Silent Pill

Rating: 3/10 (23 April 2006)

So disappointed. Had high hopes. Great production design, great creature effects, shoddy CG and a story that manages to be both flimsy and bloated with exposition at the same time. Rhada runs around looking concerned and makes some truly bad decisions regarding her "daughter" whom she apparently "cares" about (yeah, I'm gonna to tell my kid to make sure her seatbelt's fastened while I floor it to escape a cop who pulled me over -- then I'm going to crash the car and look shocked at the fact that my kid ran off without me). But whatever, it's a horror movie and I'd be willing to accept a few gaps in logic if it was in the service of an exhilarating experience. The issue here is that there's no tension. The movie's like walking through a nicely decorated haunted house while knowing with absolute certainty that nothing bad will happen. It's infuriating because there's some great creature work here and Gans films it really well -- but then he cuts away to Sean Bean trying to grapple with an American accent. And as far as being faithful to the game...whatever...the game relies on player interaction as much as it does atmosphere. The movie ONLY relies on atmosphere and it's just not enough to carry an audience for two hours.
Oh and try counting how many times the line "It's going to be okay, baby" is spoken throughout the film -- even when the kid's tied to a ladder over a freakin' bonfire by a cult of Addam's Family throwbacks! Somebody please get Ridley Scott back in the genre game.