THIS is Silent Hill.

Rating: 7/10 (22 April 2006)

It's a step up from the other video game adaptations but still missing something...
It captures the essence of Silent Hill perfectly. Needless to say, this movie is a visual treat. The different dimensions are produced with amazing detail. The foggy world excels in creating a sense of isolation and building up the Silent Hill atmosphere. The hellish world is composed of harsh set pieces of grizzly imagery and decaying, rusted environments, creating a sense of chaos over order. The unimaginable creatures that haunt the world are ultimately disturbing, yet have their own charm that makes the audience NOT want to look away from them. The film gives more of a disturbing, skin-crawling sensation through imagery and sound rather than full-on heart pounding scares. It has its moments though. More frantic scares would have been welcome, however.
Most of the acting is decent and, at least, believable. Being more than just a horror movie, more of a nightmarish drama, there's much emphasis on the characters. It's a mixed result; some parts are much better than others. The Sean Bean side story deepens the mystery about the town itself but takes the audience away from the atmosphere and Mitchell's main storyline. Overall, it sets up an artistic contrast and not much else. It is just such a shame that Avery's script is not really as dynamic as I thought it could have been. The characters were not as fleshed out as much or presented as realistically as I would have expected from a Silent Hill adaptation. Most remain a mystery
As for the story, the movie asks a lot more questions than it answers, leaving much to the imagination by simple suggestion. Even with the considerable chunk of information that comes close to the end of the film, much is left unknown. Unless you have knowledge of the games or are a more active and imaginative viewer, the story is likely to confound you. A lot of people just won't "get it" and call it "overly complicated" or "messy". I do admit that the story could have been told in a better fashion but it's a shame its lost on a lot of people because, after much consideration, the story, with its use of abstract symbols and metaphors, much like the games, is actually quite clever. Occasionally flawed, mainly in the script, yes, but quite brilliant. I believe it shows Christophe Gans' artistic flair and in-depth study of the games themselves. However, mainly fans of the games will understand the weird story that is Silent Hill and few else.
It's not without its flaws but its EXTREMELY watchable and more intelligent than the average horror film. It's quite disappointing that it was created by someone with such passion for the games and yet its flaws could and should have been corrected to produce an all-round better picture. Not quite as good as I had hoped but a real tribute to the scariest games of our time.