It is legitimately good, but you have to get 20 minutes in

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2006)

This movie is legitimately superb at what it sets out to do. It intends to be a horror movie which really gets under your skin and scares you and bothers you. The people who feel that this is a horrible movie are either 1) trying to compare this movie to classics and missing the intent of the movie or 2) are, to borrow a mencia term, "dee dee dees". I feel that Sean bean's character is pretty much used for exposition, but besides that there is no glaring flaw int he movie as a horror movie. It has one of the most enveloping atmospheres. You will be sucked head first into the movie. The story, monsters, and characters, while adapted straight from the the movie, are all fitting and NO ONE will be lost because they didn't play the game. I'll repeat this again. you DO NOT need to play the game to understand this. As a matter of fact, if all you know is that "silent hill is a town where hell and earth can exist at the same time for some reason" you may be better off than people who know everything about the game, because the movie is quite clear in what everything means by the end. You have to wait till the end for it to be spelled out explicitly, but if you pay any attention at all, you'll start piecing it together by the 40 minute mark. Horror movies don't need this masterpiece academy award winning writing, their intention is to get you in the story and disturb you at some core place, not to win an academy award for best picture. It does its job better than any movie in years, bar none. And thats all that matters.