Silent Hill, not so silent...

Rating: 10/10 (15 June 2006)

Like many of you, I'm a big fan of the Silent Hill games. The creepy atmosphere, the music, the characters and the setting made this game a terrifying horror fest. I always hoped someone would turn this game into a movie. But than again, most video game adaptations were really crappy. I always get the feeling that the people responsible for the adaptations don't really care about the games or even know the games. Tomb Raider 1 & 2 were OK attempts, even thought I think the movies had NOTHING in common with the game except for the heroine. Resident Evil wasn't bad and I actually liked the Mortal Kombat movies. Too bad one of my favorite games, Alone In The Dark, was totally raped. Even when the director knows what he/she is doing, most video game adaptations suffer from a case of bad-scripteritus. I sincerely believe that scriptwriters underestimate the powerful storytelling of some games. OK, Doom doesn't really have a story, but games like Silent Hill do.
I've been a big fan of Christophe Gans ever since I saw Crying Freeman and Les Pactes de Loups (The Brotherhood of the Wolf). I knew that Gans was a gamer and I also knew that he was a big fan of the Silent Hill games. If Gans was handed a good script, this movie was going to be incredible!
Movie fans who have seen Gans' Le Pact des Loupes, know that he can create an amazing movie atmosphere. The combination of great cinematography, great sound effects, well choreographed action sequences, the amazing settings and a good script based on a French legend, make Le Pact des Loupes an amazing movie. Clearly, Gans was the man to successfully complete the daunting task of bringing the Silent Hill experience to the general movie public.
Silent Hill is an amazing movie. The atmosphere is just right and properly recreated onto the big screen by using amazing artsy graphics, great sound effects and recognizable tunes from the Silent Hill games. The movie starts right away and people unfamiliar with the Silent Hill setting or story lines portrayed in the games, might be a tad confused for the first half hour or so. Then again, people unfamiliar with the storyline probably won't be able to appreciate the details and odd characters that inhabit Silent Hill and also might not be able to fully enjoy several "goose bump moments" like the first time you hear the siren wail, the crackling of the phone, the terrifying screams of the creatures roaming in Silent Hill or the first encounter with Pyramid Head. Aside from that fact that Silent Hill is IMHO a good recreation of the game, the movie also does well as a horror movie. The gore, the blood, the creatures, the creepy atmosphere and all other things a good horror movie needs, are present in this movie. I believe this movie will appeal to a wide variety of movie fans, or at least I hope
People who had a hard time understanding this movie, probably had a difficult time understanding a lot of other movies. This may sound a little harsh, but it's not that difficult. I actually like the ending of the movie because it leaves some room for speculation and also provides the viewer with a feeling of dread and uneasiness. Hey, after all, it's Silent Hill! This movie makes great use of sound effects, recognizable game tunes and is visually very pleasing. Although the story has been done before, it is very well executed, Silent Hill style. I do hope that some directors *cough* Uwe Boll *cough* take a look at this movie and finally learn how to do a proper video game adaptation.
I do have to admit that I also took another factor into account when I rated this movie. I saw this movie when I was on vacation in San Diego. I had a great time and was in a great mood, so that might have influenced my rating a tad, but after seeing the movie again in my home town I knew that my rating did the movie justice
In short, the best Vid-Adap yet!
10 out of 10 stars.