Since when has Silent Hill been about evil little girls?

[BlackKnight]

^ Discuss.

 

I have beef with the fact that the wicked little girl is suddenly the primary iconography of the series, when it never really has been before. Tying into that, why is Travis fighting Pyramid Head?

 

This series has gone to hell and I point the finger squarely in that dodgey movie's direction. Agree?

[Agozer]

Personally, I liked the movie. Having said that, I don't have very high hopes for SH5, even though the graphics looks neat. As for the little girl thing, she was the centerpiece in SH1 and the movie pretty religiously lifted elements primarily from SH1, followed by SH2. Besides, creepy and evil little girls are creepy.

 

Travis is fighting Pyramid Head most likely because the developers thought that said PH is the ultimate villain in the SH universe. And cool. And then some. Go figure. He one of the best video game villains ever, but over using him just for the sake of badassness is not good.

 

P.S. Why is this in SPAM? More Silent Hill talk is always good.

[BlackKnight]

Well my understanding of the first game was that it was the portion of Alessa's soul still trapped in her burnt adult body that was causing all the paranormal in the other world, and the little girl / Cheryl was only there because she was running away from Harry to reunite with the other half of herself. If that makes sense. Hence, having a girl around so much outside of that context is somewhat meaningless.

 

The Pyramid Head thing... yeh I know. I agree. But I'm still ticked about it. Its in line with my first point... by exploiting these things they lose their meaning and they become cheap horror tricks. PH is not just some cool evil dude with a knife. Just like you shouldn't have Cheryl without Harry, you can't have this guy without James. Its a shame people coming to the franchise now won't know why though, and will probably never know what was so special about these things in the first place.

 

Its in SPAM because I thought this was going to turn into a rant. I was also taking a stab at Origins for the PSP, not SH5, although I don't hold a great deal of hope for that either. Gameplay wise Origins is great and all and has some good production values... I just hate the way the influence of the film has now mainstream-ed Silent Hill games from psychological / atmospheric horror into cheap thrill / cheap effect horror.

[Wizard]

The fans made PH something else afterwards as the ultimate "SH" bad guy. Just a nutty crazy peice of one's soul going "REPENT, REPENT, REPENT, REPENT FOR WHAT YOU DID" type of thing. Which sorta went that way after SH2 years after. We basically attributed him to being guilt we cannot bare instead of his original mean of sexual domination poweress. The game has changed alot over the years, instead of becoming something else, it's become someone's personal purgatory so they can have their ephiphany or not.

 

Also the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the film series. Changing it to a woman made me realise how much Harry's part fit's with a motherly thing instead.

[Skythe]

Why are y'all calling the one in 0rigins Pyramid Head? He's called the Butcher.

 

SH4 was I think the only one that didn't involve a little girl but a little boy.

[BlackKnight]

Also the movie was a pretty good adaptation of the film series. Changing it to a woman made me realise how much Harry's part fit's with a motherly thing instead.

The only instance in which the Silent Hill movie was a good adaption is when you're considering all the really bad game-to-movie projects, which isn't setting the bar very high.

 

The movie took elements of the games and stitched them together in superficial and predictable ways. There are only 2 reasons why this would happen; it was either intentionally dumbed down for the masses or else betrays the writers' inability to comprehend what the games were about in the first place.

 

You could say it was a smart move swapping in a woman protagonist. But then you could look at that the other way and say that the mother-as-carer is typical of traditionally gendered media and that having a man as the concerned parent instead would be an unusual and interesting way to explore masculinity. Maternal instinct on screen is a cliche in itself and the film isn't any better for choosing a stock character type for its lead. It doesn't necessarily heighten the drama either. I think having a man in there would have ultimately been the better choice.

 

Considering the naive way in which the writers approached other aspects of the production, I'm not surprised they found it easier to write the lines for a chick.

 

 

Why are y'all calling the one in 0rigins Pyramid Head? He's called the Butcher.

 

SH4 was I think the only one that didn't involve a little girl but a little boy.

In SH2 he wasn't called 'Pyramid Head' either. He was the Red Pyramid or something. In SH4 he was referred to as dragon-something something... can't remember. But in each case we know who we're talking about.

 

Also what little girls did you mean in SH2 and 3? Laura wasn't particularly supernatural and Heather was in her teens.

[Skythe]

Heather was the little girl's good side from 0 and 1. So I still count it.

 

I hated Laura so I count her.

 

The Butcher isn't the same creature as Pyramid Head. They don't even look the same. The Red Pyramids were the two you had to face at the same time that had the spears. Other than that it was just the Pyramid Head (who was called that cuz *gasp* he has a pyramid on his head). The Butcher doesn't even have a pyramid on his head just half of it covered up with metal and wields a giant butcher knife niether a giant machete or a spear. Nothing in common. Except that they're are both tall creature murdering badasses.

 

Also note that Konami gave thumbs up to the script written for the movie and thought the director did a damn good job for the story and agreed to every explanation he made.

[Wizard]

^--- To add; They even got Akira's help both as a game and music consultant.

[Skythe]

I think that's just a given period.

[Agozer]

Also note that Konami gave thumbs up to the script written for the movie and thought the director did a damn good job for the story and agreed to every explanation he made.

True. Also, to my understanding, Team Silent wasn't very keen on giving the Silent Hill movie rights to just anyone, and Christophe Gans really had to prove that he would do justice to Silent Hill should he be given the rights to the movie.

 

Sure, the movie isn't the Holy Grail of video game movies, far from it, but I think that Gans really did well. I think that some of the choices he made while directing it were made with the general audience in mind, hence the cliche'd feel in certain aspects of the movie. He had to to make those choices, since it probably would have been too much of a risk to create a movie that only the most hardcore fans of Silent Hill (those who understand the thematic elements in SH; the background, the monsters, the people, etc.) would understand and appreciate.

 

The irony is that, even with the changes, Silent Hill can only be truly understood by those hardcore SH fans.

[Cominus]

Girls are naturally evil.