Super creepy. Super good.

Rating: 8/10 (25 April 2006)

OK so I went to see Silent Hill, having never played the video games, and I had no clue what the movie was about (hence no preconceived notions, bias, etc).
To all who say that this is a horror movie: NO. This is an intelligent, psychological thriller with gory overtones. There is a difference.
At first, I was like "Ok, so this is like a typical creepy movie." The beginning was slow, it had the creepy little girl that had night terrors about Silent Hill, etc etc. But as the story progressed, it became apparent that it was so much more than typical creepy movies. While I did not jump a single time during the movie, I was thoroughly creeped out through the whole thing: the special effects were so realistically gory. The armless whatever-they-were's, the dead guy all bound up with barbed wire, the chick getting her skin ripped off, and the crazy occult-leader woman getting torn to half. So if you don't care about the intelligence of the movie and just want a gore fest, then go see it.
Radha Miller was fantastic. I've only seen her in Pitch Black, so it was cool to see her in something else. The chick playing Officer Bennett was a good actress too.
The downsides: I seriously could not stand the little girl playing Sharon's because during her "evil half" scene, she went on and on about who she was and stuff (the morbid little girl act getting pretty stale after the first 10 minutes) and during her "good half" scenes, her acting was just flat out unconvincing.
The one girl that got her skin ripped off was annoying in that she had that severely-disconnected-thought-processes aura about her (but I attributed that to the brainwashing of her cult).
And really, the plot was pretty far-fetched. While the plots of most movies like this usually ARE fantastical, this was just too much of a stretch: but the individuality of the storyline made up for it.
Overall however, I really enjoyed this movie. I think anyone that likes gore, really really weird occult stuff, getting creeped out, and/or just having a good time, should go see it. :)