Just watched Silent Hill, the movie

[Nev the Deranged]

Holy crap on a pogo stick, can we say Sorcerer reference material boys and girls? I knew you could.

I am a huge fan of the first SH game, that and Fatal Frame are the only games I've ever played that have literally scared the crap out of me. Didn't like SH2 nearly as much, and so have not played 3 or 4 yet, but I am going to hunt them down and play them all through with a bit more of an open mind, I think.

The movie isn't completely in line with the games (although the games themselves aren't completely in line with each other). The movie borrowed from SH1 and 2, and added some stuff, and worked out better than I thought it would. Still not as scary as the first game, but cool nonetheless. I know SH2 is a different story, and SH3 picks back up on the threads from 1, while 4 is only tenuously related to 2.

Aaaanyway. The movie wasn't bad, and WOW is it chock full o' sorcerous goodness, especially toward the end.

Highly recommended for Sorcerer fans or anybody that likes urban horror.

(yes, I know it's an old movie now, but I just got around to it, sue me).

[Ron Edwards]

Huh ... I went to the video store the other day and saw all sorts of splatter-horror movies that I'd never heard of. I'd seen posters for Silent Hill, though.

Perhaps it's time for a hard-core nightmare-blood flick weekend, with a strong "how Sorcerer is it" justification.

Best, Ron

[Andrew Cooper]

Well, I just watched Saw I, II, & III all in one sitting a week or two ago.  While it didn't make me think of Sorcerer in terms of demons it did make me immediately think of humanity definitions and how they played out when characters were under serious pressure.  I also had very weird dreams the next few nights.  Maybe next time I should space the blood and ick out some.

 

[Nev the Deranged]

I watched SPL (Sha Po Lang, american title was Killzone, I think) again recently... man oh man is that movie brutal. Not so much demonic, as you say, but certainly some inexorable personal drives coming into conflict, and a lot of Humanity issues flying around there. Suffice to say that by the end of the movie, nobody is happy.

[xenopulse]

I'm not sure how directly Sorcerer-related the Silent Hill franchise is... unless you somehow think the protagonists are doing sorcery. But I think the one demonic influence involved is not the protagonists'.  I'd be interested in hearing more about your opinion there, Nev, but I don't want to use spoilers in here

That said, SH2 is, thematically, the very best survival horror game ever.  It's definitely a game about humanity, with so many things it addresses: guilt, redemption, objectification, lust, mortality, relationships...

[Nev the Deranged]

I'm not sure how directly Sorcerer-related the Silent Hill franchise is... unless you somehow think the protagonists are doing sorcery. But I think the one demonic influence involved is not the protagonists'.  I'd be interested in hearing more about your opinion there, Nev, but I don't want to use spoilers in here

That said, SH2 is, thematically, the very best survival horror game ever.  It's definitely a game about humanity, with so many things it addresses: guilt, redemption, objectification, lust, mortality, relationships...

 Well, I wasn't saying the franchise is particularly sorcerous, although I think arguments could be made. But the movie definitely is.

 I preferred SH1 over SH2 by a significant margin. Although, granted, a big reason for that is that SH2 did not follow SH1 plotwise, which I was expecting it to, and was annoyed by. The more overt sexual and moral stuff in SH2 definitely makes it more Sorcerer-ish (even if there is less actual sorcery in it compared to SH1). I have not yet played SH3, but I will be doing so just as soon as I work through the first two games again. I understand the main character is the daughter who was the macguffin in SH1, so I'm psyched about that.

 SH1 is my favorite survival horror game, and one of my favorite games, period. Fatal Frame comes a close second for actually being able to make me, the player, scared.

 I wish I had more time to play video games... *sigh* (goes back to playing Ogre Battle 64...)

[jburneko]

I thought I'd chime in here since I'm a big Silent Hill fan.

Considering the video games Silent Hill 2 is by far my favorite and seriously influence much of role-playing and especially my Sorcerer role-playing.

I agree that the movie suddenly becomes a Sorcerer story in the last half hour.  Up until that point I was enjoying the immensely as a kind of video game fan service thing but when I hit the end I was like, "Oh my god!  There is a story under all this and it's a SORCERER story!"

The protagonists key choice at the end is both amazing and disturbing.

Jesse

[Nev the Deranged]

The protagonists key choice at the end is both amazing and disturbing.

 Really? I thought it was the first sensible choice she made in the whole movie. It may not have been pretty, but it was certainly appropriate.

  it must be late, it took me three tries to spell appropriate, and I'm still not sure it's right... @_@