Slitterhead, let's discover the new Silent Hill dad game
Slitterhead
Presenting a game with a CG trailer many years in advance of launch is an essential, almost vital, function for some development teams. Many tend to talk about hasty announcements, because then players have to wait a long time before they can actually get their hands on the finished game. Unfortunately, gamers often seem to be short-sighted and do not understand that for small to medium-sized teams, having an enthusiastic reaction from the public to the presentation of their game means obtaining an essential bargaining chip to offer to potential investors, whether they are specialized publishers or financial groups. looking for investment.Let's explain in even simpler words: without these premature announcements and the consequent reactions, it is much more complicated to find the money it takes to make a video game a reality, especially if you develop it as an independent. Yes, because we often talk about videos that simply serve to conceptualize, that is, to give a general idea of what the players will expect, hoping that they will appreciate.
This is exactly the function of the Slitterhead trailer seen at The Game Awards 2021. We are talking about the first game from Bokeh Game Studio, the software house founded by Keiichiro Toyama, the father of Silent Hill. However, we decided to dedicate a special to Slitterehead to understand what could await us.
The introduction: it's a horror from the noble father
The character of the introduction of the Slitterhead trailer The trailer opens on the logo of the development studio, which gives way to the detail of what we immediately recognize is an alley. The asphalt is in poor condition and we quickly understand that we are in a dilapidated area. The shot of him is very low and follows a jerky camera movement, which imitates footsteps. It almost seems to be chasing someone. In fact, after a few moments, a person's feet appear in the upper part of the painting. The camera movement then pans vertically revealing what looks like some kind of employee. We understand this from the elegant trousers, from the slightly crumpled short-sleeved white shirt and from the briefcase he holds in his hand. What are you doing in such a place? The appearance of the words "Creative Director Keiichiro Toyama" tells us clearly. Anyone who knows him knows that he is one of the most acclaimed authors of living horror video games, who has written his name on series such as Silent Hill and Forbidden Siren. Even the background music makes us understand that we are dealing with a horror game, given the very dark and obsessive tone. So they have an urban setting, the main character, at least of these first few seconds of the trailer, who is an ordinary man, and the name of an author known for his horror videogame works. As you can see within a few seconds we have already been given a lot of useful information to enter the refined atmosphere and create a strong expectation regarding what will be shown next.The trailer continues with a shot from behind the our middle man. A reverse shot then shows him in the face: he is a Japanese (we could have guessed it from the development studio and from the presence of Toyama, as well as from the setting, but now we have confirmation). Behind him appears a scantily clad girl who puts a hand to her mouth looking at him. The man stops and turns. The focus of the shot passes from him to the girl, who becomes the protagonist of the action, as also underlined by the next shot, an average plane of the same. Here the revelation of her takes place: the girl's face, framed in the foreground, begins to change, becoming monstrous: her neck lengthens, her eyes deform and her mouth is filled with sharp fangs.
The final shot of the first part of Slitterhead's announcement trailer The shot then briefly returns to the man, showing him as he falls to the ground in terror. With a further mounting click, the wall next to the man is framed. It is dilapidated and full of writings, as well as partially occupied by the engine of an air conditioner. The type is in focus and clearly visible, while the shadow of the girl begins to appear on the wall, which has now become a huge skeletal monster that dominates what we suppose to be a victim of him. Music becomes more understood. The film does not show us what happens, because it closes on black. The introduction is over. So far we have been given a precise message: we are dealing with a horror game with a strongly characterized urban setting.
The central part: it is an action game, perhaps with multiplayer elements
A comparison on the roofs of a hive city With the black painting the music changes and becomes more rocking. When the image reappears from the black, what we are in front of is profoundly different from what we have been shown so far: a shot from above shows armed policemen approaching some corpses. They are in the street, behind them there is intense smoke. Suddenly a monster emerges from the middle field and attacks one of the policemen in the background, the others react by looking in that direction and firing. Then a quick montage starts, with a woman painted on her face standing up. She is framed in profile in the foreground, so we can't make out where she is. A moment later, however, we see her in a long shot, always framed in profile, placed on the left of the painting: she is on the roof of a building. The place is full of TV antennas. In the background you can see the silhouettes of other buildings. From the left of the picture comes one of the monsters we have already known in the previous sequences.The monsters seem to be all ordinary people. She is interesting because she looks like a middle-aged person, with graying hair and wrinkles on her face, transfigured into a nightmare creature. A quick montage starts: a sphere of energy reaches a new character, a man in a tank top who is invaded by becoming we do not know what, so we see a motorcyclist who uses his hands to suck blood and create a weapon. The grizzled-haired monster sets off on the attack, the man in the tank top launches into the fray and ends up injuring himself (as will be shown in a later shot), the motorcyclist confronts the monster, cutting him in two. Black mounting cutout. End of the central part of the trailer. Who made it wanted to tell us that Slitterhead will be a horror game, but it will have action elements. Moreover, there are more characters acting, so it could be a choral title or even with multiplayer elements.
Closing the trailer: the centrality of the setting
The setting will be very important in Slitterhead La final part of the trailer is the most evocative. The music slowed down. The detachment from the black shows a swarm of buildings in a long shot, with an airplane that literally touches them before landing. The sequence reminded us of the ant farm houses in Hong Kong, those seen in Michael Wolf's photographs, which over the years have become a symbol of urban overcrowding as well as wild urbanization. It is precisely in superimposition on the buildings that the logo of the game appears for the first time: Slitterhead, which we could translate as "cutting head" (note that the plane has just "touched" the buildings). A similar choice underlines that the setting will be very important for the game. Finally, a new cut-off in editing introduces us to another fundamental detail on the development, underlined to attract the interest of the fans. The music becomes more intense and faster again to introduce us the composer of the soundtrack: Akira Yamaoka, also famous for having signed the music of Silent Hill.Gentle women who kill Then the shot returns to the buildings: it is closer and zooms towards one of the balconies, where we see someone looking out. The environment is really degraded and the more the zoom advances, the more we realize we are looking at a monster woman, given her terrifying mouth. However, once they arrive on the medium level, her mouth begins to deform and retract, giving back to the woman her human face. From the looks and the way she is dressed she seems to be the classic kind lady next door. Who would ever suspect that in addition to offering cookies and giving kind words, she could also devour her guests? It is on her that the trailer closes, leaving more doubts than certainties, but creating a strong sensation in the viewer, at least one of thematic compactness.
The Slitterhead trailer is truly intriguing, even if it does not provide much information about the game. From external sources we know that, in addition to the names mentioned in the article, conceptual artist Miki Takahashi and character designer Kazunobu Sato, both known for Siren, are also working on it. It was Sato who said that Toyama's new game would mess up the minds of players, describing it as an action adventure. At the time Bokeh Studio had just been unveiled and it was not clear what the artist was talking about. Now we know a little more, but not too much, given the scarcity of available data. We have no idea which platforms Slitterhead will be released for either, so creating expectations is really premature. Let us be satisfied with what we have seen in the film and calmly wait to know more, but not too soon.
