Why critics hated it, but I think it's pretty good

Rating: 7/10 (24 April 2006)

SPOILERS are found throughout this review!! For a Silent Hill fan the first half is incredibly faithful and pleasing, taking you through the exact same locations and delivering the same unnerving tone of mounting terror; but the second half sadly goes a bit mental and spoils things. People who are unfamiliar with the games may have the opposite view: the first half may feel far too slow and boring because it won't evoke fond memories of playing the game, and the second half is when things finally get interesting.
Even a fan has to admit that the faithfulness is taken a little too seriously. The plot often plays out too much like a game: Rose finds clues, which lead her to more clues, and so on. Every demon encounter feels like a boss battle; every location a "level". Trouble is you're not playing it, and games aren't quite as fun as a spectator. That's not to say it doesn't work as good horror. I think the film is very successful at capturing the tense unease of playing the game. I don't find any films "scary", but this one comes closer than any other horror I've seen in recent years. The phases between foggy and dark dimensions are handled really well, and cause a Pavlovian response when you hear the air raid siren: you fear the coming darkness because you know how twisted and sick its world is... and you fear Pyramid Head. I also think this is the best a horror film has ever succeeded at making you feel you're in a nightmare. Usually when a horror movie character goes down into the monster's lair you think, "Don't do down there you unbelievable cliché!" But when Rose ventures deeper into the hellish industrial world of rust and flesh, it feels like when you're in a nightmare and you can't resist the pull of what you know will terrify you.
So yeah, it works as a horror film. It's like the other Japanese remakes, except without the... you know... dullness.
Sean Bean's subplot comes in for criticism because it feels tacked on and superfluous. Indeed it is: the studio demanded a subplot for Rose's husband because the script was all-female without him. Some of his scenes are completely extraneous and hurt the film, but I wouldn't want to remove it because it adds the extra dimension - literally - of Christopher searching for his wife in the real world while she is trapped in another.
And all the cute little things for game fans to pick up on? You get Midwich Elementary; Pyramid Head and the huge mega-machete that he drags around; demon nurses; scenes and camera angles identical to the game; Brahms,Toluca Lake and street name references; and the nurse Lisa Garland has a small but faithful part towards the end.
But I'm done aiming this review at fans - it's time to address why most people don't like it. A lot of critics just didn't understand the different dimensions characters found themselves in, both literal and figurative. This is odd, because it's nothing film critics haven't encountered before in successful examples of the genre. I believe these critics - who are able to appreciate films like Jacob's Ladder and Mulholland Dr. - are unwilling to give Silent Hill the same artistic credit purely because of its video game origins, which is narrow-minded. On the other hand I can't blame them completely, because Silent Hill is often let down by bad acting and scripting that unfortunately puts it in a league below other subversive horror cinema. It's nowhere near as bad as Paul Anderson or Uwe Boll's dreck, but it's somewhat spoiled by some tacky production elements.
It's true the film has some unintentional comedy - the kind of moments that are usually ironed out with test screenings. Some of it is cliché and bad character motivation. Motorcycle cop Cybil looks like the T1000 when we first see her, and her arrest of Rose is irrational and silly. Dahlia looks too "made up for film" to be believable. Some lines of dialogue just sound corny, especially exclamations from Cybil and some lines from Sharon (though Jodelle Ferland is a great little actress in general). The scene where the demon nurses twitch into life and start moving rhythmically made one guy in the audience start singing "Thriller", and I'm sure that's not an isolated case. The film reaches unfortunate heights of cheesiness when the cult starts screaming for witch burnings. In fact the entire climax of the film is spoiled by over-theatrical dialogue delivery. The big "explanation scene" from Alessa is a bit overdone and patronising too, rather like a Bond villain explaining his plans too elaborately.
Time to wrap up. I call this a successful horror film, but I have no idea if you will. Fan opinion shows that what is engrossing and scary to one person looks stupid to another. Scenes that made me tense might make you roll your eyes and laugh. I think the first half sucks you into a very palpable nightmare, and the second half tells a good consistent story for those willing to comprehend it. Kind of like the town itself, Silent Hill exists between two worlds. A little too artistically and thematically rich for average moviegoers, but a little too mainstream and goofy to be ranked alongside the cinema it hoped to equal.