After attending the movie “Silent Hill,” I have concluded that I must be the only person in the world who has played “Silent Hill.” With the weeks leading up to the day that I would see this movie; I got a chance to peruse around the internet and read reviews that several “respected” movie critics had written. I started by reading what Roger Ebert (of Siskel and Ebert) thought of the film. He made a very good point that the film was cinematic goodness, save for bad dialogue. He also went on to state that unless one has played this game, average movie goers will not have any idea what the hell is going on. Other sites had stated the same thing, but as I came across sites like IGN, the movie was absolutely ripped upon. IGN said that the movie is boring, long and confusing, plus the dialogue was terrible. Now this strikes me as strange because should not IGN have some type of understanding of Silent Hill? Silent Hill has never been known for its eloquent dialogue, so with that the director did not have a whole lot to work with.
The director did a marvelous job with the film. He hit everything spot on, from the actual music from the game, to clever camera angles that brought back great memories. At the beginning when Rose enters the town she follows her daughter into an under-ground passage way. From there the darkness approaches and the familiar sound of the warning sirens blare through the theatre. This brought chills up my spine, I loved it and the siren was a great touch. All goes black for a moment, and then rose illuminates the darkness with the faint glow from her lighter. She follows the corridors and suddenly I’m reminded of the alley way at the beginning of Silent Hill 1. The director does some great work with the camera by taking it overhead with exact shot placement from the game. Rose gets to a dead end and discovers a figure strapped to a fence by barbed wire, just like in the game. Creatures suddenly come from all over and attack Rose. They over-take her then suddenly disintegrate into ash, and Rose wakes up in a diner and the darkness is gone.
That was my favorite scene from the movie simply because the director hit everything spot on. He did a great job with the camera work, the sound and the overall feeling of fear and claustrophobia. You could hear the same eerie sounds from the game, that background music which sounds like metal being banged frantically. He sets a great mood with this scene and sets the pace for the rest of the movie. The Actress who played Rose’s daughter was also brilliant. She portrayed an innocent, yet troubled child perfectly. She could go from playing innocent to playing the dark form of herself without any trouble at all. This girl has amazing range and she has a bright future ahead of her.
Silent Hill is an underrated movie simply for the fact that it is not very scary at all. This is forgivable simply because it’s nothing I have not seen from the game itself. The director was trying to show what the game would be like in cinematic form. The story is great and well thought of. The ending is also worth the price of admission simply because it is a constant and satisfying blood bath. I didn’t think this movie was boring at all. It kept a good and constant pace and was never bogged down by pointless dialogue. This movie is definitely not for someone who takes movies painfully seriously. This film is for those who have beat Silent Hill, (The first and second ones, the third and fourth are pretty irrelevant) or those who have very open minds and appreciate movies for as they are. This movie is as faithful as possible to the first Silent Hill. Perhaps that is what the movie’s downfall was. The story is too complex for today’s movie goers and too canon for today’s gamers. The director was simply taking everything that Silent Hill was and making it into a fantastic, visual feast. People who saw this movie can not say that they weren’t impressed when the movie made the transition from normalcy and into the darkness. Perhaps a better alternative would have been to use the story line from Silent Hill 2. It would basically be all the Silent Hill goodness, without confusing the audience with the involvement of the occult. Who can say for certain what would have made this movie “great.” Perhaps people need to stop judging every movie like it is up for an Academy Award, and just start enjoying the show.
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