A woman goes in search for her daughter, within the confines of a strange, desolate town called Silent Hill. Based on the video game.
Silent Hill is a Rare Breed: A Good Video Game Movie
Now, don't be turned off just because it's video game-based. You don't need to know anything about the game to enjoy this, and as far as just regular films go, it's very good.
The story goes, Rose has an ill daughter, and goes looking for answers in Silent Hill, West Virginia. She finds that Silent Hill has the answers-but what good are the answers for your daughter when you've lost your daughter in a ghost town?
If anything was going to turn people off from this movie, it would be the dialogue. The dialogue isn't bad ...all the time. But good or not, there is so much of it, that if you go into it expecting lots of action between the Darkness, you're gonna hate this movie. And while it's refreshing to gamers to see a director can properly represent the story details and depth that is in video games (the good ones,anyway), Gans did it with the wrong movie. Games like Metal Gear Solid provoke political thought, and that much dialogue would be appropriate. But people see commercials for Silent Hill and they expect scares and action; not lots of talking. It didn't ruin the movie, because it is all necessary.
Now, for the disturbing factor: Good. The creatures in here are very Silent Hill-esque, and will have fans of the game smiling and everyone else creeped out. Pyramid Head and the Nurses are certainly highlights. Gore whores will be hoping more characters were dumb enough to get within Pyramid Head's grasp; he was HARDCORE. The parts involving fire (won't spoil it) pushed the limit though.
Speaking of which, let's talk about the gore: Anything gory or disturbing in this movie is totally avoidable. The director might as well have hired someone to stand just beneath the screen and wave a bright yellow flag around when something nasty's about to happen-because you can see them coming a mile away. And you know, there are only two or three really gory parts; the rest is just scary/disturbing. But if you saw a guy that looked like he could bench press a train, lift a girl up by her neck with one hand and reach his other hand back as if he's going to punch her....would you assume that what's about to happen is going to be pretty with rainbows everywhere, or really gross? Well, if you picked the second option, then you could make it through this movie. Those of you that just want a good time and some occasional scares without the blood flow going too far, no worries. Just keep your eyes peeled and turn your head when you see that yellow flag. This is also kind of a downside to the movie too, things should be jumping out at you to scare you, but if you can see the scare coming, the movie loses its effect.
Fans of the game will be pleasantly pleased that the music was spot-on. Not just with the songs that were straight from the games, but the ones that were original score as well. And those of you that have played the games will notice the little things in there put just to make you happy. And you will-there's nothing quite like seeing other people freak out from the same things that freaked you out in the games.
A lot of talking and a slow pace might turn people off, but if you can keep up, Silent Hill is worth a visit.
Silent Hill is 3 Pyramid Heads out of 5.
11 days until Halloween!
- Directed by Christophe Gans
- Written by Roger Avary
- Starring Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger
- Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language
- Running time: 125 minutes
- Available on Netflix DVD queue
Theatrical trailer
Trailer provided by Tristar Pictures
Caleb Laulusa - I began writing video game reviews for an international website that sadly, went under before any of my work was published. I also found ...
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