"The bad place" horror formula has rarely been better

Rating: 9/10 (24 April 2006)

Sharon is a young girl who is having recurring nightmares about a place called Silent Hill. Her adopted mother, Rose, has become increasingly worried as the nightmares have become more intensive. In effort to get to the bottom of the whole situation, Rose decides to actually go to Silent Hill to see for herself what could be frightening Sharon so much. Much to Rose's terror, nothing has prepared her what is idling beneath the surface in... Silent Hill.
Director Christophe Gans, who previously made the viscerally intense horror flick "The Brotherhood of the Wolf" shows the same promise as a horror director with this film. Eerie tracking and overhead shots, good use of darkness, and a good development of the story as a sickening secret is revealed. Rose's first encounter with 'the darkness' in the town of Silent Hill is a terrifically pulse pounding scene and from then on the terror barely lets up. It is only matched by the spectacularly brutal climax and it is the best 'bad guys get killed' scene since "Raiders of the Lost Ark." Also in a good move the film doesn't go overboard with gore by choosing to show it in certain well cut moments and that makes the climax sheer heart pounding horror fun. The film is even comparable to John Carpenter's "The Thing" in terms of mixing suspense and gore.
Props also go to Roger Avary for writing the script which is a near perfectly executed masterpiece under Gans's direction. Avary hasn't really full submerged himself in the horror genre before the making of this film, but with these results, the genre has a great new writer, who puts together many classical horror ingredients in a nice new feast. The film's music, by Jeff Danna and Akira Yamoaka (who also did the game series), is also eerily effective.
Great stuff all around. 9/10
Rated R: intense horror violence/gore and some profanity