Silent Hill

I have never played the game Silent Hill, so I can’t really compare the movie to the game outside of what I have read from other’s comments. I do know that I liked Silent Hill much better the second time around on DVD than I did the first viewing in the theater.

Rose and Christopher have a daughter, Sharon, who has terrible nightmares and sleepwalks. While she sleeps, she shouts "Silent Hill," and Rose, determined to figure out what is going on, takes Sharon on a trip to find the deserted town. On the way, a lady cop Cybil, (Laurie Holden – X-Files! Woot!) follows her into town, and Sharon disappears. Game on! Rose must track down Sharon, and in doing so, solve the mystery of why Silent Hill is haunted by really cool creepy crawlies.

On first viewing, I didn’t like the game feel to the movie, but I loved the creepy creatures and the story, so I thought I would give it another try on DVD. I loved it the second time around. Everything meshed for me then. The playing levels, the actors, the Silent Hill dimension versus the real world all came together just perfectly. Even the added on feel of Sean Bean’s scenes didn’t bother me all that much. My favorite creepies – Pyramid Head and his buggies, closely followed by the creepy janitor guy.

I thought Alice Kridge cast as the crazy religious nut was perfect, but not very inventive. She does have a way, though, of just freaking you the hell out. She has this way of enlarging her pupils to where her eyes seem black and she seems so certain. Overall, the religious nuts as the center of the story are a pretty regular turn of horror events, but as I understand it, it’s the heart of the Silent Hill games, so it doesn’t turn me off. The end was a whiz-bang. From Cybil meeting the flames (ick!) to Rose bringing in the dark, to little Sharon being turned (or is she…) it’s a great end to a very creepy horror/game movie.

If you like creepy, but not necessarily want to see a bunch of gore, and don’t mind a bit of crazy religious nuts sprinkled on top, check out Silent Hill. I can’t wait to see what Christophe Gans comes up with next; he definitely has a great eye for horror movies with substance.

Rating: 4 ½ Purrs, with extra nuts and buggies on top