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The Silent Hill Experience
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Film producers have always been trying to adapt video game to film or
even television series, but it rarely works out. There have been many
box office failures such as Street Fighter, Super Mario Brothers, Double
Dragon, Wing Commander, and anything that Uwe Boll has been associated
with (and yes, we WILL continue to take shots at Mr. Boll until he
realizes that he should get out of the film business for good.) With all
of these bombs, one would think that producers would get the idea and
abandon the idea once and for all, but Konami and Columbia/Tri-Star may
very well have come up with a film that will turn the tides in favor of
good game to film translations.
Most gamers, especially fans of survival horror, already know the name
Silent Hill. Although the game itself falls into the sub-genre which
Capcom has always gone on record as stating they created, Silent Hill is
as far removed from fan favorite Resident Evil as possible. Isolation
and unnatural creatures abound, the ideal thing to translate into the
world of film. The feature film is just around the corner, and Konami
has the perfect thing for not only loyalists of the series, but
newcomers who may only know the name by the trailers that have been
running on television and theaters across the country.
The Silent Hill Experience is not a video game no matter what you might
think, nor is it exactly a UMD, but it is just what it claims to be: an
experience. The first notable standout is the navigation of the disc.
Unlike other films that have been release, there isn’t a straight
forward menu, but instead the player (or user I suppose would be the
right term) is put in one of Silent Hills notorious locations, the
elementary school (I know, you thought I would say hospital) which you
are free to explore. The lower left of the screen contains a directional
interface, red being areas to move to and yellow being accessible
content. Of course, navigation does come with plenty of creepy sounds a
music making the UMD quite unsettling.
On one side, you will find digital adaptations of the Silent Hill comic
books, but these aren’t merely some flip-book style comics. Those
familiar with the SH comics that have already been released certainly
know of Dying Inside, the graphic novel written by Scott Ciencin who has
done a great deal of other work in the science fiction/horror genre
including well-known books and comics ranging from Star Trek to Buffy
the Vampire Slayer and even Transformers. Ciencin’s tale is retold,
including the artwork by Ben Templesmith and Aadi Salman, but what has
been done here is that the images have been animated with the camera
scrolling in various ways around them. The dialog pops up and fades out
as you read along and the entire series is now backed with music.
Dying Inside follows more unfortunate souls that have made the journey
to the gloomy Silent Hill. A doctor, Troy Abernathy, brings one of his
patients to the desolate town but as any gamer already knows, Silent
Hill is never a place to come searching for much of anything unless it
is undying terror. Each of the five parts to the story runs around 15
minutes each, but perhaps the most ambitious project to appear on this
UMD is the all-new Silent Hill: The Hunger, yet another terrifying
journey to the lonely town that, until now, has never been seen by fans.
There is more than comics to this release however, and many more secrets
to uncover. There are trailers for each of the Silent Hill games,
including the original, as well as a trailer for the movie and a music
video. If you like the music from the series, and quite a few people do,
there is a collection of tracks included that are again, from each of
the games. Akira Yamaoka, the composer of the games soundtrack as well
as that of the film, is interviewed on the UMD and is featured yet again
along side the movies director, Christophe Gans. These aren’t short
interviews though, and they are not only quite lengthy, they are
extremely informative and will give you some new insight on the games as
well as the movie.
Whether you’re already a fan of the Silent Hill series or have become
even more curious because of the films upcoming release, The Silent Hill
Experience is bound to please you, and perhaps make sleeping just a
little more difficult at night. As we stand on the threshold of the
theatrical debut of what is without a doubt the most highly anticipated
video game to movie release, this new UMD will tide you over until the
lights dim in the theater and the paranoia begins anew. -mike-
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