All Guts, no Glory

Rating: 3/10 (21 April 2006)

The horror movie genre has had a resurrection of epic proportions recently. With the brilliant "28 Days Later" and Alexandre Aja's first two pics, "Haute Tension," and his remake of Wes Craven's second pic "The Hills Have Eyes," it looks as though Hollywood has finally been able to get over the 90's where horror movies had plots, characters, and kills that were about as original as their official one sheets, peppered with floating heads. So on to the video game genre. There's Uwe Bol, the worst director working today, vomiting out pictures as quickly as he can find funding, (which is still a mystery)and then you've got Christophe Gans new pic penned by "Rules of Attraction"/"Pulp Fiction" writer Roger Avery.
Gans' last American release was the fast paced, bone crunching "Les Pac de Loups," which made horror fans scream with glee at the mayhem. Apart, their work is well above average, arguably great. Together they are bad, real bad. I don't know who's fault it is but "Silent Hill" is possibly the worst paced film I've seen in a long time. The movie is literally about an hour an a half too long. There's also the problem of suspension of disbelief. The movie is so hard to forgive for not even attempting to make sense of its plot, bringing in and dropping characters without even the weakest explanation. Radha Mitchell is gorgeous in the lead but her actions are so implausible that the movie ends up bringing out more jeers than shrieks.
The thing is, the movie isn't all bad. There are more than one genuinely creepy moments and the gore, makeup, and sets are top-notch. 3 out of 10. For fans of either the game or just fans of horror in general. Be warned, it will bore you, shock you (in a good way), then confuse you.