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I just returned from the Silent Hill movie. As someone who owns the games, the comics, and all the other things remotely related - I have this to say.

It was beautiful. The actors were suprisingly into their characters for a video game based movie. Sean Bean's role as the invented character Chistopher DaSilva was amazing to the point of nearly being show-stealing; he takes a minor character essentially built for outlining backstory and makes it believable. Laurie Holden and Deborah Kara Unger both match the characterizations of their respective holdovers (Cybil and Dahlia respectively) to the point that one almost feels like this was a left-out story of the original title.

Speaking of the original title, comparing the game to the 1999 Playstation game is doing both game and movie an injustice. So much of the plot between the two has been changed that the only links are some of the returning support characters. The new characters, and the reimagined characters and concepts were amazing, save for in one place - the main characters, Rose and Sharon DaSilva. Sharon is exactly what Cheryll wasn't - loud, pesky, and extremely hard to empathize with. While Cheryll is described as being a sweet, quiet little girl, and, despite minimal backplot works her way into the heart of the player, Sharon managed to make most of our viewing audience turn against her at the very beginning, leaving you wonder why Rose is so fixated on saving her. Rose, by the way, felt like a very watered-down version of the original Harry Mason. Where Harry fearlessly braves hell for his daughter, single-mindedly fighting through the nightmares, Rose seems willing to just lay down and die at every little challenge. Instead of being a more empathetic, motherly figure, Rose's mission just seems like a butchering of the father/daughter bond that made Silent Hill such an amazing game to begin with.


But such characterization flaws are truely minor, and might just be this critic's love for the series showing through. If I had one complaint about this movie, it's that ultimately it takes too much of a Good versus Evil approach. While the concepts of a Good and Evil deity fighting amongst the town aren't unheard of (and, in fact, are main points in the storyline of Silent Hill 1 and 3), they tended to keep the moral ambiguities a constantly shifting thing, so that when the final struggles came and the good and evil was finally unveiled for what it was, the effects were more profound. If anything, the movie does just the opposite - it gives you a definate good and evil, shifts them around once or twice, then ends on such a vague note that you can't decide if the main character ultimately did anything approaching the right thing. Hell, you can't tell if they did the wrong thing either - it simply feels like they kind of went down the middle. The up to this is that it leaves us open to a very Silent Hill 2-inspired sequel, should they be able to talk the talented Mr. Bean into doing it.

The movie, ultimately, was about horror. And horror it delievered in spades. Between the horrfying history of the town and Alessa (changed from the original game, so us veterans don't feel like we got ripped off), and the absolutely terrifying visuals (you would have had to have had nerves of steel not to be jumping during the Nightmare scenes), there was enough pulse-pounding scare to make everyone happy. I won't give away details, but rest assured that people who payed close attention to the games will notice some of the fan favorites coming back to haunt you. Even those of you who played the first ten minutes of the first Silent Hill and were too freaked out to continue.

Ultimately, Silent Hill gets 9.75 out of 10. It's without a doubt one of my favorite horror movies, and definately on my top 20 movies to carry to the atomic bunker. However, some of the acting could have been better, and a few script elements seemed forced. Also, Akira Yamaoka - would it have killed you to make a couple new songs for the movie? Almost everything came from Silent Hill 2 and 3!

And so is this now.

I liked it overall. I saw complaints that there wasn't much of a storyline, but being that it was based largely on Silent Hill 1 (the game), there really wasn't a lot to go on...

My biggest gripe overall with it (and really, a very minor thing in the end) was that out of 55 counties to choose from in West Virginia, they had to make one up...?