Admittedly, having played and studied the games, I'm rather biased ...

Rating: 9/10 (21 April 2006)

For the past two months, easily, I've been anxiously awaiting this weekend, and right after I left my work shift, I was off to the movie theater to secure a ticket to Silent Hill. The lights eased off, the screen lit up, and the speakers began to reverberate with the strumming of what will be familiar sounds to SH veterans: the first game's opening music played on a mandolin. A smile came over my face. I know Mr. Gans wouldn't let me down.
And for the most part, he most certainly did not; Silent Hill contains fan service galore, and rewards steadfast players of the games with little asides here and there. Rose Da Silva's sojourn into the titular town to find her daughter Sharon encompasses aspects of all four games and even some of the graphic novels, be they locations, creatures, even something as seemingly unimportant as camera angles or street names printed on a bus route map. Save for one or two instances, I could hear a piece of music being played in the background and instantly identify from which title -- nay, from which situation in which title they originated. And the storyline, that most ballyhooed of problems that is often cited as being so meandering as to be nonexistent, stays true to the source material to a fault. So yes, I can definitely see how the average Joe will be completely stunned and clueless. Thankfully, I am not an average Joe when it comes to this film. Maybe I am just a little fanboy at heart, but I almost found myself wishing that a few extra wink-wink-nudge-nudge's had found their way in. Maybe the hotel room could have been 312 instead of 111, for instance? But then, that's what sequels are for, and Silent Hill leaves the door wide open for one.
Visually, there's no two ways around it -- it's stunning. The crew intentionally kept away from CGI as best they could unless it became necessary to achieve a particular effect, and it pays off in spades. Seeing the nurses twitching in ways that only a human body could manage, or Pyramid Head's Great Knife wagging dangerously in front of our heroines, it was truly a sight, as well as the shifts from Snowy Silent Hill to its dark incarnation. Gans' art directors and crew are to be commended for achieving the look of the games in three dimensions so meticulously.
Now, my own personal problems with the film. I almost wish the subplot involving Christopher and his own hunt for his family had been dropped. It carried a neat parallel with Silent Hill 2, to be sure, but the movie usually came to a standstill when it switched from Rose's perspective in the constantly changing Silent Hill to Chris in his decidedly normal environments. That may have been the fanboy inside me aching to find out what other familiar things would be brought to the screen, and growing impatient when I had to sit through more exposition.
Interestingly, that last sentence might just be the movie's biggest undoing: it feels like a movie made by a fan (which Gans has repeatedly proved to be), FOR fans. Not much is done to welcome newcomers into the fold and show them what all the excitement's about, save for the gorgeous visuals, VERY gory mutilations and wonderfully edited trailer, and that is seriously a shame. Not having any "hey, see this?" moments to rely upon, the newbies are left to cope with a story which is rather cryptic in its attempt to juggle multiple story threads, and so far, they have none too quietly declared in other reviews that they have no intentions of doing so, while the rest of us can just look at Midwich Elementary or Brookhaven Hospital and know exactly what the writers are referring to.
So, is Silent Hill worth seeing? If you're a fan of the games, the answer is unequivocally yes. Other people, I can't easily recommend it to, but if you're able to sit back and read between the lines while admiring what Gans' visual team has accomplished, you'll be in for a rare treat: a good video-game adaptation.