On the subject on why Alessa would want to kill them if they were already dead - we saw one of the cultists still 'alive' yet eviscerated in Alessa's hell. She wants to trap them there and torment them for all eternity. Just because we saw the cult leader torn in half doesn't mean she's not fully aware of what she'd perceive as a physical torment.
I think the comparison to Dante's Inferno is important, if perhaps a bit grandiose for the movie. The victims and monsters of Alessa's hell are tormented because they perceive themselves as still alive. They are bound to their tortuous fate partly because they are often blind to their own situation, but also because death and life have no meaning in hell or to one's 'immortal soul'. Alessa can tear the cult leader in half today, and can tear her in half again tomorrow, and every time will be just as tortuous as the first.
That's why I thought Limbo was a good parallel to the grey world of Silent Hill in the movie. It's sort of an inherently godless condition, but it's also like the front walk of hell. Someone who is not 'faithful', but not inherently evil can live out their existence there, while someone who has done wrong can easily be pulled down into the lower levels of hell. Limbo is a part of hell, so the assumption would be that it exists despite Alessa, and the 'reaper' appears to have some power or presence in it, and would probably be responsible for pulling the cult members, Rose, and Cybil into it.
lovelytourniquet wrote:Well maybe I am telling myself that it is like the game in that respect because I don't want to be let down like how they screwed up Doom's plot by not opening the literal gates to hell and releasing demons.
Have you ever seen the 'bad' ending to Silent Hill? Harry fails to rescue Alessa from the god/demon she gives birth to, and must kill her. With Cybil dead as well, Harry despairs over his situation, and the final shot is of Harry dead behind the wheel of his car. To parallel this with the end of the movie, Rose really did not save Sharon at all. She embraced Alessa's vengeance, and in the end the 'reaper', having satisfied Alessa's wish, now posesses Sharon, and 'rewards' Rose by keeping her from realising that everything she said to the cultists applied to herself as well. My conclusion? Rose got the
bad ending.
It's really a very reasonable ending to Silent Hill game, and from Cybil's death, we can be darn sure Rose did not get the 'Good Plus' ending.
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I want to add one more thing - the idea that the movie ends with Rose still dead and in Limbo or Purgatory doesn't exclude the possibility that actual survival wasn't a possibility. Presumably for the 'Good' ending, Rose would have had to in some way reject helping Alessa with her revenge, and would have had to save Sharon. To get the 'Good Plus' or 'Bad Plus' ending, she would have had to be in time to save Cybil. It seems very appropriate to the multiple endings of the Silent Hill games. If Rose were a better person, she and her daughter might have gotten out of there alive, but by taking Alessa's shortcut, she assured her stay in Limbo.