Silent Hill

Rating: 8/10 (22 August 2006)

Sharon(Jodelle Ferland)is the adopted child of Christopher and Rose Da Silva(Sean Bean & Radha Mitchell). Sharon sleepwalks, and during her "away period" speaks of a town called Silent Hill. Rose, against her husband's wishes, decides to find Silent Hill and possibly awaken memories Sharon might have of the place. As Rose is driving to the town she spots a girl in the middle of the rode and crashes. When she awakens, Sharon is gone. She sets out to find her but instead finds a sleepy ghost town with no one in sight. Where is Sharon and what is this place? As she searches, Rose uncovers some disturbing creatures at the heart of the town..and this strange woman, Dahlia(Deborah Kara Unger)who tells her about the darkness..perhaps this is a description of what Rose saw before meeting this woman. Christopher, very worried about his wife and daughter, goes to find them and instead drives to a cavalcade of police cars. Officer Thomas Gucci(Kim Coats)takes him into Silent Hill and it looks nothing like the town Rose is inhabiting. Why is this? There's this cop, Cybil Bennett(Laurie Holden), who had seen Rose and Sharon at a gas stop and decides to pull them over to further check them out when Rose decides to make a run for the town instead of the cop ruining her plans for entering Silent Hill. Cybil, after Rose had visited Silent Hill, hand-cuffs her for supposedly harming her missing child. Cybil had a wreck on her motor cycle and as she goes to take Rose back to the town of Brahams nearby, the bridge leading there is gone and there's this massive gap of nothingness. Cybil and Rose are trapped in this place..Silent Hill is a paradox opposite reality. Obviously the key to the paradox is how it was created and who was the creator. Perhaps the answer comes in this young girl deemed a witch by the name of Alessa(who looks identical to Sharon..coincidence?)who was badly harmed by fanatical types..wolves in sheep's' skin. Who can Rose trust? This might determine how she will find Sharon. Rose and Cybil both are nearly killed by the darkness which seems to have all sorts of malformed demons who carry insects at their feet. Anyone who goes near them are viciously killed.
Through Thomas, Christopher learns subtle truths about what happened at Silent Hill..the fires that torched a town taking many "innocents" with quite a few vanishing. Thomas informs Chris that his father owned a barber shop in Silent Hill and was killed. He also lets Chris know fanatics hurt a little girl. He won't divulge everything and Chris tries hard to gain knowledge about what caused the fire and who caused it. And, his search is also for how all of this relates to his little girl. While his search may yield limited results, it's Rose who is facing it head-on in the "other" Silent Hill. She'll uncover a treasure trove of demented truths about a certain sect who hold up in a sanctuary which is a safe haven from the darkness. Strangely the darkness doesn't harm Dahlia. The sect seems to have a leader, Claudia(Alice Krige..who is creepy), who might or might not be a source of help to Rose. Cybil realizes Rose is legit and releases her from the hand-cuffs. Will Cybil and Rose find Sharon? Is Claudia and her group trustworthy? The sect seems to evoke strong religious beliefs..is this a revelation of fanaticism? Those who are not familiar with the video game may have a hard time sitting through this film..the developing clues and characters that come into the picture might just be trying for the "unadorned." This film, at it's core, is about one mother's quest to find her daughter in the heart of a dark world. She will understand the hate that created this world and meet it's creator. The why and how of Silent Hill and it's omnipresent evil are opened to Rose on her quest to find Sharon. As the actress who portrayed the eerie Dahlia, Deborah Kara Unger, describes this film.."It's Alice in Wonderland meets Dante's Inferno." That's about as accurate description as one could ask for.
I think the casting is great particularly Mitchell as the weary mother desperately searching for her child and always in danger against a foe she does not understand. Holden is good, as well, as the officer trying to help her in that quest. Krige is very good as a woman who may or may not be the reason behind the creation of the paradoxical Silent Hill, and Unger is quite interesting as Dahlia, a woman that looks like a haggard street hobo with secrets buried deep claiming Sharon is her daughter. The camera-work has a stunning flow reaching around every corner and following the characters as they uncover disturbing things. The visual effects, especially in the gruesome climax, are state-of-the-art and effective.