figures and creatures that hinder his quest. As James walks around all manner of decrepit buildings, armed only with a small radio that alerts him to the presence of supernatural figures, we learn more and more of what drove him away from the titular town and the dark secrets that tie his lost love to it so inextricably. 

Despite a small number of interesting visual flourishes, this is still an empty experience, particularly on a storytelling level. The atmosphere of a town overrun by a supernatural smog and the creatures it contains is, for the most part, captured by sub-par VFX that are reminiscent of the sub-par digital effects that plagued many a genre film in the early part of this century. It certainly does not help a film that is already hampered by a weak script, co-written by Gans, with weak characters and a thin plot that is stretched out to a near two hour running time. While watching it you are reminded, and saddened, that at the start of this century Gans was capable of so much more. His ambitious and wildly entertaining period horror-action mash-up THE BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF seemed to promise so much more than what we have been served since then.

Outlandish visual flourishes, such as the sheets of a levitating hospital bed unfurling themselves into a form reminiscent of a butterfly, help to grab the attention sporadically but I am left to guess whether this and other aspects have been lifted from the game or are an invention of the film itself. Fans of the franchise may feel satisfied, or not, with how the game has been translated but as a film on its own it stands as little more than a passive experience that fails to engage, excite or scare the viewer. Whether this is a faithful, true adaptation of a revered game or not is still unknown to myself, but the turgid story that has been presented in this particular medium leaves me less than curious to find out, killing any curiosity I may have had for it stone dead. That it pretty much does the same for its once promising writer and director as well could be scarier than anything he tries to bring to the screen here with what amounts to little more than a glorified, extra long cutscene.

Iain MacLeod