Wednesday, 4 December 2013

Film Review: Silent Hill (2005) Director: Christopher Gans



Brief plot outline: A young girl keeps having moments where she wonders off and puts herself in all kinds of dangerous situations only to be saved by her mother. The girl has no memory of the things she does, the girl and her mother go on a long drive but they crash just outside of Silent Hill and when the mother regains conciseness her daughter is nowhere to be found. Can she save her daughter from her own worst fears?

Which two scenes impressed you the most? Why? The first scene that impressed me was where the final girl walks into the room full of the undead nurses because the scene was so unsettling, the way they moved was unsettling too and the whole scene was very tense because of techniques such as low key lighting and the use of the flashlight which restricted what we could see making it that much scarier. The cutting gets quicker the further into the scene we get until the nurses notice the final girl and try to kill her but they just end up slitting each other’s throats the use of the gore here made this scene more disgusting for the audience. The other scene was where the character “Pyramid Head” rips the skin off of a living woman, this scene completely shocked me because it was very sudden and the use of body horror was very powerful too.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of film making? Which features on the genre checklist did you spot in the film? When? How? This film helped me understand the horror genre by using a wide range of cinematography, editing, sound etc. This film used most of the genre checklist however there was no psycho serial killer because it was not needed because instead it used a variety of slow moving monsters. There was plenty of body horror/ blood and gore like the end scene with the barb wire that kills nearly everyone, the creepy location was Silent Hill itself which worked very well because it created that sense of being trapped as the only way out was collapsed. Low key lighting was used when hiding from “Pyramid Head” in a dark room with only one exit. There was a male hero in this film but he wasn’t involved much because he wasn’t in Silent Hill, however there were two female heroes which were the police woman and the girl’s mother, although you might say the police woman was a female victim as well.

Which aspects of the film would you like to AVOID in your own trailer? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How? If I had to choose something that I would avoid in my own trailer it would be that the film used too many computer animated effects on the gore and personally I prefer practical effects because they look more realistic.

What were the best aspect/ more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How? I wouldn’t say it was an enjoyable moment but when Cyndil (the police woman) is burnt alive for being a witch. I’d like to recreate this because she was a likeable character who was unfairly killed because she saved the final girl, there was an emotional effect when she was killed and I would like to recreate this so that it has a horrifying effect on my audience.

How does the film show the influence of its “auteur” director? How does it show the directors filmmaking style and soul? Give examples of three scenes from the movie that show their auteur style. You can see from watching films directed by Christophe Gans that he likes dark plots which is clear to me after watching Brotherhood of the Wolf which is about a serial killer in eighteenth century France . This is also made obvious from the opening to Silent Hill has a little girl nearly killing herself so already you can tell the auteur style is dark, as for setting the first time you see the town of Silent Hill it is barely visible because of the fog and instantly makes the audience feel gloomy. Then there is the children’s school which is creepy and this makes the audience uneasy especially because of the use of blood and corpses.

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