The Head Hunter movie review

The Head Hunter is well done. It's an 1hr 20min conflict between a monster hunter and the creature who killed his daughter.

It's a slow burn horror with Sword 'n Sorcery milieu. Photography, setting, and story rule here. Little dialogue (mainly one actor). Most action off screen.

Reminded me of the pacing/tone/setting of "Valhalla Rising" (Mads Mikkelseon, 2009), but The Head Hunter has a simpler story and is less grim (still grim...just less grim than Valhalla Rising).

The Head Hunter (2019) Trailer  

Valhalla Rising (2009) Trailer

Guest blogging : MIGHTY THOR JRS - FANTASY BOOK NEWS & REVIEWS

Flushing Artifacts Down Plotholes – Muddled Conflict in Sword & Sorcery Movies - Mighty Thor Jr. (James R. Schmidt website)

I am guesting posting!  This one discusses how three recent S&S movies (King Arthur: Legend of the Sword ; Conan The Barbarian ; and Hobbit: Battle of the 5 armies) lured us in with conflict based on a magical artifact, only to sandbag us as the stories finished.

Thanks to James R. Schmidt for the invitation.

Like Sword & Sorcery movies? Wish they got better?  Join in! (click to read)

Also, keep an eye/ear out. Francesco La Manno runs an Italian website for Sword & Sorcery and is considering translating it:  https://hyperborea.live/

Barbazul (Bluebeard 2012) Movie Review by S.E.

Barbazul (Bluebeard);NR

7/10 Stars. Review by S.E. (on IMDB.com)

Recommended for (1) mature audiences who (2) enjoy literary, paced horror (with healthy doses of disturbing erotica):  This graphic tale aims to disturb in elegant fashion. Note firstly that the script is an adaption of a classic fairy tale La Barbe Bleue (Bluebeard, 1697) by Charles Perrault. Most folks in 2014 in the USA will not recognize his name, but he authored many famous tales translated to the movie screen (i.e.,Little Red Riding Hood, Cinderella, Puss in Boots, and The Sleeping Beauty). Here, Bluebeard tells the story of a wealthy aristocrat who kills his many fiancees.

Beautiful Serial Killing: Bluebeard appropriately plays like the Sweeney Todd play. Viewers watch as victim after victim are taken to Barbazul’s remote plantation to suffer an unsuspecting death. The pacing is measured; the music and strange situations carry the film. The beautiful remote setting and filming was reminiscent of the cinematography of the Coen Brother’s Fargo (1996) and Stanley Kubrick’s rendition of Stephen King’s The Shining (1980).  About ~10 minutes could have been shaved off the first third without lessening anything, so impatient viewers may lose interest.

The acting, writing, casting, and filming were all well done. The music score did overwhelm voices at times (at least on the version I streamed); however, despite the writing being good enough to listen to, the occasional dimmed conversation didn't detract from the film.  For one, I was reading the subtitles anyway.  Also, the acting is clear enough that this could have been presented as a silent movie (keeping the wondrous soundtrack of course).

Each victim arguable has more character depth than the titular Barbazul. They all have some artistic bent (poor model, mature model, singer, writer, museum goer), which reinforces the artistic nature of the film. Each death is intimately, and vividly, captured at length.  Despite the cruel nature of the deaths, and the copious amounts of exposed flesh, the “blood and gore” was kept at minimal levels; in short, the murders are done tastefully. The beauty of each woman is torturously lost as viewers become voyeurs to fatal sex. Bizarre, really.

Excerpt: Creating horror with beauty is a tough task, yet screen writer Amy Hesketh (also Director and actress for Jane) seems to reveal the movie’s core theme explicitly:

Barbazul: So, do you enjoy modelling? 

Annabelle: I am enjoying the fact that I am still beautiful. I love taking photos, looking at my photos. It’s something that will last forever. It’s artistic as well.Using your body, knowing how to move, knowing yourself. To understand your own beauty is…not that easy…

Art Horror: The film crew at Pachamama Films have made a series of complex horror films, each being unapologetic about graphically killing naked women. Yet they aim to keep rooted in history or classic literary works, and they take their craft seriously. Somehow they present loads of erotic horror in a beautiful way; that is a stunning balancing act. I look forward to their film currently in production called "Olalla," which is based off of Robert Louis Stevenson’s story (Treasure Island, and The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.) That tale originally featured an English soldier recovering from battle wounds when he falls in love with a woman who belongs to a mysterious vampiric family. Can’t wait to see the Pachamama adaptation of Olalla.

Availability (2014, US): DVD’s in the US run ~$35; buying a streamable version from Amazon is ~$20. 

Sword and Sorcery Movie Queue: 2014 and beyond

Sword and Sorcery list (Link)

Instead of maintaining separate postings for Sword & Sorcery movies (blog link) each year, I am now doing that via one list on the IMDB (the internet movie database).  Please suggest any additions/edits.  Here are some of the cool features:

• Sort List: by Ranking, US release date (and flip/inverse ordering)
• Immediate Streaming:  Click the buttons on the side to see which one's you can stream immediately...and if you are a Amazon Prime member (watch some for free...right now!).
• Quiz: there is a fun quiz offered for this list
• Trailers and Reviews
• Export the List (so you can graph trends, like the quality and quantity of the genre)

2014 Highlights:  Some neat films are coming out in Dec 2013/2014, including:

• 47 Ronin
• A 300 sequel
• Seventh Son
• Hercules (2 of them actually)
• Hobbit sequels

A Slimy Trope: Sewer Entrances in Sword & Sorcery Movies

When did invading a fortress via a sewer become popular?  

I do not know precisely, but there has been a recent surge.  Between late 2011 and mid-2012, I saw three Sword & Sorcery movies that employed this tactic (details below).  Two of these involved the protagonists breaking-in to their infested homes.  I think the originality has been exhausted now, and I hope this fad fades away. 

Star Wars IV: A New Hope 1977

Death Star Fortress- Sewer Exit-Escape

George Lucas deserves credit for cinematically popularizing a fortress escape sewer-scene in his 1977 Star Wars IV, A New Hope (Death Star garbage compactor scene). Ostensibly, Star Wars is Sci-Fi rather than Fantasy, but it employs most every Fantasy trope that exits.  It certainly seems to have inspired the 2011 Conan the Barbarian break-in into Zym's tower (below).

The Sword and The Sorcerer 1982

King Cromwell's Castle: Sewer Entrance

The hero Talon sneaks through the sewers to rescue potential heir to throne Prince Mikah and his sister Alana.

Conan the Barbarian - 2011

Khalar Zym’s Castle: Sewer Entrance

More special effects were dedicated to the randomly-placed, lurking sewer-serpent "dweller" than were used to demonstrate the power of the magical mask of Acheron motivating the story.  So strangely, this scene was more exciting than the climax of the movie (Here is a link to my rant on that).

Solomon Kane – 2009 globally (2012 in USA via Video Streaming)

Josiah Kane’s Castle: Drainage Entrance

I enjoyed this movie (Link to review) , but I took a sigh when this sewer-trope was demonstrated. 

Snow White and the Huntsman 2012

Ravenna’s (and Snow White’s) Castle; Sewer Entrance

Snowwhite had escaped the castle via the drainage tunnels, so when she returns with and army, she sends some dwarves in to raise the gate.  Very clever...I suppose.

Sword and Sorcery Movie Trends - Quantity and Quality

Movie Queue: The last few years I have been capturing lists of forthcoming Sword & Sorcery movies (Link to IMDB :Sword and Sorcery: Past and Future Listings).  Moving beyond that, in an attempt to capture a list of  past Sword and Sorcery movies, I assembled a Pinterest Board.    

This exercise made me realize that I had missed seeing Roger Corman's 1980's Cult Classics movies: DeathStalker I,II,II, IV, the Barbarian Queen I,II, and the Warrior and the Sorceress (there are even more, most merely recycle footage). Amazon has a collection deal, in which I can get 4 of those.  Would it be worth my time/money (6hrs/$18USD) to complete this gaping hole in my life? How essential are these B-movies toward developing a well-rounded S&S groupie? I have since ordered the movies...and will be watching them soon...more on that below.

Therapy: I had turned to the Sword and Sorcery group on Goodreads for some biased advice.  There author Bruce Durham directed me toward a great website that details what elements Sword & Sorcery movies are expected to have, and has a great list of movies listed by release date.  To see the trends over time I graphed a histogram:

Quantity - Movies per Year

Quality

Trends: The trickle of movies in 1960's and 1970's was notably composed of Ray Harryhausen's classic clay-mation masterpieces (Jason and the Argonauts, Sinbad movies). The trends show clearly how John Milius's 1982 "Conan The Barbarian" movie, starring Arnold Schwarzenegger, inspired a lot of others; it had followed closely on the heels of "Clash of the Titans," Ray Harryhausen's last animated masterpiece.  Some featured new perspectives, like Excalibur, Fire and Ice, and Legend...and were good enough to enhance, not dilute, the genre (another blogger tackled the 1980's category thoroughly-link).

Unfortunately many "Conan clones" generally lacked in quality.  Well actually, even Arnold's next Conan film, "the Destroyer" was more cheese than it was entertainment...and the 2011 Conan reboot with Jason Momoa (which, despite a good performance from Momoa) had a blatant disregard for basic story-telling.  The 2010 reboot of Clash of the Titans and its sequel 2012 Wrath of Titans were lackluster (a third film is in development, for what that is worth).  So with all this, should we have hope that quality fantasy will return?

Future of Hope: Yes, fans should be hopeful.  Peter Jackson's excellent treatment of Tolkien's Lord of the Rings in 2001 seems to have sparked another surge.  With the excellent translation of George Martins Game of Thrones on HBO (being a series and not a movie, that is not captured in the graph), Peter Jackson's Hobbit trilogy in progress, a live action version of Fire and Ice in the works, and even a sequel to Solomon Kane brewing...we have reason to beleive that the portfolio of Sword & Sorcery movies will grow in quantity and quality.  In fact Dealine.com reports that "Legend of Conan ~2014" intends to redeem Conan's credibility:

"There are no plans for Momoa to return. Morgan said that in his mind,The Legend Of Conan not only skips over that film, but also the 1984 sequel that Schwarzenegger starred in. The direct link is to the original, which was directed by John Milius from a script he wrote with Oliver Stone."

Deathstalker: Anyway, as we await new flicks, I find myself checking out the old ones I had missed.  I do not expect much. There is a stunningly hilarious and through review of the Deathstalker series on cinemassacre.com from 2010 (embedded video below). It dissects the absurdity of the series, even going as far as to quantify the ratio of fight scenes to women's breasts shown per movie.  Of course, I have not seen the movies yet, but have just received them by mail and I am mentally prepared now.  What is sad is that many of these had great covers by artist Boris Vallejo, which promised to deliver serious Sword & Sorcery.  Great marketing I suppose.

Boris Vallejo covers for the Deathstalker Series

2013 Sword and Sorcery Film Queue

I will periodically update this page throughout 2013. Here is the link to last year’s queue, provided since many films slip from year to year: 2012 Sword and Sorcery Film Queue.

	An Unexpected Journey  Dec 14th 2012 (...but can be seen in 2013 ) And the rest of the trilogy: Dec 13th 2013: “Desolation of Smaug” Dec 17th 2014: “There and Back Again
	2013 Hammer of the Gods - Facebook Movie Page and Trailer Link I heard about this via the Goodreads Sword and Sorcery group (link). - Action epic sees a passionate young man transform into a brutal warrior as he travels the unforgiving landscape in search of his long lost brother Hakan The Ferrocious, whose people are relying on him to restore order to their kingdom
	The Seventh Son Releases ~ Jan 2014 From Wikipedia: "The Seventh Son is an upcoming fantasy film based on the first installment in Joseph Delaney's children's dark fantasy novel series The Wardstone Chronicles titled The Spook's Apprentice."
	Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage (~2013) Patrick Stewart’s narration may give this some street cred.
Likely to be released sometime	Clash of the Titans 3 ~ 2013  RELEASE DATES
	300: Rise of an Empire 2014
	47 Ronin Dec 25th 2013
	Sequel(s) For Solomon Kane (~2014?) According to Fangoria magazine's interview with Michael Basset. FANGORIA: So we can expect a sequel to SOLOMON KANE? BASSETT: We intend to film more of Kane’s adventures. The first one has done very well in festivals around the world; now we have to wait and see how it’s received by a larger audience. Our intention is to make a trilogy, and if everything goes as planned, we will leave for South Africa to start production on part two.
	Hunstmans Sequel (2014?)
	Legend of Conan (2014) Arnold Schwarzenegger is back as Conan (~2015 "Legend of Conan" movie). Multiple news sources claim it will ignore the silly Conan The Destroyer and poorly produced 2010 Conan reboot (with Jason Momoa, who did okay but not well enough to compensate for other issues)...in other words, the 2015 movie is being designed as a direct sequel to the 1982 Conan the Barbarian.
	A Fire and Ice live action movie began being produced in 2012 (and a possible Death Dealer after that?!~). IGN reports this remake of the rotoscoped classic in which Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi teamed up.
	God of War, 2014? "300" meets "Clash of the Titans" in this movie adaption of the video game
	More Chronicles of Narnia 2014? maybe?… And after that… Narnia V: The Silver Chair is planned.
Little hope of being made...	Future Release
	•Elric movie: Check out Michael Moorcock's blog for details.
	Castlevania: Based on Konami's popular vampire games; this movie has been bounced around since before 2009.
	•The Power of the Dark Crystal (ever?) Announced in 2005, this sequel to the Dark Crystal (1982) has stumbled, always making some forward progress.
	•Bran Mak Morn  ????

Solomon Kane - Movie Review

Solomon Kane Movie  - 5/5 stars!

Distribution nightmare: This was made for non-USA markets in 2009, not shared in the States until now, Aug 2012, via Video On Demand-iTunes. A complex distribution has it rentable via Amazon Instant Video (Watch Before it's in Theatres) for a limited time (perhaps only before it hits theaters?) ... and intermittently available for purchase/rental from iTunes. US Region 1 DVDs have not been released yet.  It is due it theaters in select US locations this Sept. 2012.

A new Kane: This Solomon Kane is not R.E. Howard’s hero (Howard being the originator of the character with his ~1930’s pulp fiction), but the movie remains true to the core elements that made the Solomon Kane stories so appealing for Howard fans: dark adventure, witches and witchcraft, puritan vs. devil conflict, cool creatures, and emotive imagery.  Rather than a puritan hunting Satan’s devil with immeasurable passion, Michael Bassett portrays Solomon Kane as a rebellious royal avoiding the devil claiming his sinful soul.  

Ultimately the conflict is still “Solomon Kane vs. Devil”, but rather than Howard’s paranoid crusader who was ostensibly “good” (motivated by his perception of God to confront evil), we get treated to an anti-hero who avoids being dragged to hell. This Kane tries to renounce violence, joins a ministry, and eventually gets paired with some Puritans—so he still wears the Puritan hat and fights devils.  Sparse guns exist, but this is best classified as Sword & Sorcery. Those disappointed in the 2011 movies of the same genre (Season of the Witch 2011 and Conan the Barbarian 2011) should be very excited to see horror-fantasy done professionally.  With the mix of adventure and spiritual horror, expect a blend of the infamous Exorcist (1973) with Jackson’s famous Lords of the Rings movie trilogy.   

As captured in an earlier post, Michael Bassett will be delivering the Silent Hill sequel!  

  

Solomon Kane AND Silent Hill - Michael Bassett Movie Updates

Michael Bassett is director and writer of two movies on my annual Sword & Sorcery film queue (see post: 2012 movie queue), and this month two important updates were announced:

1) Solomon Kane

After three years, Solomon Kane has finally made it across the pond to the US; it is due out Aug 24 (video-on-demand, iTunes) and then select theaters Sept..  Granted Kane uses guns on occasion, but no one denies that R.E. Howard's dark hero is firmly in the Sword & Sorcery genre.  Here is the US trailer:

 

2) Silent Hill Revelations 3D

The sequel is coming to US Halloween 2012!   As I have conceded previously, Silent Hill is not 100% Sword and Sorcery, but it is a mix of Horror-Fantasy and Pyramid Head does have a large sword.   It certainly appeals to the same crowd that enjoys the weird "pulp" style fantasy that included supernatural horror (i.e. original Conan).  I have my doubts regarding the 3D hype since dark imagery does not usually lend itself to clear 3D viewing. 


The yahoo embedded player  crashes in the Chrome Browser, so here is the yahoo movie link: http://yhoo.it/OTKSuY

Sword & Sorcery Film Queue 2012

Fantasy Movies Coming Soon

MAR		Wrath of Titans: Can they make-up for the poorly made 2010 Clash of the Titans 3D with a sequel?
MAR		•John Carter of Mars: How will Disney treat Edgar Rice Burrough’s (Tarzan author) sci-fi fantasy?
MAY		Sinbad: The Fifth Voyage: Patrick Stewart’s narration may give this some street cred.
JUNE		Snow White and the Huntsman: Thor actor Chris Hemsworth teams up with the Vampire Diaries chick (Kristen Stewart) for some epic action.  Should be an interesting comparison versus Julia Roberts’ rendition of Snow White in Mirror Mirror due out this year as well.
JUNE		•Pixar and Disney's Brave (2012) - Disney tries out Heroic Fantasy!
AUG		Silent Hill Revelation (sequel): Okay, not 100% Sword and Sorcery, but it is a mix of Horror-Fantasy and Pyramid Head does have a large sword and Michael Basset (who just delivered Solomon Kane) is leading the effort.
DEC		•The Hobbit (2012); stymied by a writer's strike and a legal tangle with the Tolkien estate, the prequel(s) to the Lord of the Rings trilogy promises to be great.

Unknown Release Dates

	A Fire and Ice live action movie being produced in 2012 (and a possible Death Dealer after that?!~).  IGN reports this remake of the rotoscoped classic in which Frank Frazetta and Ralph Bakshi teamed up.  Bill Frazetta confirms the film's progress in this video from Comic Con 2011:
	Release overseas in 2011. Not available in US yet. Solomon Kane , a well received depiction of R.E.Howard's doomed, religious hero. Click here to request it to come state-side by "Demanding" it.
	•Red Nails (Since 2006) this endeavor has struggled; based on REH's only full length Conan novel...see some pre-production animations that surfaced.
	•Elric movie: Check out Michael Moorcock's blog for details.
	•Castlevania: Based on Konami's popular vampire games; this movie has been bounced around since before 2009.
	•The Power of the Dark Crystal (2011??) Announced in 2005, this sequel to the Dark Crystal (1982) has stumbled, always making some forward progress.
	•Red Sonja: Let's hope it is better than the 1985 version... if it is made at all.  The lead role was to be played by Rose McGowan, but she switched assignments to play Marique in the 2011 Conan the Barbarian movie.
	•Bran Mak Morn
	At the Mountains of Madness: More weird horror/fantasy than Sword and Sorcery, but it is Lovecraft...and Guillermo del Toro was involved.
	Narnia IV: The Magician's Nephew 2014? maybe?… And after that… Narnia V: The Silver Chair is planned.

 
 

 

 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Guest Post: Why "Man vs Man" is less effective than "Man vs Supernatural"

Were you disappointed in the recent Conan the Barbarian movie?  Perhaps you expected Sword & Sorcery...


Thanks to Shaun Duke who invited me to guest blog on his site "World in a Satin Bag"  (WISB).  Shaun is an aspiring writer, a reviewer, and graduate student (studying science fiction, postcolonialism, posthumanism, and fantasy at the University of Florida).  WISB includes book and movie reviews, interviews with authors, literary analyses, discussions of genre, publishing, and more...

Here is an excerpt; check out the entire article the WISB:

Wednesday, December 21, 2011 : Guest Post: Sword and Sorcery -- Why "Man vs Man"is less effective than "Man vs Supernatural" by S. E. Lindberg

"Fantasy readers and movie-goers maintain an expectation that protagonists will battle supernatural forces. Those forces may manifest in humans (“bad guys”); however, when the supernatural element is diluted (or superficially offered in clichéd, familiar forms so that the protagonist literally battles a man) then expectations are not met. Consumers become disappointed. The lack luster reception of this year’s movie, Conan the Barbarian, is a good example of this expectation being unsatisfied.

Of course, Man vs. Supernatural conflict is ubiquitous across fantasy. Most recognizable of Supernatural antagonists may be Tolkien’s bodiless Sauron. Nearly three decades before Sauron stalked bookshelves and haunted rings, Conan creator Robert Ervin Howard originated the Sword & Sorcery genre by writing action-packed shorts exploring Man vs. Supernatural.

Sword & Sorcery was coined by author Fritz Leiber years after REH passed, but as he suggested the name he also clarified the role of the supernatural: 

I feel more certain than ever that this field should be called the sword-and-sorcery story. This accurately describes the points of culture-level and supernatural element and also immediately distinguishes it from the cloak-and-sword (historical adventure) story—and (quite incidentally) from the cloak-and-dagger (international espionage) story… (Fritz Leiber, Amra, 1961)

But it was Lin Carter who may have best defined Sword and Sorcery in his introduction to his Flashing Sword series (Carter, with L. Sprague de Camp, posthumously co-authored several Conan tales):

We call a story Sword & Sorcery when it is an action tale, derived from the traditions of the pulp magazine adventure story, set in a land or age or world of the author’s invention—a milieu in which magic actually works and the gods are real—and a story, moreover, which pits a stalwart warrior in direct conflict with the forces of supernatural evil. (Lin Carter, Flashing Swords I, 1973)

REH wrote twenty-one Conan tales, and no human antagonist persisted across them. Each story had bad guys/creatures/etc., but they were overt proxies for greater supernatural evils. Hence, the conflict was Conan (the Man) vs. Supernatural...."

Read the rest on the WISB:

Guest Post: Sword and Sorcery -- Why "Man vs Man"is less effective than "Man vs Supernatural" by S. E. Lindberg

Dejarnette Sanitarium; a vacation to Silent Hill?

 Silent Hill (SH) Ambiance – Benchmark Design

Just vacationed with the family, the key destination being the natural dye making workshop in Monticello, Virginia (to boost my dye making hobby--Link).  After traveling through the Appalachian Mountains and renting a hotel overlooking an abandoned Sanitarium, I began to feel the “Silent Hill” experience. 

Although not a proper Sword & Sorcery world, SH allows for an awesome degree of supernatural exploration– a feature once integral to the originating pulps that inspired the genre (Howard, Smith, Lovecraft); the Hill does have the prerequisite elements: ruins, creatures, alchemy (witchcraft).  The series sacrifices some action elements to amplify the horror of battling the unknown.  It grounds readers in abandoned towns filled with ghosts, only to use that foundation as “reality” to take readers into the next level of horror (“nightmare realm”) in which the cracked paint peels of walls and flies away, and hell (in multiple carnations) overwhelms all.   Silent Hill pushes the boundaries of horror in every way, from its character designs, settings, and story.

In Silent Hill 1, I was horrified to be chased by knife-wielding dead children in the Midwich Elementary school.  But that experience pales in comparison to the debut of Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2 (room 307 Wood Side’s apartment), in which the butcher-like-demon rapes the four-legged mannequins (that is correct…one torso, four legs).  Your character is forced to watched from within a closet—the scene is more bizarre than gory.  If Pyramid head or his victims looked more human, than the effect would be lost—that would be too real, less scary.  Silent Hill wants you to feel vulnerable and pressured by forces you cannot describe.  The fantasy element is crucial.  The balance of implicit vs. explicit gore and horror is tough to achieve, but we can learn from masters Like Frazetta (link to earlier post). 

Room 307 of Wood Side apartments: Pyramid Head rapes headless mannequins in Silent Hill 2 game–very spooky

The 2006 movie's version town of Silent Hill is located in West Virginia. The town was abandoned after a fire started in the underlying coal mines, much like the real town of Centralia, PA.  Basing fantasy from real foundations gives our art credibility; the story way be weird as hell, but will be believable at some level.  Suckers like myself cannot stop thinking about the possible truth to ghost stories when they experience settings that evoke the haunts:

The Appalachian Mountains

The below aerial imagery from the Silent Hill movie shows a road in the Appalachian Mountains; in the leading car are a mom (Rose Da Silva) and daughter (Sharon), driving toward the titular town to confront the haunts that plague Sharon’s dreams. A police car follows.

Our recent drive through West Virginia (our images below), sets the stage; map included in case you want to trek over.

Dejarnette Sanitarium

Spooky Abandoned Hospital

So after hours of driving in the mountains, we stop at a Hotel in Staunton, VA.  Staunton is not haunted, but we unexpectedly chose a hotel overlooking a beautiful boarded building (~the intersection of highway 81 and route 250 near the Frontier Museum); From our hotel view (below, looking eastward).   

Turns out, it this is an abandoned children’s sanitarium named after the leader Doctor DeJarnette.  Due to Doctor DeJarnette’s eugenics project, many inmates were reportedly sterilized in the basement against their will (his butchery and sexual motivations reeks of Pyramid Head).  Ghosttowninfo.com - Dejarnette Sanatarium (link) offers interior images and Project Energia Buran offers as a video tour (embedded below)! To be clear, my family did not tour the facility!  It is riddled with asbestos and is hardly a family destination.  This is not Silent Hill!  There is nothing explicitly terrifying about this image; implicitly, it is creepy as hell!

Virtual Tour of the Sanatorium

Project Energia Buran (2007) tours the Sanatorium for us!

Persistent, Amplified Silent Hill Feelings

Every SH game visits a hospital; I think every one has ghost- or living-children running amongst them.  Alchemilla Hospital (left image below) and Brookhaven Hospital (right image) are fictional hospitals that are frequently visited in the Silent Hill games. A blog post cannot due these justice…I suggest you get the games and explore them.  You will be scared…and you can pretend you are experiencing the haunted (possibly) DeJarnette Sanitarium!  Be careful.  Once you play the games, you may not be able to stop thinking about the horrors the evoke!  Awesome!