I'm not ashamed to say I liked it... a lot.

Rating: 7/10 (7 June 2006)

Look, I'm a fan of the games. In fact, they're the only reason I own a PS2. I'm not a big video game guy. But I rented Silent Hill 4 last year and I was absolutely blown away. It was scary as hell and I'd never felt so immersed in a world as I did when I was playing that game. It didn't take long to figure out that SH fans hold the second game up to be the greatest of the series so that was my next purchase. Followed by the first and then the third. Even now, SH4 is still my favorite. Probably because it was my first experience with all of this. The only reason I bring this up is that I think my love of this mythology was essential to getting the most out of this movie. And a dense mythology it is. It would be very ignorant of someone to shrug off SH as being "just a game". They spin circles not just around other horror games (man do they make Resident Evil look wimpy) but around most other horror media as well, be it movies, books, etc. They did not follow any of the games verbatim. Which was probably a good choice. And I think all things considered they delivered a very solid adaptation. What you need to understand is that this is a movie made for the fans. And in that respect it is a glorious success.
This IS Silent Hill. This is the town from the games. It's been brought to the screen with astonishing detail. Even those who find faults in the story have to admit the film looks gorgeous. The cinematography and the score are reason enough to give this a look.
This is not a jump out of your seat scream your brains out horror movie. It doesn't aspire to be. This is a film more concerned about instilling you with a sense of uncomfortable dread and making the hairs on the back of your neck stand on end. This is not Scream. This is not Saw. It's surrealism. It's fantasy. And perhaps in some ways it's a triumph of style over substance. But I was too involved in it to care. I was too anxious to see what was waiting around the next corner. There are images in this film that will be impossible to burn out of your brain.
It's not perfect. The scenes with the husband and the cop seemed to exist mostly to pad out the running time. If that subplot had been regulated to just exposition about what happened to the town it would have been more bearable. But there are way too many scenes of them running around in what we know is a safe reality so there's no sense of suspense or danger.
I hear a lot that people didn't understand the movie or that it was too confusing. I could not disagree more. I think once the identity of the girl in the hospital bed is explained so is the entire plot. I also don't feel that the ending is open to interpretation. It was pretty clear to me what had happened. But then, maybe I'm wrong. All I'm saying is that this is hardly the mind trip a lot of people are making it out to be. I think the problem was revealing too much too late. The information should have started earlier and come more frequently. Because I think the first half does get a bit repetitive.
Video game movies automatically have this stigma attached to them. And I can't help but feel that if it weren't based on a game people would be taking it much more seriously. But it doesn't matter, because this was not made for those people. As I said before, this is for the fans. And if you consider yourself one you have no business not seeing this film.