Joystiq Review: Silent Hill (the movie) [Update 2]

Now, to the original poster: I won't flame you, though I disagree with your opinion.

However, you've proven my exact same thoughts that came up when I left the theater: Anyone who hasn't seen or played the games will not get the movie. Fans of the series saw a great movie, but most other folks won't see past the awesome scenario design.

So, the movie will very likely be a bomb.

Oh, forgot to add:
Shame on you for disliking the music! Most if not all was taken straight from the first three Silent Hill games. They add to the athmosphere, but again, you need to have heard them in the game, or at least get why the music style is like it is, to get it.

okay.. i am NOT a silent hill game fan.. nor have i ever heard of the game ever in my lifetime.. guess im just not a gamer person. no offense to any gamers.. BUT i would like someone to explain to me exactly what went on in the story in the movie... i dont understand the ending for the life of me.. i thought the rose and sharon lived? when they went home howcome they were in two different dimensions?

i am sooooo confused

I have pleyed all 4, and Love the Series with a passion (Yes I have all the comics). I Guess Borderline Fanboy is the best to describe me. the Movie met all my expectations. the Creative Freedom was a bit neccesary due to the fact that not too many people have played the games. The Script was a bit bland, but it did well to explain everything. And what some people forget is the fact that the town it self is realy a Hell on Earth, that wants to punish people long before it is their time. At least that is what I have gotten from the series. Sound was perfect, monsters were dead on. The whole plot and the reasons why everything happened, was really a classic Silent Hill tale. But that is me.

The only thing I really wish there would have been is more Pyramid Head.

Best lines: "Mother is God in the Eyes of a child."
"Look I'm Burning."
"They all run from their own fear!"

I know that someone mentioned this: The First Darkness scene was best being that it followed the First Game Exactly in everything: camera Angles the most.

And Yes, I would buy the 2/3/4/however many Disc Collection.

If the movie was entirely Rose running into various mutate freaks, then it'd get poor reviews for being a wannabe Hellraiser. The fact is, Silent Hill is a film that covers all bases of great horror story telling- its mysterious, brooding, when there is gore -there is gore-, and it never truly ends happily. It's pretty fucking twisted, compared to half the PG-13 kiddie horror crap coming out in this day and age. I applaud it for having the balls to rape someone with barbed wire. And considering the directorial skill and the intensity of several actors (Laurie Holden and whoever played Dahlia, especially), I'd say its pretty rock solid. It didn't degrade into complete bloodlust action, and it didn't puss out on how to tell it's tale.

The movie will bomb because it's a poor movie, not because people didn't 'get' it. Having an intimate understanding of the Silent Hill game series should not be a requiste for enjoying the movie, just as reading or seeing any film's source material should not be required to appreciate the film.

It's just bad screenwriting not matter how you try to spin it.

IMDB page for Silent Hill:
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0384537/

Getting some very good reviews there.

After seeing this movie, and not being too familiar with the games, I would have to say it wasn't that great. As a movie, it didn't make me like any of the characters. I didn't really care who lived or died, because I didn't know any of them.

Also, the realization that the demons and previously scarey "bad-guys" were now the "good guys" did nothing for me. I was "scared" of Pyramid Head, but then I find out he's just an agent of the "good" little girl. I wasn't ready to just like all of the evil creatures and hate all of the humans. If they were going for a twist, it didn't work.

I did love the visuals, especially the point of view of the camera. There were a lot of shots that seemed similar to the game.

1 1/2 stars out of 4

It's annoying when critics won't even give video game movies a chance. They head into the theatre with a negative attitude and nit pick at little things..

(Then again, most video game movies suck) :/

There were moments in the movie when I said to myself "NOW THAT WAS F***ING AWSOME". Just watch any scene involving pyramid head and I guarantee you that you'll be saying the same. This movie is definitely THE MOST FAITHFUL VIDEOGAME ADAPTAION TO DATE. i just wish they didn't put Sean Bean in the movie. He was basically supposed to play the part of James Sunderland from Silent Hill 2 but since the movie focuses on Rose and her daughter, there isn't time to develop his character. I think he should have been left out and instead, they movie should have just focused on the first Silent Hill game's storyline. Pyramid Head for example, isn't just a monster in the games. it is supposed to represent something (which i won't spoil) but because the movie doesn't focus on Sean Bean's character, pyramid head is reduced to a mere monster who kills.
The acting was decent. The dialogue worked at least for the most part. the set design and special and visual effects are f***ing amazing as well.
Overall i liked the movie up to the last 30 minutes of it. i recommend it to any silent hill fan. It’s way better than doom, resident evil, RE: Apocalypse, or any other video game based movie.

OMG It was sooo good!

Every show was sold out here in NYC at all the AMC theatres.


I was incredibly impressed. A few cliche lines, but anyone who cant see beyond that into what an excellent device this movie is should go watch sesame street.

You can't come into this with the same grasp of reality the people that didn't like Crouching Tiger Hidden Dragon had. If you just let yourself go and forget about reality it is very very very entertaining.


GO SEE THIS MOVIE!!!!

I'll try to keep this as spoiler-free as possible, though I can't promise perfection :D


I liked the movie overall and was well worth the price of admission. I'd give it a B...B-minus maybe, as I did have a few problems with it. The movie did a good job "showing" the story rather than "telling" it....right up until one point close to the end...those of you who saw the movie know what I'm talking about. That could have been handled a lot better. I was immersed pretty well into the movie until that point. With all the stuff Chris was trying to uncover earlier, SURELY they could have worked most of that in elsewhere little by little and made his character more relevant. Also, I think those who didn't play the games and saw the movie needed quite a suspension of disbelief to explain a couple of the things that put Rose and Sharon in Silent Hill. One may not question the motivation but may certainly question how the trip itself was suddenly decided to be the best solution to their problems (the draw of the psychic link wasn't very evident until well into the movie), and the how the traffic stop drew Cybil in was pretty silly. I also noted some minor problems with pacing, especially in some fades and cuts. Drew out things a bit more than necessary.

Otherwise, I thought the liberties the movie took in minor background plot points and some of the extra background characters did a very good job grounding the game into a real life setting. As mentioned, the music and sound effects were outstanding. Visuals were excellent, though needed some polish in some places. The action was pure Silent Hill...running for your life, scared as hell, and extremely disturbing. Dialogue was pretty unimpressive, but there were some good lines.

I think it was a good film...the game had so much to pack into the movie that there was absolutely no way everything could make it in and fit right, so I understand why some things were omitted and some things were changed. Overall, I don't think the spirit of the game was sacrificed and the movie was very entertaining. And boy, revenge was had, huh? :D

Over at http://www.the-numbers.com they're showing SH as the #1 grossing film on Friday...so it seems it's doing well...

I just went to go see it. I thought it was good. I would spend the 8 bucks again.

(This is a long review and I hope all of it posts.)

Main Gripes:
- Sean should've been Harry and there should not have been a female lead. Gamer preference. Harry is one of the most beloved characters in the entire series. In spite of this glaring fact, I actually did rather like Rose. Mostly.

- ONLY ONCE...IN THE ENTIRE FRIGGIN MOVIE...DID SHE EVER PICK UP A WEAPON. And she loses it five minutes later. This bothers me on so very many levels, hence the caps. I'm sorry...I get warped into a hell dimension and whether I think I'm hallucinating or not, if things start attacking me, first thing I'm going to do is get a ruddy weapon!

Now, on with the review.

Review...from a SH Game Lover's Standpoint:
I cannot tell you how thrilled I was to hear the classic game music when the movie started. For those who have played the game, it automatically sends you back to when you played it and really sets the mood. I have no clue how it affects non-gamers.

I'm having a bit of difficulty here really, trying to coalesce everything into something coherent. Silent Hill runs 120 minutes or so and I have to say, once they get to Silent Hill, I was very, very happy barring only a few things. The atmosphere is fantastic. The transition from normal reality to Silent Hill's version of normal, the ash reality, is excellent. It is an absolute delight for the gamer side of me to see familiar places and atmosphere, but not only that, camera perspectives are dejavu familiar. It's done beautifully.

Story wise...hmm...between gaming glee and fangirl squee, I think I may have to see it again just to try to tell you about the story! ^_^ How well did it stick to the original game? Well, originally, it was a merge of SH 1 and SH 2. I'd say for the most part, it did fairly well. The theme is, a young girl (who you find out is adopted and no, that's not a spoiler) has some sleepwalking issues and/or fugue states and always mentions the town of Silent Hill (which they conveniently placed in WV, because we all know WV has all the spooky and bassackwards stuff in it...at least according to the movies. I've no clue where it was in the games). And I'm rambling. Sorry.

So Rose, being the ever-diligent mother, decides that since Sharon (daughter) is constantly talking about Silent Hill, she should go there. A lil googling (literally, they showed google with a Silent Hill result list) later, and against Christopher's wishes (the ever wonderful Sean Bean, with a much better American accent), she high tails it to Silent Hill, leaving a worried husband frantically trying to contact her. On her way to SH, she attracts the attention of motorcycle cop Cybil Bennett (a game original) and shortly thereafter, there is a speedy pursuit. Here we come to the game origin...Rose notices a small girl in front of her car, slams on brakes, veers sharply, and is out for the count. When she wakes...she's in Silent Hill proper, ash and all.

Once in Silent Hill, she finds it primarily deserted except for fleeting glances of a little girl, running just out of reach. Everything is empty, desolate, covered with ash from who knows where. In the game, you simply accept that it is one of those Bad Things. Rose isn't quite that bright. If I see ash falling from the sky and know there isn't a volcano nearby...I'm going to be more than a tad worried. Maybe that's just me. Another SH exclusive is the inclusion of the dreaded siren. Why is it dreaded? It means things are about to go from bad to Really F*cking Bad. As a gamer, gotta say, my skin twitched just hearing them. I LOVED IT. The transition from bad to RFB rocked and the RFB? It was right out of the game, and so were its inhabitants. The creature effects were perfect and Pyramid Head kicks mighty ass. When Rose and Cybill meet up again, Cybill actually uses a braincell and does actually shoot the weird ass thing coming towards her...well, after it sprays her with acid, but hey, she used her weapon and decided that 'shoot first, ask questions later' was an excellent policy indeed.

In the games, the main characters are warped in and out of SH Ash Reality and RFB Reality. They learn things as they go by exploring, solving puzzles, and meeting a few people who just so happen to be unfortunate to still be around. In the movie, while we do get a bit of this, the majority of plot exposition is left to Sean Bean as Christopher. His role is to basically tell us the history of Silent Hill and of his daughter, Sharon. He takes the place of most of the puzzles and backstory you find in the game. He also provides the needed balance in the movie to show the separation between realities, as he is in our normal reality and never sees SH in any other way.

Without giving away the entire movie, we have several jumps between realities for our two leading ladies, allowing them to discover more about what happened to the town, why realities are skewed, why there are creatures, and what's behind all of it. Up until the very end, I was pretty happy with everything. Most gamers will know the concept of an End Boss...and we had that sort of showdown at the end. However, I don't think it really fit...either the game or the movie. It seemed a bit stretched thin for me and changed a character in not a good way to my point of view. And the ending after the boss confrontation I didn't much care for either. While it is somewhat in keeping, atmospheric wise, with the games, it isn't the ending for SH1 or SH2 and again, it changes a character and not in a good way. I guess from a non-gamer's perspective, it lends to the creepy feel of the movie, but I am hoping for an alternate ending on the dvd.

Recommendation:
The elitist gamers will not like how characters and plot lines were twisted off-center, but the casual gamer who loved the series for what they were should enjoy the movie. I enjoyed it, barring the few things I mentioned, and will definitely go again to see if I get a different feel for the movie beyond gaming glee and fangirl squee. For the non-gamer and movie-goer, I think you may find it something different. It is definitely a horror movie, but it includes touches of supernatural, suspense, drama, with the SH creepy touch and twisted gore. Be prepared to think, however. This movie, for all its explanations, does really want you to think. It will not feed you everything, but it will tempt you, and it will have you thinking after the movie's end.

Atmosphere & Special Effects: A++. The creatures gave me the same 'oh sh*t' feeling, from the grey children to the nurses (you need an axe or hammer for those wenches...but they go down in two blows with a very satisfying thunk and then you kick them in the head...but given as she only picked up a weapon once, we did not get that) to Pyramid Head himself. The sirens prickled my skin. We even got some trademark radio static for creature proximity. They could not have gotten any closer to the feel of playing the game in the middle of the night with the lights out. Brilliantly done.

Plot: B-. Little girl lost with a hellish Twilight Zone chaser.

Ending: C-. From the big confrontation to the after bit, this was what disappointed me the most. For a non-gamer movie goer, it will probably suit them just fine for a spooky just-not-quite-right ending, but having played the game and knowing the ending, it didn't sit well. Am hoping for an alternate ending. It is possible they actually wanted to leave some room for a potential sequel, but I'm not sure.

Acting: A, as in Actually, I thought it was pretty damned good. The characters were believable and since such a subject could easily go camp, I think they did really well to play it straight.

Bean Accent: B+. Much better than North Country. Only a few words twitched me, but mostly, I didn't hear anything at all to throw me, so he did a very good job. Could still use a bit of work, but rather good.

Overall, I'd give it a three out of five stars, maybe more on additional viewings. It's an interesting story and quite probably the best video-game-to-film ever.


Sister's review, a non-gamer's perspective.
I just liked the movie, I really did. It's a rewatcher. It's cool, so I'd give it four out of five stars. Definitely recommended.

Recommendation:
If you like horror movies that are not extreme horror, almost lightweight, but have a good bit to it, I would give it a good rating. It's not real hardcore, really scare the sh*t out of you type horror movie, but it's not a real lightweight horror movie. It can be scary.

Atmosphere & Special Effects: A. I liked their special effects. Their zombies, their changes between the realities were really good. Very spooky, very freaky. Atmosphere? They did a good job. You could feel the different realities. You knew when you were in the real reality - they were safe. When you were in the ash reality, they weren't particularly safe but not in the massive really dangerous time. But when they got into the hell reality, it was 'Oh f*ck'. You really could feel what was going on with the way they did the atmosphere, you got good vibes for what you were supposed to feel through the atmosphere.

Plot: B+ to A-. Well, there were a lot of...when you're watching the movie, you are a little lost. By the end, however, you put things together and they start to make sense. Overall storyline, they did a good job tying everything together. For a horror movie, who often have somewhat lacking plots (slasher flicks, etc), I'd probably give it an A-, B+. I feel like they could've gone a little further, given us a little bit more to grasp, but definitely not bad.

Ending: B. I did like the ending, they did a good job making it look cool and bringing things together, but they leave you wondering. For some people and some movies, that's good. You can decide what to do with it or they can leave room for an ending, a cliffhanger ending. I was a little unhappy as I wanted more of a conclusion. I wanted more things done and completed. I felt more puzzled at the end than I did throughout the majority of the movie. It wasn't a bad ending, I just felt they needed a little more to it.

Acting: A. I guess I'm a little biased now, but I've been seeing so many MOTHERS looking for their children. I've seen so much and now I'm just really tired of it! Damnit, the fathers go through it too! I know maternal instinct is really strong, the mothers would go to hell and back for their children, but some fathers, especially the really loving, caring fathers like these latest movies really portray the fathers, do go to hell and back for their kids. Some fathers are more protective, more loving, more sacrificing than the mothers. So, my deal with the acting is that I just was tired of seeing the mother. She did a good job, but and they all did really good jobs, I was just tired and I wanted to see something different than just the mother. I don't think they showed enough of what the father was doing himself, cause he was going nuts too and he was trying hard too. And that's not just because I like Sean, but it's because I wanted to see more of the father, I wanted them to show that the mother isn't the only one doing all this and capable of doing all this. There were times that the mother, to me, felt a little campy. Sometimes, I really enjoyed it, but other times, I felt weird. I did like the mother, but overall, I just got tired of super mom. (Author's Note: Another vote for Harry then! Huzzah!)

Bean Accent: A. If I compare it to his natural accent, you can definitely tell a difference. There was a part or two in SH where I thought his natural accent started to come through, where a few words sounded slightly accented, but overall, he sounded fairly normal to me. So I guess normal to me would mean a pretty good American accent.

SPOILERS!!!! Be warned.

Huh, Sean Bean was supposed to be James from SH2? WTF is that? James had nothing to do with the main story arc of SH1 and 3. Why the hell is he in the movie? Sean Bean should have been Harry and his wife should have stayed dead. DEAD!!! In SH2 James wife died and he was freaked out because he received a letter from her to met in Silent Hill a year after she was dead. The average joe wouldn't go back under that scenario because it has to be a joke right? "Dead wife is writing me a letter? Whatever. Must be a sick joke."
But you find out towards the end of the game that James KILLED his wife. He murdered her because her disease was killing her and she was in so much pain that it was making her an unbearable bitch. So he wasted her. The guilt just ate him up.

Harry was taking his "daughter" to Silent Hill for vacation. Harry was the main character for the games. He knew there was something strange about his "daughter" because he and his wife found her as an infant on the side of the road as they were leaving Silent Hill on year after vacation years prior. You don't find that out until 3/4 of the way though the first game.

The game tells you that his "daughter" and her mother were part of a cult, just like many people in Silent Hill. They were trying to resurrect this God of salvation/destruction and the Harry's daughter was the key. The girl and her mother were witches of some kind but the girl was more powerful than her mother so she was chosen to birth this God. There was Cybil the cop that got mixed up in the mess, the crazy ass doctor that was in on the whole thing and the poor nurse in the hospital that didn't know she already dead until halfway through the first game.

Harry's daughter didn't want to give birth to this God so she somehow split her soul in two with one version being a teenager with 3rd degree burns all over her body which should have killed her but didn't and a younger version...the infant that Harry and his wife found. The nurse in the hospital knew about the burned version because she witnessed some of her episodes in the hospital.

Anyway, Harry felt that the little girl was really his and was determined to save her. The older version and the younger version of the girl merge and the God is resurrected. Harry fights it, kills it but the now older version of the girl is wounded and dying. The doctor is there trying to screw things up for Harry but the nurse, with full knowledge that she's a walking corpse, comes up from hell to claim the doctor and pulls him down with her. (creepy scene that one was) The last gesture of the older version of the girl is she uses her power again to recreate the younger version of herself and gives it to Harry. She then opens a portal and tells him to run. Harry runs like hell and ends up in a cemetary in Silent Hill. If you played the game right, Cybil lives, if you played the game wrong, then Cybil dies and Harry is the one who kills her.

So Harry survives and leaves with the child.


In SH3, Harry changes their names and moves around a lot. Harry did research into the occult and found out quite a few things about this God of Salvation and Destruction. His daughter "Heather", is being sought after by the cult. They want their God and they want it now! In short order, They hire a private detective to find Heather and Harry. Harry is murdered viciously in his own crib. This was order by this crazy bitch named Claudia. Claudia wanted Heather to hate her to the brink of despair because she knew the embryo of their God was still in Heather. Hatred would give it enough power to resurrect.

Anyway, If you play the game right, Heather doesn't give birth to the God, Claudia does and her body is destroyed as a result. Vincent (a really cool character) is killed by Claudia after he says he loves and adores their God but to see her resurrected on Earth would be problematic and cause too many complications. If you listen to the SH3 soundtrack go to track 12 and you realize that the younger version of Heather regrets saving her. There is a really frightening scene in SH3 that illustrates that when Heather's reflection in a mirror stops mimicking her movements and turns blood soaked.

Anyway, I don't see how this film is getting good comments. How could they even film a sequel (you know it's coming) when the story is all screwed up now?

A lot of you are critiquing it for not being as faithful of an adaptation as you would have liked. But, you have to remember, it's not an amalgamation of the first three games. It is its own non-canonical story, only borrowing elements from the series (the nurses, Pyramid Head, etc.,) and not actually trying to make this a 100% true adaptation. You might think of it as paying homage to where it came from. The length of the film was about right for me, as I'm not one who prefers shorter movies. For ticket prices nowadays I sure as hell better be getting my money's worth. Also, I found the ending to be rather fitting, and there were some genuinely fucked up parts (Cybil being burned alive? As in, not implied, but specifically shown.) I personally thought that this added a lot to the story's off-putting behavior, as it's a lot more disturbing to see someone being burned alive, than it just being hinted at with a charred body on a ladder. Also, the hospital bed with Alyssa in it was a nice touch, visually. Some of the barbed wire was a bit much, though. And the end with Rose and Sharon returning to an empty, fogged house in the alternate dimension of Silent Hill was a good allusion to the idea that maybe no one survived the crash at all.
I, personally, thought it was an alright movie - perhaps a 7 out of 10. It definitely is the best video game to movie adaptation out there, in my opinion. However, there were some annoying things. Such as a group of people cosplaying as certain characters and re-inacting parts before the movie started. I could have done without that.

"Anyway, I don't see how this film is getting good comments. How could they even film a sequel (you know it's coming) when the story is all screwed up now?"

Silent Hill 2 had little to do with the other games. SH1 and 3 were part of the same storyline, SH2 was another family's story, and I've heard SH4 isn't even a real SH game (began as another game but was later made a SH game.)

yea i just realized through the whole movie they were dead when they die its foggy and if u noticed they were alwayz coverd in fog and never actually saw her husband .....i feel smart lol

I thought the movie was great. I didn't get a chance to play the game when it came out but i did play the demo for silence hill 1. The movie I thought judeing it as a horror movie was great. The lighting, the sounds, and the demons was great. however i'm haveing trouble understanding the ending? since depending on how you finish the games there are differnt endings. For the gamers who have seen the movie did the mother die on the car crash and thats how she is taken to this alternate reality or the mother doesn't die she just enters into a portal into a differnt relm. Also other have said the mother died a long time ago. So what killed her???? and does the story continue? after everyone gets they're revenge?

I just saw it this weekend. I'm not a big horror film guy, and I have to say that I lost a lot of sleep after seeing The Ring in theater, but I did find The Grudge pretty laughable, so I thought this movie would be tame. Silent Hill wasn't very scary, and since I didn't play the games much, I didn't notice any plot inconsistencies, but maybe that's because nothing really progressed for like the first hour of the movie. But they really didn't go for much horror effects, it was mostly just gross and disturbing. It was a huge disappointment that the story really made no sense, because they could have done a lot with the weird between-world-limbo thing they had going on there, but instead copped out with some fucked-upedness and gore. I think it deserves a 2/5 but I wouldn't watch it again.

Personally, I'm not too dissapointed with the movie... But then again, I wasn't all that impressed. I've never PLAYED the games, being the person sitting on the couch next to the guy doing the controlling, but I've been there through them all... (favorite line, "That's Danny...")

The movie had some good SH moments, like the nurses, the burning kids chasing Rose, and Pyramid Head, but overall it didn't really scare anyone, and it didn't have any suspense either.

In the end, it had the "Holy crap that was in the game!" moments, and some thought inducing moment at the end "aren't they in the same room? Why's is so white?", but nothing to make someone who isn't a SH fan run out and watch it again or pick up the DVD.

What I find interesting about the "You can't make a movie from a videogame" argument to Silent Hill is that Silent Hill is one of those few games that actually has a superb plotline with well-developed characters and a intricate and engaging story. Seriously, how many games out there could stand up to Silent HIll in those terms? I haven't seen the film yet, but if Avary and Gans chose to emphasize the videogame aspect of the Silent Hill series over fleshing out a good story with interesting characters then they have chose to ignore what made Silent Hill a great game. So, not only have they screwed up a brilliant game series but they forgot that movies have to have a good story to tell otherwise the audience is going to care how good the set or costumes look.

My review:

http://www.8bitninja.com/2006/04/24/review-silent-hill/

I enjoyed the movie. It was as good an adaptation as I could have hoped. The problem is that the game is supposed to be vague. That doesn't always work for a movie. Silent Hill never gives you all the answers. It's not supposed to. Also, someone above said they didn't care about the characters, and actually hated them. That's kind of the point, too. There are no real heroes in Silent Hill. The protagonists of Silent Hill all have flaws. They're not necessarily good people.

I mean, look at the mother, she basically kidnapped her own kid to take her to a damned ghost town. That's good parenting.

I enjoyed it.

***SPOILERS concerning the ending***
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I thought the line where she says "They say this place is haunted" was ridiculously stupid too, until my wife mentioned something about it later... that was alluding to the fact that everyone in the town, including the main character, the cop and the girl, are all dead. It's fairly obvious they're dead at the end of the movie. I think the cop, the mom and the girl all died in the accident in the beginning when they entered Silent Hill, so therefore were actually dead the whole time. That's the reason the other cop and the dad seemed to be in a different dimension, they were just merely alive.
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Knowing that they were all dead and creating some sort of Sixth Sense type of ending only makes this story even less interesting. I think this was just an excuse to do a bunch of weird, gross mutilating crap.

Sean Bean was added as an afterthought because the original script contained no men in leading roles. Someone complained about it, and so his character was added.

"Sean Bean ..."

Tough shit on him then. After doing this piece of crap, it's bound to take him down a notch. Big mistake.

0/5

Is just as bad as any other game to movie. God, I wish someone would seriously give me back the last 123243487234 hours of my life back that I spent watching this stupid movie. It really was a waste of money/time.

i just went out and saw this today. ive played the games and i was glad to see that this was closer to the game then RE was. Ohh and pyramid head was awesome when he was around. dragging his weapon on the ground freaked me out HAHAHA ohhh and when they are by the church AWESOME haha.

====SPOILERS===
I guess I'm still amazed that so many people who saw the movie were left perplexed by the ending. It was clear that Rose, Sharon, and Cybil were all in the nightmare dimension of the town while Chris was in the "waking" world. And at the end it is very clear that this most likely means they're dead or perhaps in some ghost-like plane (can't believe Roger Ebert couldn't come to that conclusion on his own and blamed that lack of clarity on the fact that he had never played the video game). And if there's anyone who thinks that ending could've been clearer without Chris' side of the story being edited into the plight of Rose and Sharon then I'd like to know how. As a filmmaking device the cuts back to the waking world served as a release to the tension of Rose's misadventures through Silent Hill. You can't keep the audience there forever; you have to provide a break in the action. Otherwise it's just endless scenes of spooky violence, fear, and loathing. A good director knows you can't sustain that. I'm also surprised by how many folks thought the acting and direction were terrible. Certainly not the finest hour of any of the actors, but was Laurie Holden really all that bad as Cybil? Her final scene actually has stayed with me. She realizes she is absolutely helpless but cries out encouragement for Sharon to hold on because she knows her Mom is coming. There's a back story to Holden's character that makes this scene work for me but I didn't know about it until after seeing the film. The beating she took from the Order cultists should've killed Cybil off good. I'm surprised that the effects guys didn't show her as even more disfigured when she was strapped to the ladder. Whatever, there was no shortage of gruesome images in this film (including Pyramid Head's final horrific scene). Horror fans should've gotten their money's worth and so should fans of the game. While it wasn't 100% faithful to the video game series, it certainly held together in spirit — I suspect most fans of a reasonable mind would be happy with that (if you can actually say "happy" about a film where thre's so much violent imagery and scares). Truthfully (and to paraphrase Austin Powers), this kind of thing ain't my bag, baby. There's a reason I didn't go see "Hostel" or either of the "Saw" movies. These kinds of images stick with me and make it hard to look at a plate of food without thinking of the gore I saw the night before. And yes, they place little spooky images in my head when I slip under the covers at night. Isn't that what a good horror flick is supposed to do? It's just that I normally don't enjoy that kind of post-horror-flick-trauma. But I wanted to see this after watching my girlfriend play versions 2 and 4 on the Xbox until she couldn't stand it any more. I was fascinated by the way in which there is a real world that gets built around this game and wanted to see how it translated to the screen. It's truly a shift in the entertainment industry and I guess I'm not surprised by a dinosaur like Ebert not enjoying the ride. Don't get me wrong, I'm not bashing him out of some kind of age-ism thing. I just feel like he simply doesn't see that games are an undercurrent in entertainment now and are naturally going to show up in the movies that are made. This isn't such a bad notion and may actually prove to create some interesting open-ended plot structures in the future...if any one can figure how that would work when the audience isn't in control of the medium as they would be in a video game. Ultimately the thing I liked about Silent Hill wasn't the overly-bloody mass murder scene in the church toward the end of the film. Nor was it any number of ghastly scenes involving creatures or humans doing horrible things to one another. It was the ride. Christophe Gans (the director) managed to evoke an atmosphere that became a movie. Plot and rich character development would be added bonuses, but let's not overlook a good horror flick for want of a superior one. Not every film that gets made should contend for an Oscar.

Just seen the movie....

First half, amazing! Really close to the game, some excellent references and then Pyramid Head appears and all is well...

...& then they suddenly forget about Pyramid Head, change the story and add loads of characters, ruining Silent Hill's feeling of isolation and go for an all-out Hellraiser style gore-fest...

It's almost as if you can tell where Roger Avery felt he needed to flex his creative muscle and add the gore. When will they learn, and stick EXACTLY to a stroyline from a game? I just read on another site that last year they thought people were abondoning the cinema in favour of games. If they keep ruining perfectly good stories from games, this will continue to happen.

All in all, a pretty good game-to-film, but walk out after a certain scene with PH at the front of a church and it'll be the best Silent Hill film imaginable!!