Decent adaptation to one of the most successful survival-horror franchises

Rating: 7/10 (20 January 2007)

Video game to movie adaptations have throughout the years received a very negative reaction by critics and moviegoers alike. There is a understanding reason for that, as the genre itself isn't the most popular amongst movie makers and thus often attracting the less talented and low profile directors to it. What did we gain from them? Movies whose quality varied from average to awful, movies that failed to capture the spirit of the games or worse yet, used their names only as a cheap way to attract an audience. Then came Christophe Gans a french director whose previous work included the visually stunning "Brotherhood Of The Wolves" and whom declared that will be adapting the "Silent Hill" video games series to the big screen. The result is what could be described as the most visually faithful video game adaptation but that alone does not make it a great one does it? No. For that to happen we need both direction and script to succeed in preserving the main elements that made the original work so popular, and it is here where "Silent Hill" failed. While Gans's direction could be seen as a perfect fit, Roger Avery's script is an uneven mess which will undoubtedly leave many confused.
Looking at it from the basic outline "Silent Hill" follows it's video game counterpart closely. Presenting us the story of a parent who searches for her daughter in a strange, desolate town called Silent Hill. The only difference being that the main protagonist's gender is changed to female, that alone though does not have a huge impact on the story as that is not it's focus. Instead the attention is set entirely on the inseparable bond between parent and child, and the forces that divide them apart. It is here where the need for a solid well written script comes, something that Avery and Gans fail to acquire as we later discover. The pacing is unbalanced with some scenes forwarding the story way too much while others way too little. The last part of the film especially feels over-rushed with its quick and rather weak attempt at explaining what has transpired. What should have been a well structured, plot driven mystery/horror becomes a confusing mess that will leave a lot of the viewers unfamiliar to the original source wondering what they've just seen.
Looking at it from a technical point of view though "Silent Hill" is an magnificent achievement in the use of special effects. Few horror movies these day succeed in displaying such effective use of both cgi generated images and costumes. Gans has worked hard in capturing the image of the games and fans will no doubtingly be satisfied in that part. The cinematography is impressive with some great shots during the more "nightmarish" parts of the film. There is some fan service done with the includement of one of the series more famous characters that could have been developed into to something a bit more coherent with the plot but still nice to see.
There is my distinct impression that during the production, all things aside, Gans really made only one fatal mistake. He created the "Silent Hill" he imagined, his own personal view of what it is all about. You can see that, whether it is the plot, creature design, or his envisionment of how the transformation from one world to another works, he had an idea of how everything there worked. But he forgot the one major thing that made the games so great: "Silent Hill" is as much as it is about a concrete plot as it is in the viewers own personal assumptions and interpretations of it.
"Silent Hill" might not have been a complete success and it's storytelling might not have been entirely faithful to the original's. But it is a welcome step forward, showing us that it is possible for a movie to capture the visual and atmospheric feel of the game. Hopefully future adaptations can learn from both it's mistakes and achievements.