I'm going to tell you why I am surprised...

Rating: 7/10 (26 August 2006)

It's because this is the first VG based movie ever to be transferred to celluloid successfully. But they say that Thomas Edison made about a thousand errors before perfecting his idea "the light bulb" (i think?)-so go figure.
At first the movie drags on a bit but things get pretty meaty towards the end of the middle and then excellent in the end. I didn't like Sharon's mom the DaSilva lady because she was just too ballsy for my tastes, just taking it upon herself to go this mystery ghost town named "Silent Hill" because Sharon always mentions it in her sleepwalking spells. Obviously, it shows that she has some anger for her husband but why, I don't know, they seem to not care to put the reasons why in the film.
If you look at all the demons, and burning babies specters in the Hellish dimension, you could see why it all adds up near the end. I love the big dude with the triangle on his head, dragging that big blade across the ground. The scene when the girls mother and the cop was locked in the closet/fan vent room, and you hear this guy walking (stomping actually) dragging that blade, was great.
Of course, it has CGI (which I'm not a fan of) because there are just some scene sequences that computers just can't do professionally as in actually blood, animatronics and related old school SFX; case in point: the scene where the big guy (I guess they call him the "fiend") grabs the girl on the steps of the church. I'm not give away what happens but you can tell that parts in that scene was CGI which is lackluster POOR. But on the other hand, the CGI effects were good in showing the process of being burned alive, which I had noticed in the remake of The Hills have eyes.
A key thing that grabs me is the scene of the elders meeting in the hotel during the flash back scene kind of reminds me of a certain religious group/org. but I will leave out their name. Not that I am assuming the makers of this movie was intending anything in subtle relation but I did notice the similarities.
Now, there are some questions for this movie that I must ask:
1. Who was with adult Alyssa (being all burned up) to have a baby and who would want to?
2. How did the church know when the darkness was coming in order to sound the alarm?
3. It's obvious to (and yet, I could be wrong) that Sharon's mom and the lady cop were dead in order to be in limbo, but where are their bodies?
4. Why was the lady cop still alive? I thought when that high priestess lady gave her minions that nod, it was for them to strike the final blow.
5. Last but not least, If Alyssa's mother was in limbo, obviously she was dead but she was alive after her daughter was burned up, so did she commit suicide out of guilt or just died later but out of guilt she was in that realm?
Other than that, there were great scenes in the movie and I do commend the filmmakers for making it very true to the first game and having a good dialogue for the characters.