Awesome

Rating: 9/10 (25 April 2006)

First, I'd like to say that this movie was almost perfect, in my opinion. Second, don't see it if you have no idea about the world of Silent Hill. This is not just your ordinary "scary movie" and if you have never played the video games, or you don't know anything about them, please do yourself a favor and don't waste your money, because, unless you've played at least the first three games, you will not understand it. This movie is directed to the fans of Silent Hill, which I'm included. I watched my brother play through the entire first game, and I have played through the last three and I love every single one of them, so I was very pleased with how the movie turned out.
Pros: The movie stuck closely with the first game, with the exception of some name differences and gender reversal for the main character. Pyramid Head was taken directly from Silent Hill 2, and the deeper religious storyline of Silent Hill's history was pulled from 3. They didn't include really anything from Silent Hill 4, at least not as far as I noticed. The end was left open possibly to continue the series, as the games have done. I loved the inclusion of Pyramid Head because he is the mac-daddy of all Silent Hill monsters, which I'm sure most fans of Silent Hill would agree with me. If you've never played the games, you wouldn't understand this, but every single time I encountered him in Silent Hill 2, my heart started pounding... he creeps me out!
Cons: Only one monster gets killed by a human throughout the entire movie, and this bugged me. The best part about the games, besides trying to find out what the heck is going on, is taking out bad guys. Don't get me wrong, this didn't take away from the goriness of the movie, but more monsters could have died. Also, although it was awesome that Pyramid Head was included in the movie, they didn't include him enough! He only had one really awesome part, and after that, you never saw him again. Lastly, the ending sequence with the "boss," if you can even call her that, was very corny and they could have made an ending sequence so much better than that, especially with how well done the rest of the movie was. So, this scene was very disappointing, in my opinion.
The only thing that I'm left confused about is whether or not the storyline of Sharon (Sheryl in the games)/Alessa/Dahlia is accurate. Even though I remember the first game from watching my brother, I didn't actually play it and really take in the plot so I don't remember the entire story behind Sheryl and how she was connected with Alessa. I need to buy the original Silent Hill and actually play it so I can fully understand the games' storyline (well at least as much as possible, I don't think anyone *fully* understands the games ;). I believe this is why I wasn't 100% sure on what was going on in Silent Hill 3, whose main character was deeply connected with happenings and history of the first game.
I wouldn't categorize this movie as "scary" just as I wouldn't consider the games in this category, as well. Silent Hill is more of a creepy, dark and disturbing atmosphere, with a few things here and there that startle you, game and movie alike. Take my word for it, and I'm sure others will agree: don't watch this movie thinking "this doesn't make any sense" and come to the conclusion that it was made poorly, because the games leave you going "huh?" after you beat them, as well. That is Silent Hill, and if you haven't liked that about the games, you won't like the movie, it's that simple. And like I said at the beginning of this, please do not see this movie if you have never played the games or don't know anything about them, I guarantee you will not like this movie unless you are the type of person that just enjoys weird messed up things that make almost no sense.