Translating Videogames to Cinema - A Reading of Silent Hill

In a delightfully coincidental fashion, the filmic adaption of the Silent Hill videogame series screened on Channel 4 this Saturday just gone (9^th Feb), as anyone still watching scheduled TV might have noticed! I’m not a huge fan of super-natural horror (largely because anything entailing demonic possession scares me silly) but given the timing I just couldn’t resist watching, and I thoroughly enjoyed it. My flatmates, less aware of the film as borrowing from across the game series, were not as impressed, finding the plot to be too detailed and the monsters too abstract. However this was exactly what I loved about the Silent Hill film; it took many aesthetic and structural elements from videogames in general. Concerning horror games in particular which commonly entail very original and abstract monstrous creations, the Silent Hill film wasn’t afraid to use creatures of difficult categorization which were ultimately bewildering and added to the unsettling nature of the film setting.

Interestingly but not too surprisingly, I found myself negotiating this film through the lens of a videogame, perceiving various settings and aspects of narrative structure in the film to share similarities with games using a ‘quest-narrative’ and open-map design. I’m tempted to elaborate further on my thoughts, so this post aims to discuss the less common occurrence of films being adapted from videogames, using Silent Hill as an example.

Removing any bias toward either medium, I think it’s fair to say that Films generally cause more hype, gain more attention and occupy a more favoured position in many societies than videogames do (note that I’m not concerned with comparing the profit generation of these mediums, which is likely to be another story). One way of supporting this claim is to consider the number of games that follow (or anticipate) the release of a film on which they are based, compared to that of influence moving in the other direction, a claim that Juul (2001) supports yet finds examples of by way of Mario Brothers and Tomb Raider. While this relationship may be in transition with the perceived cultural value of videogames steadily rising, the nature of block-buster films often being accompanied by a peripheral game adaption is arguably due to the size of mainstream film audiences being larger and more varied than that of games. Hence a film being adapted from a game is often a result of that game being exceptionally popular, with an established fan-base of sufficient size (and profit potential).

Another aspect of a game that is likely to make its adaption to film more plausible is the use of a quest narrative, which the Silent Hill games do with the inclusion of very detailed plots. As a result the film unfolds with a narrative arch that is quite typical of cinematic quest narratives; a problem needs solving to restore normalcy (distressed daughter taken to perceived place of consolation), protagonist warned against motive, and accompanied, by character of wisdom (female police lieutenant), situation turns out to be different from what protagonist first expected (discovery of Silent Hill being haunted), protagonists personal mission becomes entwined in the fate of the discovered threat and resolution of both is equally related. As Juul points out, game-to-film adaptions become less seamless when initiated by games of a different formula such as the ‘dynamic system’ of a fighting game, producing a vast number of ways that the ‘narrative’ or ‘alterbiography’ (to use George Calleja’s terminology) could pan out.

My experience of the Silent Hill film as a text borrowing aspects of setting and narrative structure from the game series should be taken as nothing more than this. I’m not arguing that the film is some kind of solidified alterbiographic rendition of the game(s), because the film has no exact game comparison (as an adaption, it takes cues from all four Silent Hill games). What I want to draw attention to is how the film can be read as taking aspects of setting and narrative structure from the game series, and quest based videogames in general, in a similar way to how a videogame adaption of a film might use narrative conventions and plot of its informant to create a sense of story alongside game-play.

Firstly, the entrance of film protagonist Rose into areas of the haunted town where she encounters monsters, are set up as if entering the arena of a videogame ‘boss’ or significant character-based obstacle. Rose commonly encounters these significant threats in seemingly designated spaces; for example the open air courtyard where she’s chased by a mob of severely burnt phantom children, or the bathroom containing the contorted, barbed-wire skewed janitor. Although Rose cannot be said to surpass these ‘bosses’ by vanquishing them, the scenes are set-up as if this would be her only means of continuing her journey, which would no doubt be required were these instances translated to a videogame.

Secondly, and extending from the previous point, when Rose encounters a threat, it is a new monster of seemingly increased danger. It is as if Rose must reply with a heightened skill level of attack. Rarely does any particular monster reappear, giving the impression that even though Rose may not have destroyed it, the threat has been surpassed and a new position accomplished as she continues her quest.

Thirdly and on a different note, the audience is given a fairly clear impression of the town’s layout, again comparable to a videogame in that intimate awareness of one’s physical location is most valuable for completing a game using an ‘open-map’ structure. Not only is Rose’s progression through the town buildings vividly portrayed through P.O.V and round-the-corner tracking shots typical of the horror film genre, at one point she comes across a sign-posted map of the town which the camera tracks over with a close-up. The audience is shown in detail where Rose is, and must make her way to. As I viewed this part of the film, I was given the uncanny impression that I’d hit the select button on some phantom game-controller to take a break from the intensity of Rose’s surroundings; to find my feet and re-evaluate the point of her quest. However I of course was not in control. The path of Rose was not mine to choose, and her goals would be reached without my help despite how incredibly immersed I felt in the Silent Hill township.

While my reading of this film may have been presupposed by knowledge of its adaption from a game series, I’m sure that the creators of the film made it with the intension of portraying game-play. I had no control other than to turn the channel, yet aspects of the film described above caused me to evaluate Rose’s surroundings and the creatures she encountered with a strange desire for control.

I’d be interested to see what others think of this discussion in relation to their experience of the film adaption, particularly from anyone with knowledge of the games as mine is very limited.   

Reference:

Juul, J. (2001) “Games Telling Stories? A Brief Note on Games and Narratives”. The International Journal of Computer Game Research, 1(1) http://www.gamestudies.org/0101/juul-gts