Rose Da Silva's daughter Sharon has been sleep walking for some time, and in her sleep, she keeps mentioning the town of Silent Hill. Since Sharon's case just seems to be getting worse, Rose eventually decides to take her daughter to Silent Hill in hope to find an answer to their problems. But the road to Silent Hill is anything but easy, and the town was evacuated 30 years earlier due to underground coal fire which is still burning there today. After having an accident on their way there, Rose wakes up alone in the eerie town of Silent Hill, and discovers that Sharon's missing. She begins to search the town for her daughter, and gets drawn in to the disturbing history of Silent Hill.
I'm not sure I've ever been looking forward to a movie as much as I was looking forward to Silent Hill, and the reason for that is that I've of course been playing the games like crazy for years. I think they're easily among the best games ever made, especially the 2nd one, and not counting the 4th installment. So obviously I really wanted to see the movie, and I'm more than happy to say that it so delivered, not just as a horror movie, but when comparing it to the games as well. I absolutely loved the fact that it stayed so true to its source material, and not just with a couple of things, but featured so much stuff from them which was just fantastic to watch on screen. It really succeded with having this genuine game feel to it, something that all other game adaptations have been lacking (especially Uwe Boll's worthless crap). When writing this I've seen the movie three times, and I'm sure I'll be watching it many more times, especially because of Pyramid Head, he's sure one dude who's hard to get tired of.
It's hard to say how it would've looked if you never had played the games, obviously it probably wouldn't have been as interesting, but I'm pretty sure it still would've served as a very good and creepy horror film. Because that it is, creepy, offers a lot of horror, and has an overall very eerie feel to it. It pretty much starts right away, when you get to see that Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) having these problems, talking about Silent Hill in her sleep. It doesn't take long before Rose (Radha Mitchell) takes her there, and from then on, it's full on creepiness. I heard that some people got a bit bored around the middle somewhere, when there was too much talking and things generally slowed down for a bit. Personally, I had no problem with this whatsoever, and it was needed for shedding some light over things, as well as it was nice with a little break from all the massive horror scenes, to let things sink in a bit so to speak.
 
The very monsters themselves are of course one of the best things that Silent Hill has to offer, and while all of them were extremely cool, Pyramid Head of course stood out like nothing else. Thing though is that there were only a couple of scenes when you got to see the guy, and I'm not quite sure whether or not it was enough. On one hand I would've loved to see more of him since he's such an awesome character, but at the same time, since you don't get to see that much of him, you kinda put him on a pedestal and he comes out looking way better if you know what I'm saying. Except for Pyramid Head, I enjoyed the nurses the most which had this genuine SH game feel to them, as well as they looked beyond terrific. Another really freaky scene that was absolutely awesome was the one with The Janitor in it, when he came crawling on the ground...bizarre is the word.
As for the story, it was fairly easy to get into and not as complicated as I expected it to be, and the further the movie went along, the more clues you got to what was what and how everything had come to be. Honestly though, even if the story and everything was great, what I enjoyed most about this movie was the very wait for what would be next. That feeling stayed with me throughout the movie, and it was always really interesting to see what nightmarish and disturbing things would show up on screen. Most (horror) movies tends to be too predictable, but with Silent Hill, you had no idea what to expect, what horrible things would come next, and that made it not just stand out, but made it 110 percent interesting to watch as well.
As for scares, I'm not really sure just how effective they were. There were really no sudden or "cheap" scares, but instead it had an overall eerie feeling to it which worked well. Problem though is that you know that nothing is real, and you can't really relate to it so to speak. Everything looks fantastic and creepy, but it also looks like a nightmarish fantasy world, and it's hard to put yourself in that situation, hence to get scared. Still, it serves as a creepy flick that delivers some disturbing scenes for sure. I guess it all comes down to what kinda person you are, if you're used to horror, and if you have a wild imagination as well. Last but not least, the acting was ok from all parts I guess. Radha Mitchell of course stood out a bit more than the others (well, not more than Pyramid Head), delivering a really good performance, but overall I think everyone did an ok job and no one really looked bad. I must say that I liked the female cop (Cybil Bennett) as well, since at first she was really unlikable, but later got better, and in the end she proved to be such an ok person that you actually felt a bit sorry for her.
With outstanding visuals, extremely cool monsters and creatures, a very eerie town, Silent Hill is one of the best horror films to come out in a veeeery long time. The fact that it uses some of the music in the games for the score makes the game feeling even stronger, as well as the radio, flashlight and a few scenes that were played out exactly like in the games. It offers plenty of gore, some genuine suspense and overall, a lot of horrific scenes. Definitely one of the best movies I've seen in a very long time.
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ALTERNATIVE TITLE:
MOVIE YEAR: 2006
DIRECTOR: Christophe Gans
WRITING CREDITS: Roger Avary
GENRE: Drama, Fantasy, Horror, Mystery, Thriller
CAST: Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Jodelle Ferland
COUNTRY: Canada, Japan, USA, France
RUNTIME: 127 min
RATING: 10/10
Silent Hill Website/IMDB Click here
Silent Hill Trailer Click here
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