Surpassed the skepticism by far!

Rating: 8/10 (21 April 2006)

As a fan of the game series, my interest was piqued when I first heard there was going to be a Silent Hill movie. However, as so many promising film ideas are made into disappointments, this one was far better than I feared it might be.
Fans of the game will recognize much of the music and elements of the plot. At first I was concerned that including music we already heard from the games would take away from the film, but it began to fall into place nicely. As the games' desired effect comes from their atmosphere, the music, sound effects, and set design serve to construct a lonely, horrifying sense to the film.
The special effects are top notch. As a jaded usually-anti-CGI type of person, there wasn't any CGI I found to be lame. It all looked pretty realistic. The climax, which does utilize some CGI, was done excellently - it's one of my favorite scenes in the whole film. Also, what is so cool is that almost all of the monsters are live actors in costumes. Only one type of critter appeared to be wholly CGI and it was done well. The other instance(s) that appeared to utilize CGI appeared to do so only because a large number of monsters was required.
Those of us who've been involved in filmwriting know that exposition is generally discouraged since it can be a cheap way to cut corners around the storytelling - and some people have complained about the exposition scene in the film - but for people not familiar with the games especially, I feel it was quite necessary and was neither out of place nor cheaply done, not to mention the fact that the plot of the film is not a carbon copy of the plot of the game so it was even useful to the fans.
The closing writer/producer/cast credits were done well and will probably keep you in your seat for an extra couple minutes before the full cast and crew credits roll. You'll see what I mean....
All in all, I gave it an 8. One point docked for a little bit of less-than-stellar acting that occasionally pops up. And another point dropped just for slant factor - I don't feel that the film had a strong first act. In any case, you can tell that Gans and company were really into the film, as it has the creepy, visceral feel of the games and the proper atmosphere to do it justice. I think all of the fans of the games, except the impossible-to-please fanatic fanboys out there, will enjoy the film and if there is a sequel, I have every intention of seeing it. For those of you not familiar with the games, prepare to still have questions by the end, but I think you might enjoy it nonetheless. If nothing else, it might motivate you to check out at least one of the games in the Silent Hill series and experience the phenomenon of truly wonderful interactive survival horror!