Good Game Adaptation? Yeah. Good Horror Movie? Eh...

Rating: 4/10 (22 April 2006)

I came into Silent Hill without playing any of the games. But I've been told by almost everyone that has played the game and watched the movie that it was so amazingly accurate. Well... that's great and all, but I came into this hearing how freaking scary Silent Hill is. How amazingly terrifying the games were. What happened? I came into this movie expecting the same, and I was sorely disappointed.
The first half of the movie is pretty good. Keeps you interested and watching, feeling just as pressured as our protagonist, Rose. The monsters look great and the environment looks just as good. Not to mention the sounds and background music is simply awesome.
There then comes a moment where you aren't as excited about it. You seem to be less nervous about everything. And it all starts with one horrible line from Rose. "It's going to be okay. We'll be okay." Now it wouldn't be so bad... but they just escaped a brutal death at the hands of many of the sadistic monsters lurking around in the dark.
From there, it all goes downhill. We found ourselves groaning at every line the rather butch, female cop says as she states the obvious. Even once halfway through the movie saying "Something isn't right here." To add onto the horrible dialogue, we find ourselves getting bored. It's no longer pressing against time to survive... it's trying to figure out a mystery. A mystery in which we can't try to figure out for ourselves which makes the audience feel less interested.
Once you didn't feel like paying attention anymore, you noticed that the directing and screenplay has slowly gotten worse. And by the time it hits the climax to a really cool scene towards the end, you're so turned off from the movie that you just go... "Hey, that was pretty neat." The horror is gone. The fear is gone. And then you'll be completely turned off from this movie at the ending which isn't quite explained well enough.
Trust me, I knew what was happening in the movie. But the ending had next to nothing to do with the events prior. Therefore it's up to us to pick which one of the theories we think the director wanted to go with. So we're left with a feeling of unfulfillment at the end, and not really caring about this unknown ending too much.
In the end, you may find yourself having a better time making fun of the unintentionally funny parts than sitting there and watching the second half of the film. It's depressing to think something with so much potential could turn so rotten so fast, but it did.
So in the end, if you are a huge fanatic of the series, I'm sure you'll love to see this adapted to the big screen. But if you are a movie-goer that just wants to see a good horror, I suggest looking elsewhere.