Alice in Horrorland

Rating: 10/10 (10 September 2006)

Wow, I freaking loved the film, after all the negativity from the critics I was holding my breath with skepticism, but in the end the movie did deliver and it was really a one of a kind movie experience. Although I would have loved Silent Hill a lot more if the director didn't do the whole in-depth explanation in the end, it would have been better if we didn't get an explanation and he left things more ambiguous. The whole Christabella plot didn't have to be so overdrawn but never the less it did give us the barbed wire revenge mayhem in the end, which fed all our inner sadists like a pack of hungry wolves.
We also got Christopher's view point of things, which adds the reality dimension to the already two different ones we watch with rose. This really works for new comers to the film because unlike us gamers who already have some insight of what to expect newcomers start of clueless. I appreciated the Christopher scenes and thought they were an excellent addition to the Silent Hill universe.
The acting of the film is adequate enough to enable the story to flow smoothly, Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden and Sean Bean all work well with the material they were given and although occasionally we do get doses of cheese here and there its affect is minimum and is not detrimental to the movie experience. Visually the film deserves to be nominated for awards because the attention detail is very high, everything is well carved and the hell version of Silent Hill was spot on to the games, especially the Janitor in the toilet!!! That scene was just horrific!
I felt a strong De Ja Vu to when I first played the game, I made all these selfish, rash and reckless decisions, which in the end awarded me the worst ending out of the four. Similarly while I was watching the film I couldn't help but feel connected to that first time I played the game, Rose did whatever I did! she was scared, she acted irrationally and made selfish decisions. The thing is the movie gave the protagonist a lot of choices and she chose wrong. For example,  Dahlia warned her not to enter the church, but she did.  Rose didn't have to leave Cybil alone at elevator, but she did. Ironically enough the ending we got was very similar to the worst ending from the game, that is why in terms of movie making experience this the first movie ever to give me this kind of an experience.
It was very obvious that a lot of thought and passion went into this film, there are no cheap scares in the film, the terror is invoked into the audience craftily everybody has their own scare-o-meter so whether the film scares the living daylights out of you is your own prerogative but I would have to say I enjoyed this film immensely.