"I Had A Skin Ripping, Blood Dripping, Body Tearing Good Time"

Rating: 8/10 (28 April 2006)

Rose takes her daughter to Silent Hill in hopes of finding an answer to her sleep walking nightmares. After a car accident just outside the town, Rose wakes up to see her daughter missing. Now she must roam through the ash dreaded streets of Silent Hill....
Silent Hill is based on a video game, one of which I've played, briefly. So I know what I'm in store for, but still didn't expect it. Silent Hill is one of the better horror films of the decade and without a doubt one of the better, if not the best video game adaptation...ever. That's not saying this movie is perfect, it does have it's faults, but the bottom line is that I had a skin ripping, blood dripping, body tearing good time.
Silent Hill is beautiful to look at. The cinematography is wonderful, ranging from gray ash ridden streets and buildings, to blood dripping red terrifying nightmares. The film jumps back and fourth between the two eerie scenery and manages to make you feel the eerie weirdness and confusion that our main character, Rose goes through. Rose's husband, Sean Bean, goes through the same town, but in a different state...he's world is grounded and realistic.
Is Silent Hill terrifying? Yes and no. It depends on what you've been exposed to in previous films. For me, I love the horror genre, so I've seen it all. Silent Hill wasn't anything to shake me to my bones, but it does a very good job and being creepy. One of the best parts of the movie is the siren. It blares a warning sound when the town turns into the nightmare. You hear it for the first time and you know that nothing good can come of it. You hear it a second time and you are terrified, knowing what will come, but not knowing what to really expect. The third time, you just say to yourself that the characters better get the hell out of there. There are three worlds in Silent Hill. The "real" world, in which Sean Bean is looking for his wife and daughter. The "Limbo" world, which is when the town is covered is ashes creating the foggy creepy feeling, then finally, with the siren alarm comes the nightmare world, where we meet all the insane, brutal, pyramid head nightmares.
The Pyramid Head guy, if you've played the games you know who I'm talking about, if not...he a guy with a giant pyramid on his head...you think it's funny? Wait till you meet the guy, you might sh*t your pants. He carries a big sword, and can rip the skin of a human in one second flat. The little time he is on the screen, you hide behind those fingers of yours, peeking every once in a while to see if the nightmare is over.
There is one scene that is a pure "Evil Dead" moment. In the original "Evil Dead" one of the characters gets raped by a tree, here it does that same scene, only upping the terror and cringe worthiness. Think...barbwire. Is there gore? Well, let see, there is the one scene that I just described, in which the body is then ripped in half. Pyramid Head...you remember him, well he rips the skin off a human body. A woman is beaten to near death with blunt instruments, then burned alive. The burning of the woman is kind of pointless. She is repeatedly beaten, to the point where we think she is dead. But, oh no, she is still alive. Can she be saved in time? We think so, otherwise why is she still alive, but then she is burned alive. Reason, for shock value. Pointless.
What hurts this film is the useless character of the father, it's need to explain everything and the corny dialogue. While we're in Silent Hill, we should always be in Silent Hill. You take away from the suspense when we have to follow the father and his searching for the two. It takes away from the mystery of what's going on. The audience should be lost with it's main character, there should be no connection to the outside world when you're in Silent Hill. That would ultimately make it more terrifying. Which leads me into it's second fault, which seems to be a trend in many movies. The need to explain why. Why do we always have to have an explanation of why bad things have happened. Why can't it all be a mystery, they're there for our imagination to come up with a reason, not because of what you're telling us. Granted the way they told us was different and nice to see, it's still hurting the film in the end.
The dialogue is laughable, is it because it's based on a video game? No, video games can have good dialogue, this film has teen slasher dialogue written all over it. Scream names here in hope to find an individual. Lines like, "Hey, look at this" or "No, you're the sinner". Stuff that should be in a cheesy B-horror movie film that came from the 80's. In this movie it is just out of place. Everything is great in the film, except for the dialogue.
The ending does many things, leave you to come up with an explanation and lean into a possible sequel. What I took from the ending? Rose is still in the "Limbo" world. Her daughter has been for a lack of a better word, possessed by the demon. Which is why she has a different look at the end, the look that a kid such a Damien would give us. The way it's presented to us can confuse the audience, but I liked it. Silent Hill, for the hardcore fans, I think will please. For horror fans, will please. Silent Hill is a genuine terrifying experience.