Game to Movie

When shown clips from the film Silent Hill in Friday’s lecture I know I had seen the film many years ago. I did not (until this week) know that it was an adaptation of a video game- and a close adaptation at that. The video I found on you tube demonstrates exactly how close the film is to the games. The film takes from the games Silent Hill 1,2 and 3 its emotional, religious and aesthetic content. In this you tube clip it is clear that both the film and game begin with the wakening of the main character after a car crash outside the town of Silent Hill to find their child missing. They then engulf in a search through an alternate reality of falling ash and fog.  While searching for their missing child both the game and films character face reality shifts and monsters. Though I watched this film with no prior knowledge of the games, the you tube videos that I watched on the Silent Hill games after Friday’s lecture made me appreciate how good the adaptation was. This film did receive some negative feedback from fans of the games due to the one major difference betweent he game and film- the sex of the main character. It is said that in order for the film to focus on females and motherhood they changed the main mail character to a female. Even though the film is not an exact copy of the game it is still faithful to the source of material- the games. The film successfully manages to carry over the effect of the nightmare world from the games including clues that lead onto different areas, the siren and static to signal that an enemy is near. The film even includes some of the games music.  I think the fact that I didn’t have any expectations when I watched this film like fans of the game would have, but I think it is safe to say that if I had been a player of the game and I had watched the film I still would have liked it just as much. I look forward to the sequel which will be based on a character from the Silent Hill 3 video game, Heather Mason.