Video Game Hokum

Rating: 6/10 (8 December 2007)

Had no idea that this was based on a video game until I read some of the other reviews, but it makes perfect sense. Once again, I found myself amazed by the over effusive language on IMDb. This film is "gripping and exciting and innovative. It's also extremely derivative.
Which isn't to say that it's horrible. SILENT HILL certainly has a lot of things going for it. It's got great atmosphere. There are some good performances. There are some creepy sequences. It's got amazing effects (scene after scene of digitally created landscapes and terrifying creatures). It's even got some interesting ideas.
But it's what it doesn't have that proves its undoing. It doesn't have any real sense of purpose. It's as if the writer Avary strung together every excuse for a suspense scene he could think of and director Gans cobbled together sequences from the HELLRAISER catalog.
And to what end? Why has this entire town disappeared from the face of the earth? Why is everyone trapped in this horrific limbo? What has the religious fervor of the town folks and their execution of witches got to do with them creeping about in radiation suits (while carrying canaries like coal miners)? If you expected some type of grand resolution that ties all these disparate points into a nice bow, you'll be sadly disappointed. Instead, what you get - Big Spoiler Here - is a lame explanation involving a little girl wronged. That's right, people, it's THE RING set in West Virginia. All this otherworldly possession, flying barbed wire(?), and creature infestation is somehow the doing of one angry little burned kid.
Which is sad, I must say, because all the ingredients where there to make this big budget spectacle a unique piece of work: a monster movie that worked on a multitude of levels. Every ingredient except the central idea. .