Silent Hill

Silent Hill (2006)

2:05 (125 min)

Horror, Mystery

Canada, France, Japan

6.8/10
538 756

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All about film

Video 11

Photo 174

Actors and characters

2:30

Photo 174

Production

Silent Hill DCP Inc., Davis Films, Konami

Release date

21 April 2006

Budget

$50 000 000

Revenue

$97 607 453

Director

Christophe Gans

Scenario

Roger Avary

Composer

Jeff Danna

Producer

Samuel Hadida

All team (124)

Actors

Radha Mitchell

Rose Da Silva

Sean Bean

Christopher Da Silva

Jodelle Ferland

Sharon / Alessa

Laurie Holden

Cybil Bennett

Deborah Kara Unger

Dahlia Gillespie

Kim Coates

Officer Thomas Gucci

Tanya Allen

Anna

Alice Krige

Christabella

All actors and roles (10)

• It took director Christophe Gans five years to secure the rights to make the film. He obtained them after sending Konami a video with an interview in which he described how much Silent Hill meant to him. In addition to the interview, he also sent scenes he had filmed at his own expense with music from the game overlaid.
• The film features four realities – two temporal (Silent Hill today, a flashback Silent Hill (30 years ago)) and two spatial (the foggy town and the alternate town).
• The film is based on the 1999 video game "Silent Hill".
• Rada Mitchell (Rose) was hit in the face by one of the Dark Nurses during the filming of the basement hospital scene.
• As Chris approaches the police barricade, he gets out of the car with his collar down. In the very next shot, his collar is standing straight up.
• The weapon used by the men in gas masks are metal pipes. This type of pipe is one of the first weapons encountered in the Silent Hill game.
• When Christopher and Inspector Gucci, who is wearing a blue tie and a gray coat, exit the building, the camera switches between Rose and Christopher. When it finally shows the officer in the background, behind Christopher, he is wearing a coat and tie of a different color.
• The cinema in Silent Hill is showing a double feature: "The Last Man on Earth" (1964) starring Vincent Price, and a remake of the same film, "The Omega Man" (1971) with Charlton Heston. Both films were based on Richard Matheson’s novel "I Am Legend".
• Approximately 100 different copies of Rose’s attire were made. It begins with soft summer colors, and as the film progresses, the color of the clothing becomes more gray, and ultimately blood red. These changes were executed so carefully that they were barely noticeable.
• Daniel J. Meyers, one of the men in gas masks, once lived in Brantford (Ontario), where the film was shot. He was on set as a sound operator and is not credited as an actor in the credits.
• When the deformed monster emerges from the wire gates and begins to walk towards Cybil and Rose, Cybil raises her left hand to her right (holding the gun) twice before starting to shoot.
• In the final scene, when the congregation has gathered, a phrase written in Latin is visible across the ceiling of the main room. It reads: 'Domine Deus Omnipotens in Cuius Manu Omnis Victoria Consistit...', which translates to 'Lord God Almighty, in whose hands all victory resides'. This is part of an old English prayer dating back to the period before the Norman conquest. The rest reads ‘…and war is broken, grant me strength and empower my heart, that I may fight and perform bold deeds, so that my enemies fall before my eyes’.
• Dancer and choreographer Roberto Campanella not only played the roles of Pyramid Head, Colin the Janitor, and the Martyr, but also coordinated the movements of all creatures and oversaw how each actor performed the movements of the corresponding character (specifically, characters such as the Ashman, the Dark Nurses, and the Armless).
• When Rose is arrested, the camera captures the rear of the jeep, and you can see the Ohio license plate “C3J 46E5” with a county indicator of “75” in the lower left corner (this is Shelby County, Ohio). These numbers are customized, as the standard for manufactured plates is 3 letters, 4 numbers (AAA 0000), and they were registered after 2004, as Ohio state plates changed format in 2004.
• When Christopher breaks into the archive, orange end caps and typical wiring are visible on the fluorescent lamps, identifying them as Kino-Flo lamps – a special type produced exclusively for the film industry. Their construction differs significantly from standard home lighting systems. The orange end caps indicate that these are tungsten-balanced lamps; daylight would appear blue on them.
• All the creatures in the film, with the exception of the cockroaches, were played by actors so that the audience could feel not only their reality but also their suffering.
• When Chris drives up to the police barricades, the angle at which the gates are open changes several times during the scene.
• When Alessa ascends to the church to take revenge on those responsible for her current state (after Rose is stabbed with a knife), it can be noticed that her burns are actually bandages, which, incidentally, do not cover her elbow, which looks perfectly normal against the backdrop of her entire disfigured body.
• At the gas station where Rose stops, the fuel is indicated in Canadian liters instead of American gallons.
• The phone used by Chris (Sean Bean) is a Sony-Ericsson Z600.
• During the production of the film, a decision was made to minimize the use of computer special effects. The greatest effort was devoted to creating the fog enveloping the abandoned town. Almost all the roles of monsters and bizarre creatures were performed by live actors dressed in latex.
• Roberto Campanella, when playing Pyramid Head, wore shoes with a 15-inch platform to make his height 7 feet tall.
• The prayers that Christabella and the citizens of Silent Hill recite in the church in an attempt to contain Alessa’s dark side are actually lines from Revelation, a book of the New Testament of the Bible.
• Milla Jovovich, Shannon Sossamon, and Meg Ryan were all considered for the lead female role.
• The strange, jerky movements of the Dark Nurses when they first “come to life” were achieved by playing a film of them walking backwards in reverse.
• When Alessa strangles the long-haired young man from the cult with barbed wire, the staircase where Sharon should be is clearly visible, but she is not there.
• Pyramid Head doesn't wear a skirt, as commonly believed, but an apron made of human skin. This becomes apparent from photos and documentaries from the filming.
• When the miners are trying to break down the bathroom door, the camera pans over the door frame from Rose's side to the miners. As it settles into its final position, you can see the sliding wall used for the pan moving back into place to the left of the door frame.
• When Christabella drops the dagger after stabbing Rose in the church, the dagger falls and it can be seen that it lies with the handle raised. When it is shown again, the pointed tip is raised instead, with a drop of Rose's blood falling onto the floor. And then, when it appears in the frame again, the handle is raised, and the blade is on the floor.
• Rada Mitchell (Rose) actually never saw the face of Yvonne Ng, as she was always in the Ashman costume.
• The image of West Virginia on the patch on Cybil's arm is flipped.
• The version shown in theaters is precisely the version that director Christophe Gans wanted to convey to the audience. In an interview, he said that his version pleased the studio executives and he was never asked to cut any scenes to shorten the film. Although the initial script was for a 3.5-hour film, no one expected that length during filming.
• The world premiere took place on April 21, 2006. A highly symbolic date for fans of the game “Silent Hill”: 21 is the number of victims of Walter Sullivan (Silent Hill 4: The Room), and 4 is the number of death in Japan, which is alluded to multiple times in the game (for example, the fourth floor in the Alchemilla Hospital in the first Silent Hill).
• When Rose approaches the jeep to find her mobile phone, her pendant 'jumps' into her blouse between shots outside and inside the car.
• Agent Sybil Bennett uses a Surefire M6 Guardian flashlight, which has a removable rear that rotates to switch to constant mode, while in the film, a simple click of the switch is heard.
• In the adaptation of Silent Hill, one can see the name of one of the shops, “M.T. Rooms” – a kind of playful reminder of the fact that in both the film and the game, most buildings are nothing more than facades with nothing behind them (Empty Rooms).
• Filming in Brantford (Ontario, Canada) lasted four days. The decaying part of the city, which was used in almost the entire film, was taken from the Colbourne St. area. This location was chosen because it required minimal alterations, as this part of the city was already in a deplorable state (though it was subsequently significantly cleared) and consisted of abandoned buildings that were easy to prepare for filming.
• Many of the creatures in the film were played by dancers. As a result, they turned out to be quite flexible and accurately conveyed the necessary anxiety in their movements.
• Christophe Gans initially wanted Cameron Diaz to play the role of Cybil.
• When Christopher asks about Sharon in the garage, the mechanic is working on a Dodge Magnum with West Virginia license plates on the front of the car. West Virginia does not issue front license plates.
• In the film, Silent Hill is a deserted ghost town that was abandoned because coal had been burning in the mines under the city for 30 years. While researching various elements of Silent Hill, screenwriter Roger Avery came across the town of Centralia (Pennsylvania), a virtually abandoned place where coal has been burning underground for 40 years. This town served as the prototype for creating the city in the film.
• A total of 165 sets and various locations were used during the filming of the movie.
• The original script featured only female characters. After submission, the script was returned to Christophe Gans with the note “no men!”. Sean Bean’s character was added, and the script was approved.
• In the scene of the witch burning in the church, the film crew was made up to look like onlookers watching the spectacle.
• When Rose first enters Silent Hill, just before the camera begins to circle around her, it can be noticed that her medallion is not a medallion at all, but an oval keychain.
• As a nod to "Silent Hill 3", a song from the game performed by Mary Elizabeth McGlynn plays during the end credits. Another song from the same game plays on the radio in the car with Rose and Sharon; in the in-game video of "Silent Hill 3", this song also plays on the radio in the car.
• The film's director, Christophe Gans, initially wanted to base the film on the video game Silent Hill 2, but its plot was not suitable for the first adaptation. According to Christophe, the story of the town of Silent Hill transforming into a sinister place was told specifically in the first game, and while the second part was his favorite in the series, it revealed less about the mythology and secrets of Silent Hill itself.
• When Rose first stands in Silent Hill and calls for Sharon, as the camera rotates around her, her hair alternately falls across her face and doesn't. This repeats several times during the camera rotation.
• In search of room 111, Rose cuts a painting, and the camera shows door number 111 behind the painting through the cut. Then Rose is heard making another cut to be able to crawl through the painting, but in the next frame there are no traces of a second cut, however the hole in it is clearly wider than it was before, and the shape of the cut is different.
• At the beginning of the film, when Rose runs frantically trying to find Sharon, she goes through a tunnel. Graffiti with the name “Cheryl” can be seen on the tunnel wall. This was the original name of Sharon from the video game.
• Cybil and Rose are trapped in a room, hiding from Pyramid Head, then he begins to pull on the metal bar blocking the door, the bar moving with difficulty. After Cybil shoots him in the hand, he reaches his hand through the hole in the door, and at that moment it is visible that the bar is much higher than his palm and doesn't even block the door.
• The license plate on Sibyl's car reads "BRAHMS," although the road sign clearly showed "BRAHAMS."
• When Rose returns to her Jeep to get her phone, she reaches for it in the center console. In the next shot, the phone's cord is already around her neck.
• At the beginning of the film, after Rose saves Sharon, they both lie under a tree. A close-up shows Sharon's hair falling across her face. In the next shot, it's gone, and then in another close-up, it's back on her face again.
• When Rose first enters Silent Hill, while she is screaming Sharon's name (the camera rotates around her), a red car can be noticed a few steps behind her. As soon as she sees Sharon, the camera pulls back, now the car is down the road she is running on towards Sharon.
• Sony acquired the rights to distribute the film in the United States and Latin America for $14 million.
• The film is set in West Virginia, but all the local townspeople have a distinctly Canadian accent (the main filming location).
• When Rose is in the bathroom of the old school, she approaches the Martyr to pull something from his mouth. If you look closely when she puts her hand through the barbed wire, you can see she touches it, revealing that the wire is actually made of rubber.
• Apart from Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", all other music is taken from the Silent Hill series of games.

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