Editorials
It’s Time for the Original ‘Silent Hill’ to Receive a True Remake
Nothing stings fans of Silent Hill quite like seeing Resident Evil‘s current triumphs. It’s not necessarily out of resentment (you can love both y’know), rather it’s because they know that if handled right, Silent Hill could also be revitalized like it almost promised to be a few years back. You know, before that ill-fated Kojima Productions rebirth was ground into dust?
The crux of that pain inflicted by Resi‘s revival as a horror force is that it is indirectly due to that P.T. demo. Capcom smartly capitalized on its fate to make Resident Evil 7 what it was, and now here we sit on the 20th anniversary of Silent Hill‘s debut, with no promises on the horizon and no sign Konami is eager to do something for it.
Konami could, of course, argue it doesn’t need to do anything about it, as its still healthy and profitable despite the doomsayers declaring its death after the Kojima debacle.
Yet there is a compromise to be made if perhaps at this point, Konami gave the keys to that particular IP to someone else in order to do the most fan-pleasing (and somewhat necessary) thing. By that I mean to remake the original Silent Hill. Something a touch meatier than Shattered Memories, if we’re going to be a little more specific.
If Capcom can make a buck or two off Silent Hill‘s misfortunes, then why shouldn’t Konami take a leaf out of its book and go the remake route? Twice this has proven successful for Resident Evil, and if the reception to Resident Evil 2 is anything to go by, there’s plenty of goodwill to be earned from updating a classic. Especially one that stands to be lost to time if things carry on the way they are.
Silent Hill deserves to have its name made relevant again. A remake doesn’t have to be high budget (which has been the off-putting issue for Konami with anything, hence the remaster, annual sports games, and spinoffs made of stapled-together assets from previous work), and it’s perhaps the safest way to gamble in the series once more.
Of course, finding the right development team to essentially remake Silent Hill from the ground up isn’t the easiest task. In an ideal world, you’d let the series creators and writers back into the fold to steer the new vision in the right direction, but whose to say any of them would still want to work for Konami at this point?
As much as it would be a feel-good story to have old hands on it once more, a fresh take could also do wonders, especially for a portion of the audience that never got to experience the series in its prime. Bloober Team, with its head-spinning horrors Layers of Fear and Observer, would be a good, understandable, fit for Silent Hill, as would Penumbra and Amnesia developer Frictional Games. Frictional, in fact, could be very effective at injecting new life into Silent Hill given how smart and psychological its games tend to be.
Yes, Silent Hill as a franchise has had a major problem with being shipped around from sequel to sequel, and that’s a risk, but surely with such an intriguing and solid framework to work from, there’s just enough guidance to keep a remake feeling like it should whilst allowing for reinvention.
Is it optimistic to think Konami would budge on such a thing? Perhaps. We’ve seen where its overall gaming interests lie in recent years, but unlikely turnarounds can happen, and even Konami as a company can change.
Seeing horror gaming thrive without Silent Hill is a sad sight indeed, and it’s one I’d love to see rectified sooner rather than later. Whether Konami chooses to be involved or not remains to be seen.
Who would you have remake Silent Hill? Let us know your dream development team to revive the classic series.
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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