Almost perfect!

Rating: 9/10 (10 September 2006)

When I first heard that Silent Hill was to be made into an American movie, I was skeptical, to say the least. Past attempts to convert Japanese games to American movies have been patchy, to say the least. However, my opinion changed as the release date approached and the first reviews appeared. "Doesn't make any sense unless you've played the games" and similar. Sounds like my prayers were answered, I thought. I finally got around to seeing it yesterday (it's only been in cinemas for a few days here) and I can safely say that it's the best game-to-movie ever! I would even go so far as to say that it's the first American horror movie in 20 years that I have really enjoyed. If you haven't played the games (and you would need to have played the first 2 at the very least) then a lot of the story is way beyond weird. I was hugely impressed that the extra stuff (i.e. the parts of the story not in the games) meshes perfectly with the original storyline. In fact it, shock, horror, makes some of the more obscure stuff more sensible. The actual storyline is a amalgam of the first two games. Some of the situations and monsters from SH2 are present, but the core story is that of SH1. The gender of the parent has been changed and the role of the church beefed up, but it is essentially intact. In fact, you would need to have played the second game to see the parts of the movie which are SH2 and which are not ("Pyramid-head" for example). My only two gripes, which are so minor they're almost not worth mentioning are as follows: 1. Akira Yamaoka is not credited with the music! WTF? All the music I heard comes straight from the games, and it's all written by him. Not Jeff Danna. I see that he is properly credited on IMDb, but not on the end credits of the actual movie. 2. The use of the mobile phone/radio as a warning of approaching monsters. In the game this adds a level of tension almost to breaking point. In the movie it is used once, when Rose and Cybil are faced with their first monster, but never again! Why? Rose runs through the rest of the movie with her mobile in full view around her neck but it never makes another sound! Another thing that really makes the movie is that all the STRONG characters are women. Even the "bad guy". Hey, a feminist horror movie! If only all American horror movies were this good!