Pure, genuine creepiness.

Rating: 7/10 (16 September 2006)

--CONTAINS MINOR SPOILERS-- I'm not a fan of horror-thriller movies. This is partly due to the fact that most of them aim for the 'boo!' factor rather than real haunting ideas or good story lines.. Few films have achieved this in recent times (Exorcism of Emily Rose comes to mind), and Silent Hill is one of them.
Having hardly any knowledge of what or how the Silent Hill games are about, I watched the movie with decent expectations. I came out of the theater quite impressed at what the movie has achieved.
The story is essentially about Rose (Radha Mitchell) and her daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), taking a vacation to Silent Hill. Ignorant of the town's past, Rose, en route to Silent Hill, has a sudden car crash. Upon coming out of unconsciousness, she finds her daughter has gone. So begins the journey into the dark secrets of the ghost town.
Rose, through the course of the movie, is seen running through a completely deserted town, which is 'snowing' ashes. In the distance of her vision, she sees what appears to be her daughter, and through the course of the movie she is seen chasing her daughter, who seems adamant on always being out of reach. A run in with the other humans stuck in this horror reveals plot points, until Rose must literally go to the root of all evil to find out where her daughter is.
A few times in the movie, things go 'bad'. The first time, Rose is chasing her daughter, who runs down a set of stairs. As Rose follows her, an air horn sirens. Everything turns dark, until it is pitch black. The true terror then begins.
'Otherworld' Silent Hill is the residence of most of the monsters encountered in this movie, and they are genuinely disturbing. The video game is famous for it's fear-inducing creatures, and its film adaption is certainly no slouch. The first monster encountered is arguably the most terrifying. In typical fashion, it creeps up on the protagonist. However, as well as its appearance and cry, the fact that Rose actually screamed at it's appearance is nothing short of terrific. Most other films depict the victim scared of dying rather than an appearance of a creature; in Silent Hill, the audience sympathizes with Rose as it is obvious she is terrified of the creature. In reality, anything that resembled that monster would generate the same sort of results (We wouldn't look with mild terror like Sarah Michelle Gellar did in 'The Grudge').
However, the monsters become less and less terrifying (although more and more disturbing). The last monster Rose encounters before reaching the turning point in the movie was creepy, but somewhat attractive (the male and female audience in the theater were divided in their reaction). Maybe the film was playing on the idea of an 'attractive killer' (certainly deformed), but it certainly got serious when she started slicing and dicing.
The source of these creatures ties in the plot; there's a reason these kind of monsters exist.
Upon its first view, Silent Hill's plot can lose some people. This could detract some people from the movie, and this has raised some negative comments from the film arena, saying that the game has to be played to be understood. This is not really true. One must see this movie several times before understanding, as not all the information is spoon fed. Some links in the movie can be missed upon the first viewing.
The special effects are quite good, making the otherworldly creatures believable, and the make up is excellent.
The sound effects are creepy. Since one of the video game's strengths was sound effects rather than the element of surprise, it is no surprise then that the movie has followed suit. Although it's not particularly memorable, it heightens and compliments the events on screen.
The cinematography is superb; it really immerses you into the movie. The three 'versions' of Silent Hill each have a distinct look: the 'normal' Silent Hill has normal lighting, and looks quite normal. The 'foggy' Silent Hill looks foreboding. The 'Otherworld' Silent Hill looks dark and sinister, and the unwelcoming creatures fit right into the atmosphere.
Christopher Gans has done an exceptional job of converting the game franchise into a movie. The beginning of the trip to Silent Hill is done almost exactly like the video game that inspired it; even the camera angles are the same. After this, however, he takes full control and applies his vision of Silent Hill: never far from the true plot, yet never following it completely.
In its own right, Silent Hill is an exceptional horror film, and a very good game-film adaption. Sadly enough, it even beats Hollywood's own 'Texas Chainsaw Massacre' and 'House of Wax'. Unfortunately, due to the modest marketing and it being a cult video game, it will be overlooked in the running for the 'best video game to movie adaption' category.
7/10