Almost but not quite...

Rating: 5/10 (22 April 2006)

Just saw this film last night. As a big SH fan, I had been eagerly anticipating this film ever since i heard it was coming out. Here was a game that could be great on film. Everyone I know that played these games was almost afraid to play them after dark, they were so disturbing.
I'm not one of those absurd purists that were angry at the changing of the lead characters gender. Far from it. In fact Radha Mitchell is an excellent choice, and I've enjoyed her in other films including Pitch Black, Finding Neverland and even High Art. The little girl Sharon, played by Jodelle Ferland was also a good choice; she was a creepy little kid even in Smallville a few years back. Alice Krige is wonderfully creepy in everything. Sean Bean is a superb actor utterly wasted in this film. I've read that he was only added because of the complete lack of the XY chromosome in earlier versions.
I was also glad to see a film not use so much CGI, as a good portion of the monsters were actors in makeup. And some of these were straight out of my worst nightmare. The first scene when Radha Mitchell chases Sharon in silent hill was just great, almost exactly like the game, even the camera angles were captured. I know they couldn't get all the monsters from the game into this film but I do feel there should have been more scenes with those little white creepy things, that were all over the place in the game. And the little black spirits wandering around would have been a nice touch.
This film had its moments, but all-in-all I feel let down. It was too much like every other current American piece of crap Horror film out there lately. Seems every time I turn around, somebody is remaking a Japanese horror film that was just made two years ago in Japan. Don't remake it just release the Japanese version here with subtitles. Oh wait I forgot the American audience doesn't want to have to read. I think the cast and crew did an excellent job with this film, I just can't help but wonder if it might not have been better if it was made by an Asian director. They would have gotten away with a lot more balls-to-the-wall Horror.