Silent Hill with Lulu - Pyramid This!

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We wanted to tackle something really, REALLY spoopy for this years Spootober episode. So we tackled the 2006 movie based on the 1999 survival horror classic: Silent Hill. And we couldn't have asked for anyone better to cover this movie with than Lulu. What's with all this ash? What's her name again? Why is Boromir Sharpe in this movie? Do Miranda Rights not exist? Did they just meow at each other!?

psst. we've actually done a bunch of these "goes to the movies" episodes. Check this page to see all of the released specials.

Here's a sample of the full show notes - make sure to click through and check them out.

Content Warning

Due to the nature of the movie we talk about in this episode, we’d recommend that you don’t listen to this one with little ones around.

This film also deals with some pretty terrible things, whilst we don't actually talk about the terrible things, please take this as a trigger and/or content warning for harm befalling children.

We've also left in all the swears, as it's an episode about a horror film.

Please listen responsibly.

Show Notes

We started the episode by heading to Silent Hill in our outfits. Lulu went as the Grim Reaper, Jay as a Necromancer, and Squidge as... well, Squidge.

And finally, after 130 episodes, Jay go the intro right

Hello Squidgey!
- Jay

You'd have thought it wasn't difficult to mess up, but he manages it on almost every episode.

As Jay mentioned, this is Lulu's 16th appearance on the show - check this page for all of her appearances. Surprisingly, not all of them have been about Final Fantasy, too. Although, Lulu was distracted for a moment when thinking about her Hot Trash Daddy and decided that she needed a lobster bib because:

it's easier to just fling it over the balcony then
- Lulu

Thoughts Going In

We didn't really discuss our thoughts on the film before tackling it, except to say that Lulu isn't a fan of the sequel.

Nope. Burn it
- Lulu

But we did talk about our backgrounds regarding the games. Jay had played a little of the first one, the gave up; whereas Lulu and Squidge are the experts of the group, having played them all.

There were a lot of references to the video game, as the director (Christophe Gans) is on record as saying that he is a fan of the original PlayStation game and even had members of team Silent Hill on set to oversea certain aspects of the movie. As such, at points it feels like "References: The Movie".

And, of course, Sean Bean survives the movie. Which is one heck of an achievement.

Why was he in the movie, you ask? Because the studio said:

We can't sell a movie with an all female cast
- Very stupid movie producers

And not only is this bonkers but it's also bonkers - double bonkers, indeed.

The Plot

Here's a 10,000 ft view of the "plot", as we see it:

• SHAAARONN!
• Rose is running around in her sleepy clothes, because someone has gone missing - what's her name again?
• Cringe-fests and lack of chemistry between Mum and Daughter
• Let's not forget that Rose was wearing her socks to bed

Because people on IMDB are like that: they're weird. They tag, like, "this is a film about..." and then it's like "horror", and "multilation", and "horribleness", and "socks"
- Jay"

• Chekhov's Cross
• Travelling to Silent Hill in search of a script
• Even more lack of chemistry - cat noises does not mean that characters have bonded

clenched so hard you turned your face into a fist
- Squidge

• WKX-Weird Music on the radio
• "No credit cards for you!" - Boromir Sharpe
• The Silent Hill of the film is based on Centralia, Pennsylvania

It's worth reading about Centralia, as it's fascinating.

• "I'm not supposed to talk to strangers"
• More chemistry between the cop and Sharon, than with Rose and Sharon
• Drive-by tattoos at a cafe?
• Running from the police is a bad idea
• It's the crash from intro to the video game
• Ash is falling, all around me; kid's gone missing, where's she gone?
• The fog exists, but only to be creepy

---

About the Fog

So the fog was included in the original game because the 3D models and environments in the original game were so detailed that the drawing distance for the game had to be very close to Harry Mason's character model. The folks over at Team Silent (the developers of the Silent Hill games) decided to hide this by adding a fog effect. This served a dual purpose of making everything look really creepy and hiding the incredibly close drawing distance.

This was also why Harry picks up a broken radio, and uses that to know when the enemies are close by. Otherwise, the player would never know and would end up being ambushed by enemies they didn't know were right there.

---

The plot is that convoluted, in the early stages, that Jay became super confused and forgot a whole section of the movie: the first time Rose walks around in the town, before being arrested. Anyway, back to the plot...

• Press X to Sharron
• Store fonts are references to the game
• Let's play Silent Hill (1999)
• Jay and Lulu re-write the movie - this wasn't in the movie, but they did a great job of doing it in less than 30 seconds
• SYMBOLISM!

---

Lulu mentions something when talking about symbolism:

There's a lot of deep rooted symbolism in the Silent Hill games. And I think, as a game series, I'd honestly love to do a chat like this with you guys about the Silent Hill series; because so much symbolism
-Lulu

Watch this space, folks. We're in the process of arranging something with some special guests.

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• Meanwhile Rose is busy dropping her lighter and jacket
• Fus ro dah! and Jonny Cash
• Mis-direct mis-fires
• Boromir Sharpe tries to get some information out of a mechanic
• Boromir Sharpe starts phoning it in
• Rose gets arrested, but isn't read her Miranda Rights
• Cybil crashes because plot
• Cybil leaps into action, but not before taking her jacket off
• Squelchy things abound
• Rose takes a bus without taking a bus
• Meanwhile at the school, Rose finds a torch
• Lulu would be terrible in a zombie apocalypse - again,...