I'd have to say that Silent Hill is probably the most honest and well made video game translation to film I've ever seen. Of course when I say that I say that with a history of video game movies like Doube Dragon, Street Fighter, Resident Evil, and of course Super Mario Bros. Quite a bold statement, but one that's well deserved.
The story of course had to be toned WAAAAAY down for a rated R feature. Where games can get away with more barbaric storytelling and visuals thanks to that big ole' M for mature rating, movies are unfortunatly hindered. Because of this fact all the mesmorizing sites and sounds of the game that make Silent Hill such a fucked up place to visit are reined in to make sure little kids who convince their parents to take them aren't morally devestated the rest of their lives. Question is, why in God's name do parents KEEP BRINGING little kids to movies like this? All these parent groups keep talking about are how movies like this are corrupting our childen and turning them into criminals. But you know, these kids wouldn't have access to movies like this if retard dumb asses like you wouldn't keep bringing them! It sure as hell aint the theatre's fault. Not only do they check for ID before you buy the ticket, but they check ID before you even enter the theatre and grab a seat. ARRRRGH!.
Anyway, the violence and mayhem is quite drastically cut down. But Christopher Gans still manages to find a way to bring some of the most fucked up images yet seen by an American produced film. What surprised me most about this movie was the way it looked. It had great character and enviornmental designs. Like you seriously had woken up into a hellish, sticky nightmare breeching the deepest darkest sections of your psyche. Radha Mitchell plays Rose. A woman who has adopted a creepy little girl named Sharon. Who also happens to be the creepy/snotty little girl in School of Rock. Sharon sleep walks and mutters incoherently about a town called Silent Hill. Rose's husband Chris, played by Boromir...Sorry, 006....sorry, Sean Bean, thinks that Sharon should be taken to a hospital for treatment. But Rose knows better and takes Sharon on a little field trip to a ghost town with the name Silent Hill.
When they arrive things go from okay, to insane in seconds. Rose and Sharon's car crash after being chased by a cop and when Rose wakes up Sharon is missing. She ventures into the fog laden town of Silent Hill in search of her daughter. Obviously maternal instinct has kicked in for Rose.
As for some of the ladies I was watching the movie with there was a ressounding "Leave her!!!!" Obviously maternal instict has not yet set in for them.
As Rose follows the sounds of her daughter down a maintenance shaft in the middle of the town people are calling her judgement into question. Especially after a loud air raid siren sounds off from God knows where. Immediatley after the siren the entire town is plunged into a swift darkness. And by darkness, I mean DARK! Like hold your hand up and wave and you'd still only be able to see jack shit. And then all of a sudden the place really starts to go to hell! Babies burning from the inside out. Cockroaches that strip your skin off in sticky ribbons. A weird cunnilinguist crawling around a bathroom floor tasting the air around him with his slick black tongue. And then Pyramid Head.
Ooooooh Pyramid Head. If there was ever a villian in video games that needed to be realized on film it was Pyramid Head. He is quite literally a man dressed as a butcher, who lugs around a giant sword, and has his head incased in what appears to be a rusted oversized pyramid shaped cage. Just striking to look at. But as intense as this movie is at points, they really played down a lot of what makes Pyramid Head so frightening from the video game. For starters, Pyramid Head rapes just about everything he comes across just before or right after he kills them. All the monsters in Silent Hill are deathly afraid of Pyramid Head. He's that fucking ruthless. Now after having said that, there is one scene where Pyramid Head just goes mental on you and performs a titty twister that will leave you thinking all the way home. But more disturbing than the killing is the fact that he removes the victim's clothes before he slaughters her. Just that image of being bare and exposed and at the mercy of this monster stuck in my head all the way home. Just fucking brutal.
So visually, I have no qualms with this movie. It's a nightmare from beginning to end, which is exactly how I want my scary movies. But then the characters all do the same thing, time and time again that just ruins this movie. Talk.
It's obvious from the beginning that something isn't quite right about this town. Ashe falls from the sky, the underworld is a charred corpse of itself and there are babies burning from the inside out. After all these visual hints that this town suffered some sort of firery tragedy the local police also make mention that the coal fires under the town are still burning. Quite a few references to fire isn't there? Do we really need the lady cop more than 3/4 into the movie to say, "Looks like there was a fire here or something."
NO SHIT SHERLOCK!!! Did you figure that out all by your little self? God. No wonder they made you a cop. You're a brilliant deducer. Why the shit haven't you been made detective by now?
Thank God her character meets a brutally horrid death later in the movie. People with exposition that stupid just shouldn't be allowed to live.
Of course this whole movie would be for nothing if it wasn't for the big finale climax of the ending right? I'm going to be a dick and spoil the ending for you, because trust me the ending isn't worth it. Mom and daughter find their way back home, but still stuck in the fog world that so blanketed Silent Hill. She goes home, she can't see her husband, and her husband can't see her. Cut to a dolly shot going out the front door of the house, pan to a close up of a garden bush, and cut.
The movie ends with a shot of shrubbery! What the fuck! I've seen some pretty shitty endings in my life, but a close of a plant? That's just bad film making right there.
FINAL ANALYSIS!
The dialoug and plot does not make this movie fun. Which is the biggest surprise I can think of. Usually I'm sitting here and bitching about nothing BUT the lack of plot. Ultimatley the visuals and intense imagery will knock you on your ass.
This isn't something I would call a scary movie. It's more of a suspense. There are no actual "SCARE" moments in the entire film. Nothing will jump out at you and make you scream. It's all done with the situation the main character finds herself in while confronting the worst hell has to offer.