Hhhmmmm...

Rating: 5/10 (24 April 2006)

I think I'm gonna agree with those who thought that somewhere around half of the movie is good. I can completely understand why someone including this reviewer left the movie scratching their heads. Although I don't think the very end worked well cinematically, I can see why it was used as a potential tie in to the next installment. From the little I remember about the games(although I enjoyed the games, I'm not in general a huge gamer or what not)I believe that one has a male character looking for his wife who never returned from Silent Hill. The ending with this motive in mind makes a little more sense, although I could have done without it.
I think for me the problem I have with the movie is it second guessing itself, which is why I didn't really enjoy the second half. In my humble opinion this movie could have been a great surreal horror film if the director or producer or whoever had trusted the visual queues and imagery a bit more. There are many scenes in the beginning that are both beautiful and genuinely creepy. The scenes which go from ash to iron and then back again were extremely beautiful. Once in hell or the iron or fire or burnt side of Silent Hill, the damned or monsters are very, very grotesque and effecting, but I'll have to agree that they all come and go with little consequence to the ending. I mean they never really make an appearance again in the second half(except perhaps the nurses, which in my opinion were neither as frightening or effective as the others). A viewer doesn't always need to know why something is happening. I mean people do have imaginations. I guess the ending just didn't fit. ****spoiler***** I mean witch burning and so forth. There was really no need for the movie to go overboard with this kind of explanation. I would have been just fine with this woman and officer going trying to save her daughter from something, without the ending within an ending within an...hopefully you get my point here. And where the hell was the actual daughter the whole time anyway? She just decided to pop up again at the end? The times the town turned from ash to iron the dark one could not find her. And why did this thing need all this hoopla just to possess her.(shaking head)***end spoiler*** All in all, I'm glad to have seen it free with a pass I got for Christmas and had yet to use. Again, the first half is enjoyable. I think the writer just got carried away; thought too little and gave too much.