SILENT HILL Genre: Horror/Suspense Stars: Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates Rated: R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language My Rating: B *DISCLAIMER* I have not played the Silent Hill video games, so I know nothing about them, I come into this review blind to the actual game. "Roger Ebert claims to not have understood the story, which proves one thing, you should never listen to critics." - Me Summary Based on the video game series of the same name, Silent Hill follows Radha Mitchell's character Rose as she travels to the abandoned mining town of Silent Hill to try and find the answers to the mysteries of her daughter Sharen's disturbed mind and why she keeps talking about Silent Hill in her sleep. When the trip goes awry and Sharen goes missing, Rose is plunged into a world of darkness, nightmare, and deciet as she slowly uncovers the grisly truth behind the little town of Silent Hill. The Good Brilliant special effects and art direction and fairly horrifying. The scratchy film stock and unique style make the movie a blast and gives it more of a feel of an underground flick. Monsters are creepy as hell and well done The Bad Can be confusing to bumbling old movie critics, acting is not up to snuff, dialogue needs a lot of work. Not enough Pyramid Head Story - B+ I can't say too much about the story because I haven't played the game, so it could have been good in terms of staying true to the game, but whatever the case I really do not know. If I had to treat it as if there was no game it was based off of, then it was pretty good. It's dark, twisted, and tickles that morbid section of the brain that we all have but don't confess. Acting - C- A real low point of the movie. If I could list all of Rose's lines seperately, she probably yelled, "SHAREN!!" more times than she had total lines. She did seem genuinely scared most of the time, but that was the only emotion she successfully conveyed. Suspense - A- Great job of keeping up the suspense and thrilling when necessary. You could taste the tension in the air as Rose traversed the etherial town in search of answers. All the creatures and townspeople in their eerie attire kept the flow of fright up well. Sound - B+ As Blur put it, different. It did not resort to typical horror cliches and soundtypes, but instead used odd mixtures of electrical orchestra, piano, choir, and guitar. The monsters were ear-splitting and shook the theater with ambience. Expertly blended sounds create an atmoshpere like no other. Effects - A- Once again, the creatures, town, Silent Hill people, and CGI looked amazing. Gore and blood came mostly towards the end, but was wonderfully disgusting when the time called for it. There were some brutal deaths and cool stunts. Overall It is the best movie based on a game I've ever seen and I reccommend it. I may buy it, but it depends. Silent Hill does a great job in terms of style, suspense, and fear. However, it lacks in acting and dialogue. The ending is also a bit confusing and abrupt. A collective "what?" erupted from the theater I was in when I saw it a few hours ago. I was reading up on some Silent Hill game info and the movie seems to combine a few elements of the first, second, and third games, making it a kind of collective conscious of the series. You'll be totally lost at the beginning, but it picks up and is great fun once it does.
Well, I guess the movie seemed to be a bit better than I thought it would. Looks, like I'll have to take a look at it when it's possible.
I just got back from seeing it, (but I didn't see the ending... long story) and for the most part it was great. Excellent psychological thriller, I must say... Much better than I had expected. Very good special effects and cinematography really brought out the ambiance, suspense, and horror in the film. Though some of the acting was sub-par. Somehow some of the duologue just seemed like it was poorly written or bad acting. Overall, I'd definitely recommend this movie if you're sitting alone, at home, in the dark. It doesn't hurt to have your gf with you either, guys...
