Overall unimpressed

Rating: 5/10 (23 April 2006)

Overall, Silent Hill could have been improved by a LOT. I felt the whole movie failed at cramming in important storyline from the games and many of the events fit together extremely poorly. To someone who had not played the games (I had only heard about them from friends), the viewer is left wondering about almost the entirety of the movie. Pyramid Head's appearance seemed random at best, and the cult by the end didn't seem as evil and terrible as they should be.
I'll admit, I didn't actually play first hand any of the games, but from what I understood they were mainly strategy/shooter games, sometimes paralleling a Resident Evil atmosphere. The movie lacked excitement that could have been brought forth by many more creatures and ferocious beasts, and maybe more weapons for the protagonists than a police issue pistol. Many of the parts that were frightening were just weird or disturbing, not scary, and could have been demonstrated much better.
The ending I didn't understand at all. It seemed that the roles were reversed, and I got the feeling that the mother had succumbed to the devil and became evil instead of remaining the good, caring mother she was. It seemed that the cult did have just cause at the end (with the exception of killing the cop) because with everything that went on, who wouldn't believe that they were evil? From what I understand from what friends have told me, the cult was associated with the anti-Christ, which was completely left absent from the storyline. That seemed to be ridiculous to me, and I couldn't understand why they left such important aspects absent.
The whole movie was held together by no more than weak thread and many of the scenes didn't make sense or fit into logical chronology. I feel that if the movie was instead elaborated on and put into multiple movies, it could have had much more potential to be a great hit. I might get flamed for not playing the games, but in reality, if a movie can't be understood without playing the games, it shouldn't be made into a movie.
The only reason that this movie didn't get a lower 2 or 3 out of 10 was the terrific use of effects. The monsters were very well made and I got a real sense of evil throughout the time of the dark dimension. I have seen much worse movies, and the realistic characters and events developed through CGI amazed me. The gruesome bare-handed skinning and barbed wire shredding seemed incredibly realistic, and disturbed me more than any movie has ever before. That gets my respect, despite how disturbed I truly was.
I give this movie a 5/10. The movie was poorly written, but was developed fantastically, counterbalancing it from a lower rating.