Phantom Allure wrote:Perhaps, but you wouldn't see the red nurse stumbling around uncertainly like the other characters you just listed... Pyramid Head in the game had eyeholes in his helmet, BTW, and the movie-version had screen grids on the triangular "bird-eyes" of his helmet...
Well...off topic I know, but I have read the threads on Pyramid Head's "eye hole" and there's no conclusive proof that he does have one in the game. But obviously what Pyramid Head in the game is irrelevant in this thread, because we're talking about the movie. I realise that Red Pyramid has a sort of grating thing on his head, but I choose to ignore the possibility that it is a visual aid for my theory!
On a side-note, 'tis true that you shouldn't look at this movie in a literal context... but on the same time, you shouldn't make the mistake of over-analyzing things just so you could create multilayers of meaning where there might have been none in the first place.
Welcome to the Silent Hill Forums! This place
lives for overanalysing!
But seriously, I'm not trying to deliberately come up with "my own theories" about the film. I've just spent time trying to work out the puzzle Christophe Gans and Roger Avary created.
As I try to put myself in Gans' shoes in looking at the movie as a whole, I personally don't see any deeper meaning to the presence of Pyramid Head in there other than as an homage to the most famous character in the game, because his original symbolism (guilt and self-persecution) doesn't fit in the movie's plot.
You
really have to forget the games, you really do. I'm not sure there is any "symbolism" regarding the Red Pyramid in the film, but obviously it has nothing to do with what he symbolises in the games. Because the film is most definitely not an adaptation of the games. Inspired by them, yeah, but not an adaptation.
We were talking about why Rose's outfit changed colors in increments here... why on earth do you keep persisting the nurse's red sweater had anything to do with her being blind? She was wearing it as an allusion to Lisa's character as the necessary caretaker of Alessa in the game! (before you say anything against this, "allusion" does not mean she IS Lisa). Your theory would have been more compelling if the sweater only turned red in the aftermath of Alessa's "awakening" but it didn't... she obviously just wore it out of personal preference while working in the hospital.
You're misunderstanding what I was saying. I'll break it down.
1) The Red Nurse wears a red sweater. I do not know WHY she wears a red sweater, but she does wear one. Maybe she has a special role within the hospital. Maybe she was cold and put her cardigan on. It's not explained. The colour of her sweater is important, however, to make her distinct, special, and make her stand out. (It's also obviously an homage to Lisa Garland from the game, but obviously as you say she's NOT Lisa.)
2) Why does Rose's outfit change to red? Why? What symbolic meaning could that have? Red is usually used in films to signify danger, or else to stand out. Maybe Rose's dress becoming red during that key scene where she meets the demon is just to warn her of the danger she's facing in her decision to trust the demon? But usually when someone wears red on film there's nothing else on screen which is red. Red stands out a mile off, and you don't want to be distracted by having
two red things on screen at the same time. (Imagine
Don't Look Now if Donald Sutherland was also wearing a red jacket! Would destroy the film!) So why is Rose's costume red at the same time as the Red Nurse is on the screen?
3) It's to create a link between them. "They're both wearing red, in the same scene, in the same shot." It's a most definite link. I don't see how it could be not.
4) The next part is more speculative and you have to work out
why they want to link Rose to the Red Nurse. What happens at this point in the film? Rose makes a pact with the demon, thinking that it will a) get her back her daughter, and b) will get her home. Obviously this does not happen at the end of the film. Rose has made a wrong decision. She has fallen into the demon's trap.
5) Add to that all the references to "blindness" throughout the film which I'd previously picked up on before trying to work out this particular scene. Rose is blind to what her decision will bring. She's being linked to the Red Nurse through the colour of her clothes. It is only after the pact is made that we see that the Red Nurse has literally been blinded.
It all fits. The theme of blindness through the film. The link (through the use of the colour red) between Rose and the Red Nurse. Both blind; one metaphorically, one literally.
Just to clarify: I'm not trying to explain why the Red Nurse is wearing red. She could've been wearing yellow with pink polka dots (and Rose's dress could've become yellow with pink polka dots) for the same connection to be made. The reason the Red Nurse's dress is red is because a) an homage to Lisa Garland, b) it stands out more (especially because most of the colours within the film are very muted), and c) they could sneakily make Rose's dress become more and more red as blood is thrown on her throughout the film.
I really don't think I'm overanalysing this, but obviously you don't have to believe it, and if you want to come up with your own explanations as to why Rose's dress turns red and what correlation (if any) there is between her and the Red Nurse (though there obviously is one...Gans is too obsessed with visuals to just accidentally have two characters wearing bright red in the same room at the same time for no reason).
This is just like saying:
A + B = AB
B + C = BC
hey, AB and BC both have B, therefore, AB = BC!
Heh...well, this is how interpretation works! That's how connections are made! One simple idea (in this case a colour) linking together two otherwise separate ideas. This is how books and films work! And believe me, I've argued much more tenuous theories in English Lit and Film Studies essays back in the day. There's never any "right" or "wrong" as long as you can prove what you're saying back in the original material. Though this one just screams logical to me and I suspect that it's what was originally intended by the authors of the film. But maybe it is just me and my wild delusions.