Silent Hill FAQ
Q) What is Dark Alessa?
A) Dark Alessa is the manifestation of the dark side of Alessa's soul.
When Alessa's rage grows out of control, the dark side of the soul begins to manifest, causing the flowers next to her bed to wilt and blinding the red nurse, who became too curious and peeked into Alessa's burn tent. We are told that "the hate starts to change the world", and then we are shown wilted flowers, strongly implying that they died due to the strength of Alessa's hate. The soul then splits along the lines of good and evil, causing the creation of Dark Alessa. Alessa gives in to the dark side of her own soul and the Otherworld and Fog World are created.
Actress Jodelle Ferland (Sharon / Alessa / Dark Alessa) states in an interview:
"I also play Dark Alessa who is the bad part of Alessa."
Source: http://www.jodelle-ferland.net/media/reads/int_silenthill02.php
She also says in a separate interview:
"Dark Alessa is sort of the bad part of Alessa, so that's why she's so scary and strange."
Source: http://jodelle-ferland.net/media/sounds/wb41b.mp3
*Note: Source is an audio download of a radio interview*
In the Blu-Ray commentary, director Christophe Gans refers to Dark Alessa as an "incarnation of Alessa" and "the dark side Alessa", as well as going into detail about her relationship with Alessa during the scene of Dark Alessa and Alessa making the deal:
This is where it gets a bit confusing, I think, for those who only want to decipher it from a Judaeo-Christian conception of good and evil. In this scene you can understand that Alessa, in her martyrdom, is visited by the devil, who offers her the chance of vengeance. In fact, from what I know of Japanese folk traditions, which I believe inspired the game to a large extent, I think that what's really happening in this scene is that Alessa is visited by her double. In her pain she's been split into several Alessas. There's the real Alessa, suffering, there's the evil Alessa, her dark side, who's just visited her, and there's a good Alessa, who's made safe in the real world in the shape of Sharon, the little girl adopted by Sean Bean and Radha Mitchell. I think that's the explanation for how she becomes a multi-faceted character, with different faces and different ages. It's something that's in the game, which intrigues players: why Alessa exists in different guises, at different ages... Both evil guises, and guises that are... "human".
He says of Alessa, Dark Alessa, and Sharon in an interview:
"If we want to explain what happened with Alessa, we are dealing with the theme of doppelgangers. For every fan that has read the synopsis of the first game's story in the strategy guide of Silent Hill 3, they all know that we are dealing with doppelgangers--and it's a very cross-cultural concept, both Japan and Europe have this myth. But in Japan, it means that every character has aspects of a God and aspects of a devil inside them. It's a very shocking concept if we attempt to transpose that into a North American, traditionally Christian perspective. The line between good and evil is much more clearly in North America, especially today. And here we are dealing with a character who has the capacity to split, and when you realize that Alessa is no longer one character, but many, it explains the story of the town. It's interesting because the town itself mirrors this fractured psychology--different dimensions, different doubles of the same person."
Source: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=6605116&publicUserId=1002415
He also says:
"Perhaps the common link between all the stories of the Silent Hill world is the concept that this is a place where both reality and personality can be split. I like the fact that this is where many dimensions intersect, and where you can exist on many planes. This fracturing between realities is reflected as a fracturing within a character. Characters can become multiple, like Mary and Maria in Silent Hill 2, and Alessa in SH1. Because this is such an abstract concept, this was the most challenging aspect of trying to adapt the game. The first game tells the amazing story of an adult woman who also exists as two little girls, good and bad doubles representing who she was when she was hurt.
We are forced to realize in Silent Hill that we can be our own devil, our own God. This very Asian perception is so completely different to the Anglo/Christian concept of God and the Devil as separate beings."
Source: http://archive.is/9Q8m
On the official French Silent Hill website, Gans says of hiring Jodelle:
"When I was writing the script, I was wondering how I could find a little girl who would be able to act different incarnations of a same character. To play them, I needed a remarkably mature child."
Source: http://www.silenthill-lefilm.com/
*Note: Source site has been removed, as have all of Sony's official sites for the film.*
Q) Is Sharon Alessa's daughter?
A) No. Sharon is the manifestation of the good part of Alessa's soul; hence the line "The little girl is what's left of her goodness".
For Sharon to be Alessa's baby, you would have to stretch your imagination QUITE a bit, as:
1) It is extremely rare for a 9-year-old girl to become pregnant
2) Alessa would have had to have carried a child through having 3rd degree burns over 100% of her body
3) Alessa would have had to have been pregnant for 21 years
4) Alessa would have then given birth to a girl who is identical to her, down to the last hair and freckle, which is physically impossible.
Director Christophe Gans refers to Alessa as being split into two child forms besides her adult body, meaning Dark Alessa is one and Sharon is the other. He also states that he hired Jodelle to play "multiple incarnations of a same character". Further, he specifically says that Sharon is "good Alessa" in the Blu-Ray commentary.
Q) Are the townspeople dead?
A) No.
All the townspeople have aged thirty years, and director and actor's quotes confirm that they are not dead. Alessa has also aged, and is played by an adult actress named Lorry Ayers (http://www.imdb.com/name/nm0043794/) and her skin is clearly shown to have healed; which dead skin doesn't do.
Elinore in 1974:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/elinorethen.jpg
Elinore in 2004 :
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/elinorenow.jpg
Dahlia in 1974:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/dahliathen.jpg
Dahlia in 2004:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/dahlianow.jpg
Alessa in 1974:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/alessathen.jpg
Alessa in 2004:
http://i43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/alessanow.jpg
Alice Krige (Christabella) tells us in an interview:
"My character you see at thirty and sixty."
Alice also tells us
"The piece for me, as it stands, is about an exploration into the ideas of parallel universes, parallel realities, and parallel layers of time."
Source: http://tv.groups.yahoo.com/group/toyslostinspaceandtime/message/7692
Director Christophe Gans chimes in on the subject too:
"There is a very interesting phenomenon in "Silent Hill" : You don't die. It's a zone between life and the death. One does not die, but one is subjected to a metamorphosis. If one day I make a Silent Hill 2 following on this one, I will address this metamorphosis."
Source: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-345768.html
*Note: Source is a translation of the original French text*
To further expand on the subject, the movie makes it clear that there is a major difference between the people in Alessa's world and the people who died in the fire. Officer Gucci states that they didn't find 'half the bodies' and the newspaper article Rose reads before leaving Ohio states that 'hundreds of people' simply vanished the night of the fire. Similarly, Rose and Sharon simply 'disappear'. Had the cultists been killed in the fire, their bodies would have been found by police, but Alessa's police report (http://s43.photobucket.com/albums/e359/kravenlover/Silent%20Hill%204076%20-5075/?action=view¤t=4671.jpg) specifically states that no one was in the church, saying the cultists 'presumably fled'.
Q) Are Rose and Cybil dead?
A) By the end of the movie, it is most certain that Cybil is dead, but Rose is still alive. Considering that all the cultists were alive, it's only logical to assume that Rose is too. There were no bodies found in the car, and Officer Gucci states that there weren't even any signs of trauma. Had they been dead, their bodies would have been found. If Rose died at any point during the events of the film, her body would have disappeared, as do those of all others seen dying in the alternate reality. Instead, she's seen in both worlds all the way through to the end of the movie.
Q) But didn't Rose tell the cultists that they burned in the fire they started and are already dead?
A) No.
Rose tells them "You burned in the fire you started and now nothing can save you, cause you're already damned!" She doesn't mean this literally. The cultists are not dead, but their own actions have damned them in Alessa's eyes. This is just one of several lines in the film meant to carry heavy religious symbolism.
Q) What's the deal with the changing worlds?
A) They are alternate dimensions, used by Alessa and Dark Alessa to get revenge on the cultists for what was done to them.
One of these alternate worlds represents hell; the other represents purgatory. These are not literal incarnations of the realities seen in Christianity, but merely Alessa's version of them.
Gans says of the town:
"It's a town of people trapped in dark dreams, and she inflicts onto the town what those people did to her body. That is, to me, the meaning of the darkness. The appearance of the town is corrupted in the way that her own flesh was wounded."
Source: http://www.1up.com/do/blogEntry?bId=6605116&publicUserId=1002415
He expands on the subject in the Blu-Ray commentary, saying that the alternate reality is "in [Alessa's] head", and that it is her way of not only getting revenge on the cultists, but of torturing the town itself. Dark Alessa mentions Alessa's "darkest dream" in the flashback, showing that the Fog World and Otherworld are born from Alessa's nightmares. The alternate dimensions are Alessa's worlds, and she decides who to bring in, who to keep in, and who to leave out. This is mentioned by Dahlia when she says: "Only the dark one opens and closes the door to Silent Hill."
Q) What happened to Sharon? Why is she acting so strangely?
A) Sharon is now Alessa.
When Dark Alessa and Sharon locked eyes, the two parts of Alessa's soul; the bad (Dark Alessa) and the good (Sharon); recombined into one and Alessa was reborn into a new body. This is supported by the fact that "Sharon" now exhibits signs of a good or innocent side (looking lovingly at Rose, holding Rose's hand, sucking her thumb), signs of a dark side (trapping Rose in the alternate reality, leering at the camera), memories of Sharon's life (extending the road to the Da Silva house), memories of Alessa's life (obviously recognizing Dahlia on the church steps), and possession of Alessa's powers (starting the car with her mind).
In the Blu-Ray commentary, the director says
One moment in the film that was important to get right was when Alessa confronts Sharon, when the dark Alessa, her evil side, meets her good side, Sharon, and the two fuse together again.
Q) Why can't Rose and Chris see each other at the end?
A) They are in alternate dimensions.
Alessa has now trapped Rose in her alternate world, where she appears to be perfectly content to remain. Whether she does this because she is afraid to return to our dimension, or if she is simply selfish and wants to keep Rose to herself, is never fully explained. It's likely that both of those theories may be true.
Q) Why doesn't Officer Gucci appear to have aged?
A) Bad makeup. He is supposed to have aged thirty years, just like the other townspeople, but the makeup department didn't do a very good job. There was a digital company working on the film that wrote on their site that they digitally made Gucci appear younger for the flashbacks, so attempts were made to show the age difference.
Source: http://www.optixtoronto.ca/work/silent-hill
Q) What do the monsters mean?
A) The answer is largely left open to interpretation, but it appears that the monsters all represent some fractured part of Alessa's psyche.
* Director Christophe Gans states in the behind-the-scenes special features of the French Metropolitan Blu-Ray that the Grey Children are the memories of Alessa's classmates, twisted so that they would suffer eternally as she had.
* The janitor is the man who raped Alessa as a child, with his entire body specifically made to look as though he is being eaten away by a venereal disease.
* Pyramid Head has been confirmed to be a basic representation of male violence, although there is some suggestion that he has a deeper meaning. A painting (http://images3.wikia.nocookie.net/silent/images/a/a2/Hotel.jpg) in the hotel depicts a Goya scene of men in tan skirts and cone-shaped hats, made to criticize religious fanaticism. Gans states in the Blu-Ray commentary that PH looks to him like a penitent from the Inquisition, making it highly likely that Alessa dreamed up PH from the hotel painting, and that he not just represents violent masculinity, but also religious intolerance.
* Armless Man: Alessa's inability to move or to speak after the burning, causing her to build up an acidic rage within her.
* Creepers: Alessa's view of the cultists, and how they swarm over and destroy everything in their path.
* Nurses: Alessa's jealousy of the busty young woman who cared for her in the hospital.
Q) What's the deal with the janitor?
A) When Alessa hid from her classmates, the janitor sexually assaulted her; so she turned him into a twisted, hideous creature befitting the monster that he is on the inside.
Q) Who is Alessa's father?
A) No one knows.
Christophe Gans states in the Blu-Ray commentary that Dahlia was an "adulteress", and that Alessa paid for Dahlia's sins. It would appear that Dahlia was either married or engaged to be married, but chose to have an affair with someone else. Who that person is is never touched upon or hinted at.
Q) Who is Sharon's father?
A) Sharon has no father.
She was created by the powers of Alessa and is of supernatural origin. She is the good part of Alessa or; as Dark Alessa states "the little girl is what's left of her goodness".
Q) What happened to the older Alessa?
A) While we never see what happened to Alessa's older form, it's safe to assume that her physical body died or simply vanished after she was fully reborn into Sharon's body. After all, her soul is now in Sharon's body, and she has no more use for either her own physical body or that of Dark Alessa.
Q) Why can't Dark Alessa enter the church?
A) There are two possible explanations for this: 1 - The alternate realms are a place of Alessa's delusions. Alessa was strongly indoctrinated by the cult when she grew up, and she believed that their faith was too strong to get past. Only when their faith was shaken- when they realized they had committed evil- could she finally enter the church and take her revenge. This is why Alessa needs Rose to tell the cultists 'the truth'. OR 2 - Alessa can enter the church anytime she wants, but she feels the cultists need to understand why she's killing them before they die. She craves both a spiritual and a physical victory over the cult, so that they don't die thinking themselves blameless martyrs.
Q) Is the cult in the movie the same as The Order from the games?
A) No. The movie's cult is a separate cult who opposes The Order.
According to Gans,
There isn't just one Cult in Silent Hill. Why? Because what we wanted to do with the movie, and we probably were a bit ambitious, was to open the Silent Hill mythology, to open as many leads as possible.
Source: http://forums.cgsociety.org/archive/index.php/t-345768.html
*Note: Source is a translation of the original French text*
Q) Who is the woman in the painting?
A) The woman in the First Burning painting is Jennifer Carroll.
Director Christophe Gans confirms this on his Silent Hill Blog, saying:
The backstory of Silent Hill was not only the story of Alessa but a much older story about the first burning of the Arch Witch, Jennifer Carol. That burning has defined Silent Hill as the ground for the primeval battle between the 'perception of good and the perception of evil.
Source: http://archive.is/NO5WZ
Jennifer Carroll is mentioned in Silent Hill 3 as having been killed for her religious beliefs.
Q) How did Alessa get her powers?
A) Most likely, Alessa had these powers all along, but they were dormant and needed a catalyst for them to manifest. In this case, the trigger was the severe trauma Alessa endured when she was nearly burned to death. It was this cruel act that transformed the fear and pain she experienced at the hands of the cultists into an immense, all-encompassing hatred of them, thus awakening her powers and allowing her to physically affect the world around her. Dark Alessa implies as much during her narration of the flashback scene:
"Alessa was so lonely and hurt and scared. They should've known better than to hurt her so badly. When you're hurt and scared for so long, the fear and pain turn to hate... and the hate starts to change the world."
The first time Alessa is shown manifesting these powers is during her burning, when she breaks the chain holding her over the pit of burning coals. The script makes this even more clear, showing three chains breaking simultaneously during the ceremony.
Source: http://www.silenthillmemories.net/shm/downloads/silent_hill_script.pdf
There is a hint in the movie suggesting that Alessa's powers may be hereditary. The mural of the burning witch in the cultists' church was specifically painted to look like an ancestor of the Gillespies, which may mean that others in the bloodline exhibited strange abilities.
Source: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vzu1JR1-RFs
In the Blu-Ray commentary, the director states that the pain from the fire transformed Alessa into a "superior being", who had the power to lash out at the cultists.
FAQ CONTINUED ON NEXT POST: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384537/board/thread/244156535?d=244156657#244156657 share