Starts well but has a weak final confrontation due to CGI

Rating: 6/10 (15 March 2010)

Before giving my views on this film I must point out that I have never played the game on which it is based so can't say how it compared or how close it stayed to the original plot. After an introduction where we learn that Rose's adopted daughter Sharon is prone to sleep walking and while asleep keeps referring to Silent Hill; the town of her birth. Rose decides she must go to Silent Hill with Sharon if she is to discover what is the matter with her. Silent Hill isn't a normal town; it was abandoned after the coal seem under the town caught fire about the time of Sharon's birth. Shortly before getting there Rose is pulled over by a police woman, called Cybil, however as the officer approaches she accelerates off and drives at high speed to Silent Hill with the officer in pursuit. On arrival she crashes and when she regains consciousness there is no sign of Sharon.
There is something not quite right about the town; it appears to be snowing at first put it soon becomes apparent that it is ash from the still burning fire. Seeing a child she thinks is her daughter she runs after her but is confronted by strange creatures. Returning to her car she meets the police woman who handcuffs her and tries to take her out of town; they can't get out though as the road inexplicably ends in a precipice which wasn't there when they arrived. Trapped in the town Rose is determined to continue the search for her daughter and sets about searching for her, starting at the school as she remembered a picture she drew. Each place she goes gives a clue as to where she should look next... after she has survived the threat in that location of course. Eventually she finds a girl that looks just like her daughter but she claims her name is Alessa. Strangely she disappears soon after they meet and Rose and Cybil are taken to the church where a strange cult hides from what they call "The Darkness". These people tell Rose where she can find this Darkness, when she gets there we learn just what her daughter's connection to Alessa is and just what happened to the town all those years ago. While Rose is looking for her daughter her husband comes looking for her. Here we learn that she isn't in the real world as we see them in the same place at the same time but the weather is different and they don't see each other however he get a sense of her presence when he smells her perfume.
For a film adapted from a game I never got the feeling I was watching somebody playing a game as I have with other adaptations although the progressive encounters did have a sense of advancing game levels where a clue must be found to go to the next location. The atmosphere was delightfully creepy early on and the faceless creatures were quite chilling. Unfortunately the final confrontation between Alessa and the townspeople wasn't frightening, it was just CGI gore. I was pleased that even though the end suggests that all is not as it should be there wasn't the cliché of having one more attack after we thing the threat is over. Radha Mitchell did a good job as Rose making the character believable in an unbelievable situation and young Jodelle Ferland stole the scenes she was in as Sharon and her counterpart Alessa. I don't think this was a great film but it is worth watching if it is on late night television, it was certainly better than some game adaptations I've seen.