I don't get it, but I like it

Rating: 7/10 (12 March 2007)

I have never been a gaming person, and I have never been much in contact with any of these resent years' computer-game-movie-spin-offs. And to be honest, I have not liked any of these movies that I saw.
Anyway, this was something else. I've been a fan of Christopher Gans, since I saw 'The Brotherhood of Wolves' (was that it's name?), and was somewhat disappointed when I found out he was to direct 'Silent Hill' - a movie based on a game - but I was wrong. He pulls it off! Ofcaurse, I have little, or no, idea of what the game is about, but I could still enjoy this quasi-modern horror. One of the best things about it, in fact, was that it, unlike 'Resident Evil', for example, was not built around these clichés that the genre has been stuck with: murderers flying out of the closet, the gool appearing in the reflection of a mirror and so on. 'Silent Hill', instead delivers a more, maybe just vaguely, but anyway, psychological thriller, more than a classic horror flick.
The story is chillingly creepy, the environments and moods are very striking, the ghost like town is brilliant, the monsters are very well made, in an old school kind of way, and - thank god - there really was not that much blood and gore. It's pretty tasteful, in many ways, something that I feel, also is one of the problems with the movie. It attempts to reach for something deeper than it could possibly get, and the very end really is a bit too hip (or un-hip, depending on who you ask) for a game-spin off. Or for any movie. It's an unfortunately bad ending that takes the twist one turn too far.
Maybe I just didn't get it. It doesn't really matter, since I really liked the movie anyway.