Revenge...film style

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2006)

Honestly, I never played the video game Silent Hill so all of the images on screen were pretty new to me. But it does not matter - many of the people inside the theather never played the gfame either, but just like me, were intrigued with the film.
Silent Hill's images are remarkable and the sound - where here is a film where the "sound" is as equally important as the storyline. There are creepy chills and many are are connected to sounds that you hear.
Silent Hill is about an adoptive child (Alissa) that has reoccuing nightmares that are so intense that she also sleepwalks out into dangerous places in the night that may ultimately caause her death. In her waking state she is asked about her actions, and she cannot remember. The parents seemed to have taken her to seek help for this but, nothing has helped. In these nightmares she mentions a place, "Silent Hill" - so when all else fails to help, her mother - against her father's wishes - decides to find the place and take her to it. Upon finding the elusive Silent Hill, she looses her daughter - and sets out to find her all the while discovering the secrets behind "Silent Hill". There are secrets that involve her daughter and they aren't very pretty.
The biggest occurrence is with "the darkness" and in watching this - it will provide the most horror and chills of the film. There are people at Silent Hill - religious people in fact - that have created their own horrific world that has hurt those in their group and those around their group and they have eluded their punishment for these deeds for about 30 years. Now it seems, is time for everyone to pay for their actions.
What I got from Silent Hill was about a tale of revenge that took over 30 years to accomplish from the hands of folks who used their beliefs to keep their group in check. There are a few things about Silent Hill that may seem off - such as - what is going on with the mother and the police woman? The father and the police head? Is the mother dead or alive? What's with the sirens? But as you watch, and you may have to watch it again (and I will tell you - I saw this in the theater and now on DVD. This is the second review I am writing), those questions are pretty much answered.
A few thoughts about the actors and characters: The father, played by Sean Bean, didn't seem to have much to do and I wish they would have flushed his character out a bit. The Mother, The Policewoman (who reminded me of a real,live rendition of many female video characters) were fine to watch as was the supporting female characters - but again, I would have appreciated more character development. The daughter too, was fine. In writing this, all I want to point out is that these characters were there, some more minimally than they should be on film, but I could see where the video game images were more important to develop than the time for the characters.
Silent Hill the film, may be like playing Silent Hill, the video game. You will have to watch it again to appreciate how decent a film based on a video game this is. It has good scenes, scary images, chills, horror, and one of the better laid out 'town revenge' plots in film. Plus you have the history of Silent Hill (a real place that is a mining town with fires that are still buring today) as a faint, but interesting backdrop.