I little slow, uncertain end, but overall entertaining

Rating: 7/10 (20 November 2006)

Just got this in from Netflix and got to watch it with my wife. We are both horror/supernatural fans and this was right up our alley.
I don't get into retelling the plot of the story as you can read that anywhere. To me it's more important to get across what I got out of the movie.
Overall, Silent Hill was an intriguing and entertaining movie. As many reviewers have stated, the visuals are astounding. The atmosphere of the movie really lends to a somber, creepy and eerie feel when following the characters of Rose and the cop- Cybil.
In all honesty I wasn't too interested in the scenes involving the character of the father (Sean Bean). They helped add the back story but it almost seemed they could have been avoided.
The main things I enjoyed in Silent Hill were the atmosphere and the creatures. The director did an excellent job of creating that eerie atmosphere needed for a movie of this style. Also the creatures were very unique and came across as something out of a nightmare. Another thing is there were no cheap scares. It wasn't like a creature popped out from around a corner after two minutes of suspense music. When a creature was coming you saw it coming. It was the way it moved and the way it looked that made it creepy and unnerving, not a cheap shock to make you jump.
I've read some reviews where people knocked this movie for reasons that seemed very personal. I'm not going to attack those people but I've learned you really have to go into a movie with a completely (and I really mean completely) open mind. Yes this movie is based on a video game (which I've never played) but that doesn't mean it is the video game. Also it is in the horror/supernatural genre so if that's not your thing, then obviously this movie won't be either. In any case you have to let your mind go and let the movie tell the story, not your memories of the game or preconceptions of anything else. Being a horror fan, I love Stephen King books. I've seen enough movies based on Stephen King books to realize that the movie is not the book. The movies are either a screenwriter's interpretation or retelling of the story in the book. In some cases the screenwriter even goes on a tangent and loosely bases the script on the story. That's what I get from this movie. It is not Silent Hill the game, it is Silent Hill the movie. (I guess it should have had a disclaimer of "Based on the video game of the same name.")
OK, enough analyzing the reviewers that didn't like this movie. I myself did find flaws but nothing to the degree most people hate this movie for. There is some bad acting but nothing that bad that you can't over look. (Being a horror movie fan I've seen some very badly acted movies and this isn't one of them.) Another sore spot is the movie does have some slow spots where you are waiting for things to pick up. I hate pointing this out as all movies need to slow down so the viewer is given some explanation for what is going on but sometimes this happens in an awkward spot or when the viewer would like some more action/suspense/whatever to happen. I felt some slow spots in Silent Hill occurred in this manner. Also, the ending was a little bit uncertain. I don't want to go into details but my wife and I had two conclusions about the ending and weren't really sure which one was the correct one or if there is actually a different conclusion. This is probably the most troubling of all the problems with the movie as when a movie ends badly, that's the last thing you remember and so even if the rest of the movie is good you feel like you just saw a bad movie.
In all I give Silent Hill a rating of 7 out of 10. I'd probably go with 6.5 if IMDb did halves but I liked it too much to give it a 6.