C, C+, Warning: Major spoilers at the end of the Review!!

Rating: 6/10 (21 April 2006)

It wasn't a bad movie, but I have to admit, the video game really drew you in a lot more.
Despite the lousy graphics of the Playstation 1, I still found myself getting chills, gasping and at one point actually screaming throughout the game. Silent Hill 3, great graphics, a better storyline than silent hill 1, decent level of scariness. And this is coming from someone who usually plays a video game until it gets too hard then quits. I'm not what you would call a "gamer", but the silent hill games I couldn't stop playing. I still get chilled even the third time around.
This movie... The problem is I think they tried to stuff themes from all three games into one movie. It just didn't seem to fit.
The addition of the "Father" character was unnecessary. I LOVE Sean Bean. He's one of my favorite actors and major HOT! but the character he plays... what was the point? What did the "father" add to the show? He got about as many answers as the audience did. big fat zero. So in essence, he was kind of just eye candy. But that detracts from the action that could be going on in Silent Hill. Also, The changing of Harry Mason to Rose DeSalva was unnecessary really. I mean, Sure, Harry would seem a bit like a wussy in the movie, but what did Rose do? She didn't fight any of the creatures like he did in the game. Some of the most intense action that drew you into the game was the fighting of the demon creatures. They didn't have any of that at all!! All she did was scream and run most of the time. And the one time she finally gets a weapon, she doesn't use it as a weapon and she drops it along the way.
The demon creatures... they were not used the way they should have been. If you played the game, they were everywhere- They were what caused the height of the scary moments, the scene in Silent Hill 1 the game where you're in a locker room, you open a locker where knocking noises are coming from and its empty so you turn to leave then BAM! that scared the crap out of me! They had no moments like this in the movie. I could count the number of times they actually used demon creatures on my hands, and Rose spent more time screaming and running from them that you never got to really enjoy the disturbing scariness of them.
I also don't understand the separation of Daliah who in the game was the mother of Alessa AND the bad guy- into Daliah the mother of Alessa and Crystabel, the bad guy. That was an extra character they didn't need.
I loved the actors they chose for each role however. They all did a great job. The woman playing Cybil looked perfect for the part. (Hate what happened to the character. That I won't give away but it was stupid). but all in all, acting wise the movie was great.
But writing wise, it seemed to lack a lot. Like I said, I think they were trying to shove all three video games into one movie. They added unnecessary characters, they didn't utilize any of the scary moments from the game that they could have, and....
Spoiler: WARNING: Spoiler
If you haven't seen the movie stop reading! This is about the ending!
The ending made no sense to me at all. are they dead? Are they alive? I mean, it was so ambiguous. In Silent Hill 3, the little girl is suppose to grow up to be Heather Mason who the video game revolves around. I guess if they're dead, and ghosts walking around... they've killed the ability to make that sequel into a movie. So I don't get it. What was up with that ending?
End Spoiler!
so in other words, it could have been worse, but it could have been better. I liked it for the most part... I really liked the acting and the actors they chose, I liked the visuals and the idea of using actual people instead of all CGI for the creatures, but there was so much that the writers dropped the ball on, that While I enjoyed it, I was a bit disappointed as well. C+. (Man Sean Bean is cute.) While his character was pointless, I'm glad he was in it. lol. (Too bad they just didn't keep Harry Mason as the main character with Sean Bean as Harry. That would have rocked!)