A good effort

Rating: 6/10 (24 April 2006)

Finally got to see SH about four hours ago and I haven't quite made up my mind if I like it or not. I think I do. But then again...I don't think I've ever felt this ambivalent about a film before. I am a fan of the original game series, which in a way both helps in understanding the film and makes things a little frustrating. The new take on the Dahlia/Alessa background kinda threw me, not to mention the change in the basis of the local religion. I think it would have probably made a lot more sense had they kept the original background, but then I'm a bit of a purist when it comes to adaptations.
Do I hate it? Definitely not. I did enjoy the movie quite a bit. Little nods to the original game like Rose following Sharon's drawings to the school (still named Midwich...not to mention "Bachman St." on the street map) and the air raid sirens sounding before the Dark version of Silent Hill takes over were very fun for me, as indeed was the fact that the three levels of reality in SH were all shown (Normal -where Christopher was-, Foggy -the deserted, ash-strewn version-, and Dark -bloody, rust-covered, and crawling with monsters-). I suppose the only real problem I had was the background change, mostly because the strong basis the entire game series had in the town's dark mythology. Turning it into a ghost town that was abandoned due to a coal fire sucked a lot of the fun out of it for me, as did the change of the main religion from a demonic cult to a puritanical cult (I won't even go into the whole ditched sub-plot about White Claudia), but then again the demon that is referred to constantly in the film is most likely the same one from the first game (Samael), simply brought about by a different circumstance.
So, bottom line I suppose is that while this is certainly a good film in it's own right, I think the original concept was better suited. So, for the moment: 6/10