Blu-Ray commentary
Posted: 25 Sep 2012
I just saw the DVD commentary from the director, and wanted to post a few interesting points.
-Gans and Radha Mitchell did not get along. Originally, Radha had refused to take part in Silent Hill, but she later changed her mind due to her most recent film being a flop. This made Gans feel that she wasn't as interested in the movie as she should be.
- Problems cropped up with filming scenes of Radha and Laurie Holden together, due to their different acting styles. Laurie was constantly in character, but Radha needed several takes of each scene to get into character.
- The ending shot is meant to exhibit the melancholy in Chris's soul, as he remains stuck in one place, forever waiting for something that will never come.
- Radha tried to change one of Jodelle Ferland's lines, but Jodelle insisted it remain the same because of the line's Biblical reference.
- The scene of Chris calling the archive company replaced a previously filmed scene in which he goes to a library and looks for references to Silent Hill.
- Dark Alessa's appearance is not based in J Horror, but in ghosts seen in Italian horror movies.
- The scene where Rose sees Dark Alessa scribbling at her desk was meant to show that the darkness comes when Dark Alessa draws on paper. Gans called it "a massacre with crayons".
- Pyramid Head's attack on the door of the closet Rose and Cybil are hiding in is indeed meant to symbolically represent rape. Further, the Creepers pouring through the door represent sperm.
- Gans clears up the ending. saying that Alessa and Sharon "fused" and became one person.
- The hotel scenes were filmed in a real hotel, which was initially considered too dangerous to work in. To get around that, a special glue was applied to the floor to keep the dust from being kicked up into the air, because the dust contained dangerous spores. Because it was an actual abandoned hotel, very few props were used. Most of the set are things that were already in the hotel.
- Gans comments on the relationship between Alessa, Sharon, and Dark Alessa. He specifically states that Dark Alessa is Alessa's dark side and Sharon is her good side. He goes on to say that people who think Dark Alessa is the devil are forcing a Judeo Christian interpretation that she was never supposed to have.
- Alessa's torture scene was supposed to be much grislier, but Gans felt it best to leave things to the imagination, and cut it down substantially.
- Gans says that the pain from her burning transformed Alessa into a "superior being", who uses her powers to punish the people who hurt her.
- Laurie Holden had to go to the hospital while they were filming the fight scene with the cultists due to a severe hand injury inflicted when she punched one of the cultists.
- The church scenes all had to be filmed in a day and a half, so Gans filmed in wide screen to save time.
- Gans hated the scenes with Chris and Gucci. He did everything he could to get the studio to say the film was too long and to cut the scenes out, but they refused. He felt the scenes were useless, and not worth the time onscreen. The only exception was the scene where Chris and Rose meet in different realities in the schoolyard, but he stated that it wasn't worth it to have one good scene, if it meant clogging up the movie with a bunch of boring filler.
- The scene of Alessa ducking as the car passes through her was removed from the final film because Gans was afraid too many people would reach the conclusion that she was a ghost.
- The ashes in the Fog World represent ashes from Hell falling into Purgatory.
- The transformation of the town when the darkness falls is meant to represent a child holding a lighter to a wax doll. Gans says that the "melting" represents Alessa playing with the town as a cruel child plays with a doll.
- The scene of the cultists praying, which then converts into the children praying at the orphanage, was meant to represent Gans's view of "bad" religion versus "good" religion.
-Gans and Radha Mitchell did not get along. Originally, Radha had refused to take part in Silent Hill, but she later changed her mind due to her most recent film being a flop. This made Gans feel that she wasn't as interested in the movie as she should be.
- Problems cropped up with filming scenes of Radha and Laurie Holden together, due to their different acting styles. Laurie was constantly in character, but Radha needed several takes of each scene to get into character.
- The ending shot is meant to exhibit the melancholy in Chris's soul, as he remains stuck in one place, forever waiting for something that will never come.
- Radha tried to change one of Jodelle Ferland's lines, but Jodelle insisted it remain the same because of the line's Biblical reference.
- The scene of Chris calling the archive company replaced a previously filmed scene in which he goes to a library and looks for references to Silent Hill.
- Dark Alessa's appearance is not based in J Horror, but in ghosts seen in Italian horror movies.
- The scene where Rose sees Dark Alessa scribbling at her desk was meant to show that the darkness comes when Dark Alessa draws on paper. Gans called it "a massacre with crayons".
- Pyramid Head's attack on the door of the closet Rose and Cybil are hiding in is indeed meant to symbolically represent rape. Further, the Creepers pouring through the door represent sperm.
- Gans clears up the ending. saying that Alessa and Sharon "fused" and became one person.
- The hotel scenes were filmed in a real hotel, which was initially considered too dangerous to work in. To get around that, a special glue was applied to the floor to keep the dust from being kicked up into the air, because the dust contained dangerous spores. Because it was an actual abandoned hotel, very few props were used. Most of the set are things that were already in the hotel.
- Gans comments on the relationship between Alessa, Sharon, and Dark Alessa. He specifically states that Dark Alessa is Alessa's dark side and Sharon is her good side. He goes on to say that people who think Dark Alessa is the devil are forcing a Judeo Christian interpretation that she was never supposed to have.
- Alessa's torture scene was supposed to be much grislier, but Gans felt it best to leave things to the imagination, and cut it down substantially.
- Gans says that the pain from her burning transformed Alessa into a "superior being", who uses her powers to punish the people who hurt her.
- Laurie Holden had to go to the hospital while they were filming the fight scene with the cultists due to a severe hand injury inflicted when she punched one of the cultists.
- The church scenes all had to be filmed in a day and a half, so Gans filmed in wide screen to save time.
- Gans hated the scenes with Chris and Gucci. He did everything he could to get the studio to say the film was too long and to cut the scenes out, but they refused. He felt the scenes were useless, and not worth the time onscreen. The only exception was the scene where Chris and Rose meet in different realities in the schoolyard, but he stated that it wasn't worth it to have one good scene, if it meant clogging up the movie with a bunch of boring filler.
- The scene of Alessa ducking as the car passes through her was removed from the final film because Gans was afraid too many people would reach the conclusion that she was a ghost.
- The ashes in the Fog World represent ashes from Hell falling into Purgatory.
- The transformation of the town when the darkness falls is meant to represent a child holding a lighter to a wax doll. Gans says that the "melting" represents Alessa playing with the town as a cruel child plays with a doll.
- The scene of the cultists praying, which then converts into the children praying at the orphanage, was meant to represent Gans's view of "bad" religion versus "good" religion.