Play the game instead!

Rating: 2/10 (31 May 2007)

Silent Hill is a big screen adaptation of the very popular and disturbing video game, in which a frantic father, Harry Mason, searches the terrifying titular town in an attempt to find his missing daughter.
In Christophe Gans' movie of the same name, the character of Harry is replaced by Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell), the little girl's adoptive mother, but pretty much everything else remains the same and will be familiar to those who have experienced the game. Silent Hill emulates its source's sinister setting and spooky sound design to perfection, producing bags of eerie ambiance. Unfortunately, it also replicates its extremely confusing plot, and, without the benefit of the direct interaction that game-play allows, the result is extremely boring. It's a bit like watching someone else play the game for two hours solid without once being allowed to take part in any way.
Aided by a tough and sexy cop named Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), Rose desperately wanders the streets and dwellings of Silent Hill looking for her girl, defeating a variety of hideous monsters on the way, and eventually doing battle with a nasty religious cult who were responsible for the death of an innocent girl many years before. Meanwhile, Rose's hubby Christopher (Sean Bean, giving a coma inducing performance) tries to discover the truth behind the town's terrible history.
Whilst rabid fans of the Silent Hill games might possibly find something to enjoy about this tedious cinematic offering, anyone else will most likely be bored witless at the protagonist's endless tramping through mouldy corridors, abandoned buildings and deserted alleys. A couple of scenes deliver some rather nifty and unsettling CGI creations, and even a touch of OTT gore, but it really isn't worth sitting through this dreadful mess for these occasional (and all too brief) 'good bits'.