Silent Hill is the first video game that I played as an adult. Prior to that, unless you count Tetris, I had not played a game since Super Mario Brothers. A little “shout out” to our artist Daniel for introducing me to such a terrifyingly awesome game. So when I heard they were making a movie, I was thrilled…and like the fanboys, a little worried they would screw it up.
I’ll start with the good. Actually, the amazing. The sights and sounds in the film version of Silent Hill are absolutely incredible. They use a lot of the music and sound effects from the game, and visually it seemed almost identical. I got chills and the word “awesome” escaped from my mouth more than once.
The plot was different, but in my opinion, not terrible. It was definitely clearer and easier to follow than the game, which I’m still not sure I could coherently explain. The poor souls I dragged to see this movie were able to follow it (after some discussion in the car on the way home), even though they had never even seen the game. Since the recreation of Silent Hill was so fantastic I was probably more forgiving, but if you are a fan, the first hour of the movie is worth the price of admission even if it does start to fall apart after the second act.
The acting was absolutely awful. I don’t know if they did this on purpose, but it was almost identical to the really dreadful acting that the CG characters do in the game. In fact, it made the movie seem even more like the game because of how stiffly the characters talked and the way they were dressed. The main character Rose delivers some really ridiculous lines and seems overly convinced “that everything is going to be okay.” After the first appearance of Pyramid Head, I think I would have literally taken myself out of the game.
The violence in the movie was nearly unbearable; even a little outrageous. I suppose the game is violent too, but it was a little unexpected and the finale left me feeling a little sick. This is probably related to the plot failures, but I felt the overdone violence in the climax failed to give the movie any feeling of resolution.
Basically, the young girl gets her revenge in a most violent way (imagine possessed barbed wire shooting through people and then ripping them apart). She also seems to keep her adopted mom trapped in this altered universe and the “why” is left up to interpretation. The financial reason is because it sets up nicely for Silent Hill 2, when the husband goes searching for his wife.
This is an incredibly good-looking film that any fan of the game should at least enjoy on some level. Although I would admittedly not be so generous if this material had come from another source, I give it 3 out of 5
By Tina Alexander
