Not horrible, but not good, either

Rating: 4/10 (21 April 2006)

Silent Hill is a little above average when it comes to video game crossovers, but that's not saying much.
First the good: Silent Hill has some very good effects. The atmosphere is sufficiently spooky, and there are quite a few scenes that are very much in the vein of the games. The pacing is alright, though a little slow at times. The music during some scenes feels very out of place, as to be expected from Akira Yamaoka, however, for the most part it sets the very uneasy mood. There are a few good startles.
Now the not-so-good. Sean Bean's accent seems to be wavering a bit, and his story-line seems there only to help bring the scattered plot together; however, it's so underdeveloped that it might as well have been left out.
There's also a lot of silly one-liners that really bring you out of the movie and force you to remember where you are, despite the attempts at developing atmosphere. Ditto for some of the effects as well. And then the overacting to top it off, really helps drop the feeling of immersion that is absolutely necessary for any horror movie. The acting, for the most part, was not terrible. However, the source material that the two female leads have is poor, and the secondary main plot characters really needed some work.
The plot is, as usual, spelled out too clearly. Indeed, much of what seems to be building to a more brain-twisting and interesting concept is wasted in favor of a long, unnecessary, explanation.
A few of these things here and there, provided the rest of the movie were strong, wouldn't be such a problem. But this stuff is too pervasive, and really brings the movie down. At times it seems like the actors are having a hard time believing their own story, at times the effects seem out of place, at times the plot seems irrelevant to what is happening. The movie is also way too long for the shallow message it delivers.
Some have said that it sticks to the source material too well, but I disagree. Silent Hill forced the player to come to his or her own conclusions. The Silent Hill movie's twists don't even warrant second thought. It may stick very closely to the atmosphere, the world of Silent Hill, some of the plot elements, and the 'video-gameyness' of running around opening doors and such, but its similarities don't reach below the skin. And it's this lack of depth that dooms the movie.