So disappointed I must comment on Silent Hill!

Rating: 5/10 (21 April 2006)

What can I say.....it's happened again..a new horror film looks great in the trailer but fails to live up to expectations! It seems that there are no scary films anymore. I saw Hostel about two nights ago too and they are pretty much the same verdicts for both films.
I'm sure I will offend or at least annoy many fans of these films, but I must comment on Silent Hill. I kind of knew from the get go in my mind how Hostel might end and I pretty much got it right..not exact plots but the fact that the cheap and not well done gory and at times laughable plot would unfold! But SH started out with so much promise, one which wasn't fulfilled. The trailer (UK at least) contains clips which aren't in the final cut, minor point but still annoying none the less, but my main gripe is that the films starts so well without delivering at the end.
Plot is very interesting, the effects are in part fantastic, with high production value and the sound design was amazing. But the last 45 minutes for me were just no god at all. Why take a dark mysterious movie and turn it into rubbish and corny horror along the lines of the last few Freddy movies, cheap and uninteresting. And not scary in the slightest.
Why can't Hollywood produce films which actually FRIGHTEN people?? The last film to do this for me was The Grudge, well made, and genuinely quite creepy till the end, but the US films of recent years just aren't cutting it. Bit like Creep from the UK, starting out great but very cheap ending.
I would recommend you see this at the movies for the first half effects and sound which is cool, but unless you are someone who is totally taken in by any "horror" plot given to you, then save money and wait for rental, that way you can order pizza when you decide that it really is worth turning off! I hate saying this about someone's work, I totally understand the effort and the personal sacrifice that can go into movie making, and working in the TV industry over here in the UK I have a little idea as to how much this type of work needs to get on the screen, but as a film designed to be a horror flick, it didn't do it!
But i'm sure that if anyone reads it, they'll totally disagree which is cool...i'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts! Steve, UK