Silent Hill Heaven

It's not a lack of money that made things like The Poptart Jump Scare, Pyramid Head Vs. CenobiteClaudia, the baldfaced retcons of the first movie, etc. suck. It was the fact that they were terrible ideas.

Honestly, I thought a lot of the changes came from interesting places that worked--the poptart one didn't, and the retcons didn't (especially splitting Alessa again), but I think Pyramid Head vs Claudia could have worked if we saw Heather actually commanding him a little bit (given that we know from the first movie he's Alessa's monster, and that he's essentially this film's Valtiel).

I don't understand why splitting Alessa again was a bad thing. If Rose was sending Sharon/Heather back to the real world, it would make perfect sense for Alessa to stay behind, since she never wanted to leave in the first place. Why would she go back to Chris with Sharon/Heather when she only wanted Rose?

And Heather did command Pyramid Head to an extent. The Asylum scene shows that Pyramid Head hears her call for help, and shows that Heather has some control over Silent Hill and Pyramid Head.

and the Order then decided they needed the Heather half of Alessa back so they could return things to how they were pre-splitting. . .

There's only so many ways to say the end of 1SH wasn't very sequel friendly.

resevil80 wrote:I don't understand why splitting Alessa again was a bad thing. If Rose was sending Sharon/Heather back to the real world, it would make perfect sense for Alessa to stay behind, since she never wanted to leave in the first place. Why would she go back to Chris with Sharon/Heather when she only wanted Rose?

And Heather did command Pyramid Head to an extent. The Asylum scene shows that Pyramid Head hears her call for help, and shows that Heather has some control over Silent Hill and Pyramid Head.

They didn't say Sharon was split away from Alessa, though--the movie seemed to operate on the thought that they never fused together in the first place, and didn't bother recognizing it. Even a line or two being added could have fixed the continuity snarl.

I know that she did, which is why Pyramid Head came to help her in the end; my problem with it is that in having him come and protect her, it took away any sense of agency she really had in the first place. Literally showing her commanding him, versus "HELP ME!!!" and him coming, would have given her more control over the situation and, in my opinion, made for a stronger role for Heather.

The splitting is up for interpretation, and since they didn't show it either way, I will stick with what happened at the end of the first film.

I'm actually glad she didn't control him until the final scene. Up until she recombined with Dark Alessa, I don't think she understood how much control she really had. I would have liked to have seen a constant struggle between Alessa and Heather for control of the otherworld, but that would have meant allowing the movie to have a longer runtime, and we know that nobody wanted that....

They don't actually say at all that she split again when she came back into our reality. Personally, I don't think that's any room for interpretation; it's simply saying that Sharon and Alessa were always separate after the initial point of splitting.

Oh, no, I meant that I wanted her to control him in the final scene only. Heather realizing how much power she had throughout the movie would have been cool, but the final scene I feel needed to have her actually wielding her power versus letting the Otherworld do things for her. Plus, the growth from him as her protector to something for her to wield could have been really great.

Gotcha. While I disagree on the Splitting/Non-splitting, I understand where you're coming from on the ending.

I liked the ending in the script better than the one that was put in the film, minus a couple of things. Again, I say Bassett had the right idea when he went about making SHR, everything was just so rushed and he had to say he wouldn't retcon the first film. He shouldn't of ever answered that question in the first place.

I prefered the idea that Heather and Dark Alessa cancelled each other out when they combine. I don't know if Heather commanded PH so much as PH came on
His own for his old mistress.

Does the audio commentary explain why they went with Claudia/Missionary twist in the final film. That wasn't in the original script.

Yeah, I wondered that myself. It was supposed to be a separate entity, right? My guess is it was either to cut down on time or to give Claudia's character and purpose more depth.

That's one thing I disliked about how her character was handled, other than her not appearing much in the film. She was ominous in the game and I was always wondering where she'd appear next, while in the film we don't know she's the missionary all the while. Which is a good twist and refreshing from the games, but an explanation would be nice so it doesn't seem like they just tacked it on her for whatever. As much as it works.

wonder's boy wrote:Yeah, I wondered that myself. It was supposed to be a separate entity, right? My guess is it was either to cut down on time or to give Claudia's character and purpose more depth.

In the script, Vincent and Heather see it standing guard over the carousel, and he explains that it's a loyal assassin of the Order. Vincent actually runs in to draw it away, instead of the gas mask mooks. Then it shows up to defend the Order members when Heather uses her new found powers to summon PHead.

Heather controls, by the end of the film, the Otherworld. Pyramid Head is her protector and part of the Otherworld; it stands in my mind that therefore she controls him (although the final scene of the movie makes it seem simply like she calls him to her, if even that).

As for Claudia/Missionary, it wouldn't surprise me at all if Hadida or one of the financers looked at the script and decided there were too many characters.

Then Heather should have been able to make Rose appear.

I agree--she should have, and Harry leaving without Heather made no sense. But for the majority of the plot, she wasn't thinking of Rose; she was only thinking of the man who raised her.

It felt like Heather leaving without Chris was trying to put power back on the town as an entity. The same with Suki's presence at all.

But by the end of the film, we're led to believe that Heather has conquered her past and should have more control over what is going on. It's like the two messages of the town not totally being in Alessa/Heather's control and then it being totally in her control becomes split and not even explained completely.