NEW IN THEATERS: Silent Hill

SILENT HILL (2006)

My Rating: *** (out of *****)
Starring: Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean, Jodelle Ferland, Deborah Kara Unger, Alice Krige, Kim Coates
Director: Christophe Gans

My Review:
To date, I have not heard people speak of a movie based upon a video game as being anything but sub par. My limited experience with viewing such “adaptations” has more than confirmed this (Super Mario Bros., Final Fantasy: The Spirits Within). Silent Hill, based on the wildly popular game series of the same name, distinguishes itself by being the first successful attempt at video-game-to-film adaptation. By successful, I mean that it actually works as a film, though it is certainly not without serious flaws. In fact, the shortcomings of Silent Hill are especially painful because of the fact that most of the film is so good. Alas, there are three sequences in which the depraved gore (already heavy throughout the film) becomes so sickly, perversely gratuitous as to leave a lasting negative impact that taints the entire experience.

Silent Hill is like someone's worst nightmare, crammed into a two-hour movie. Rose Da Silva (a reliable Radha Mitchell) is desperate to help her daughter Sharon (Ferland, the latest in a growing line of creepy little horror movie girls), who suffers from dangerous sleepwalking and terrifying nightmares in which she mumbles incoherently about a place called Silent Hill. Rose – against the wishes of her husband (Sean Bean, underused) – takes Sharon to the town, a deserted hamlet in West Virginia that is haunted by a dark past involving mysterious underground fires. A heroic cop (Laurie Holden, the most likable character in the movie) follows her into the town. They all soon learn that Silent Hill is not the fog-encircled ghost town that it appears to be. Horrifying, murderous, distorted monsters and creepy religious cultists soon terrorize them in unimaginably deranged ways.

After leaving the screening of Silent Hill, I have been unable to rid myself of the bizarre, grotesque images that pervade this film. Nor have I been able to shake that distinctly sad and haunting feeling that often comes when waking from a bad dream. For horror film fans, Silent Hill is exceptional, providing plenty of thrills, buckets of graphic gore, extremely disturbing images (the burning corpses, the nurses, and a devilish figure known by game fans as Pyramid Head... Yikes!), and an atmosphere to kill for.

For the person looking deeper, Silent Hill offers some very interesting and profound meditations on denial, guilt, the nature of judgment, and the bond between parent and child (especially mother and daughter). The film also provides a vivid depiction of the devastating truth that evil not repented of (especially under the guise of "righteousness") breeds more and even greater evil that can only be faced with denial (which leads to even greater suffering) or the truth (which leads to its own difficult consequences).

For the person who likes both (horror and depth, that is), Silent Hill delivers and then some. As mentioned, however, the filmmakers push what are already some of the most hellish images captured on screen too far in three scenes that I wish I had never witnessed, and will never re-watch should I see Silent Hill again. These sequences seem to take a sadomasochistic pleasure in depicting horrific pain and suffering in exceptionally bloody and grotesque excess. The taste that they leave is so bad that the entire experience is, most unfortunately, permanently sullied. Without these scenes, Silent Hill would have easily garnered a four-star rating from this reviewer.

On a technical note, the creation of atmosphere – using masterful cinematography, visual effects, make-up, costumes, set design, and music - is simply amazing. Very few films cast as gripping and hypnotic a spell as this one. As some film critics have been stating, witnessing Silent Hill is something akin to entering hell itself.

The acting and scripting are serviceable, though there are certainly some clunky lines and less-than-thrilling moments of delivery from the actors. French director Christophe Gans succeeds in building up tension and suspense, with the only weakness coming from an overly explained and somewhat clichéd finale.

As a horror film, Silent Hill excels. Overall, the film is a worthy effort, though it could have achieved greatness had it used some restraint. As a final aside, anyone who would allow a child to see this film is suffering from a serious lapse in judgment. This is one graphic, nasty movie. Discerning adults and older teenagers only!

R, for strong graphic horror violence and moments of explicit gore, extremely disturbing images, intense thematic material, brief partial nudity, and some strong language