Great movie of a Great game

Rating: 9/10 (27 January 2007)

I watched this movie first time with a faint fear in my heart, having played the original game many times on Playstation. I only knew that main protagonist had been changed from man to woman. What else did they change? Well, a lot of things, but that was certainly a good thing. I understood, that direct translation from game with multiple endings wouldn't have been possible.
Aside details, this game is most faithful to the game in surprising area: camera angles! There are a lot of scenes, where the view of the scene is taken 100% from the original game. Music is another. You have the same haunting music as in the game with few exceptions, and it's orchestrated this time.
Movie is scary, sad and extremely anxious. It doesn't have sudden scares. There is nothing that suddenly jumps or could jump on your face from darkness. It's scary, because the world in itself is a scary & weird place and there is no way out. Feeling of anxiety in the movie is phenomenal. You see the monsters from the distance but there is no way to keep running away from them forever. Behind everything that, there is just a sad story about a fate of a small girl.
Actors on this movie are good. Not great, but good. They are in a good balance, so that most of the main characters and in this case quite a few supporting characters too are very memorable. Expression on the face of the Kim Coates when he rescues Alessa from burning is terrific. No character is too generalized archetype either.
The only thing in this movie that monsters are way too visibly computer animated. I forgive that partially because, well, this is based on a video game.