Fans of the game series will not be disappointed

Rating: 10/10 (21 April 2006)

Though the film Silent Hill mashes up the details of the first game in the series (adding in a dash of Pyramid Head from SH2), it manages to capture the atmosphere of the games perfectly. Fans of the series will notice that a number of shots are lifted directly from the game itself; this is most notable in the beginning when Rose descends a staircase into her first encounter with the "evil" version of Silent Hill. Also, most of the music in the game is from the soundtrack to Silent Hill 3, which is my favorite soundtrack of the series.
The transitions from "ghost town" Silent Hill and "full-on hell" Silent Hill are beautiful--well, as beautiful as the deterioration of reality can be. I had an enormous grin on my face the first time everything shifted, and the world became barbed wire and blood and rust.
And is this movie ever full of barbed wire and blood and rust. And guts. Pyramid Head's scenes are particularly brutal, as is the finale (SPOILER) when Alessa has her revenge on the elders of Silent Hill in the nastiest way possible.
The film does a great job of making the SH narrative coherent: in fact, the narrative in the film is a lot clearer than the game's, in my opinion. However, the opening of the film, until about the point at which Rose reaches Midwich Elementary, moves very briskly, and those unfamiliar with the storyline may have a hard time getting into the movie at first.
The problem for people who aren't fans of the series is that they'll have to wait until near the end of the film to get the full background of the story, which is delivered in a monologue over a stylish, grainy flashback that will remind fans of the "noise filter" effect in Silent Hill games (as in, the film at this point is scratched and fuzzy).
The dialog's is occasionally silly, and the acting a bit overwrought at times; but I don't think it's distracting enough to ruin the film. And besides, horror movies aren't known for Shakespearian performances.
All in all, I would have to say that Silent Hill is not only good among video game adaptations (though that's a bit of a backhanded compliment) but also good among horror movies, and certainly more than worthy of the "Silent Hill" name.