Captured the Atmosphere as Well as a Movie Possibly Could.

Rating: 10/10 (2 May 2006)

In a survival horror game, you're alone, and you learn by picking up text-based clues. That would be frustrating and boring in a movie. So you have to have more characters for dialogue. In theory this would take away from the feeling of isolation you get in the Silent Hill game. And it did a little, but luckily it wasn't so bad. Here's why: The Silent Hill game didn't draw most of its feel from isolation. It drew it from atmosphere. Earie atmosphere. Sounds, music, and grotesque visuals. Having to force yourself to except the fact that you're now in a world where normal rules do not apply. It's the sort of experience where the terror doesn't cause you to jump out of your seat in shock, but the feeling of utter helplessness creeps into you as though you were soaking it up from below like a sponge. In short, the game isn't entertainment, it's an experience. That's something the movie captured beautifully. It took the storyline of the first game, added some monsters from the second, changed some characters, and mutated the plot a bit, but kept the basic idea behind Silent Hill games. Some might be bothered about the things they changed, but honestly I have no problem with them, because only two out of the four games followed the same storyline, and included the same characters. The other two were totally different, but still good. In fact, the most celebrated Silent Hill monster is from number 2, and that game strayed so far from the plot of the first, that it might as well have been in a different series. Silent Hill is my favorite game series, but if the movie were really bad, I would know. This movie was true to the game. The games had multiple endings, but generally you could count on the end of a Silent Hill game having an ending that is neither happy nor tragic. It should leave you with a feeling that though not everything turned out the way you would have liked, you're content, because that awful, awful place is behind you, and you'll never have to hear those sirens for the rest of your existence. It was a very large relief that the Silent Hill movie had a truly Silent Hill ending.