Silent Hill sequel confirmed?

IGN is reporting that a second Silent Hill movie is going to start filming next year.

As a huge Silent Hill fan, I have mixed feelings about this. The first movie was..... conflicting. The story was garbage, while the visual style was excellent, but it wasn't the same excellent visual style that the games had. I wouldn't say I'm optimistic about a sequel, particularly as Roger Avery is back on board to write the script, but I want to see a good Silent Hill movie so I'm happy they're trying again. That said, here are a few ways they could help this movie suck less (warning: spoilers for the first two games and the movie below):





First, make it feel like the games. One of my main problems with the movie (apart from the sucky writing, which we'll get to) was that it just didn't feel like the game it was based on. Now I'm not one of those "they changed it, now is sucks" type of fan. I don't view a departure from the style of the games as being inherently wrong. It's just that Silent Hill has such a unique atmosphere, it's a shame not to capture that on film when you have the chance. A few ways to do this are-

- Make the town look more modern
- Less action. The first film had far too much noise and people running around screaming, particularly in the Otherworld
- Less monsters gnashing their teeth and more slow-burning psychological horror
- Make the monsters more abstract. That means use them less often, don't let the viewer see them in their entirety, maybe use effects like that shaky head thing the closers do in SH3, etc. Also maybe think about designing more new monsters, the Janitor from the film was great.
- Use more quiet, lingering shots
- More crazy/disturbing stuff. Don't be afraid to confuse the viewers or have wierd shit happen for no apparent reason- that's what makes it so scary

The second Big Issue is the story. My God, did the writing on the first movie suck. The game involves  a little girl being burned alive as part of a plan by Silent Hill's disturbing cult to impregnate her with God. The monsters and nightmarish locations the player encounters are manifestations of her pain and suffering. The player is not beaten over the head with this- Alessa doesn't spell it all out like she does in the film, and it's actually quite easy to play through the whole game and never figure out what's happening.

In the movie, on the other hand, Alessa is burnt because she was born out of wedlock. Then when she's in the hospital "a demon" appears literally from nowhere- or  possibly out of the writer's ass- and possesses her for no apparent reason. And that's it.

Okay, I can sort of see how this happened. Silent Hill is not an easy game to understand, even compared to the sequels, and I'm not saying I would have liked them to have made the movie as confusing and ambiguous as the game. But they went much too far in the opposite direction.

One obvious way to solve this is to just use the plot of Silent Hill 2. It's got a central character driven story that delivers lots of shocking twists and emotional punch along side the more mysterious and confusing elements, so even viewers who don't get the latter can appreciate the former. Maybe think about making a few story elements more explicit, but don't be afraid to leave things unexplained- we don't need to know how Mary sent the letter to James or how Maria keeps coming back to life. No demons, no turning Mary into a ghost. Just let the viewers draw their own conclusions.