So last night I finally got to watch “Silent Hill.” I was looking forward to seeing this in the theater, until a friend told me it was terrible. Well I waited for it to come out on DVD and can say it’s not terrible at all. It’s not great either. It’s just okay. The movie, for those who don’t know, is based on a videogame series. If you are not a fan of the games then you might not enjoy the film that much to be honest.
The game attempts to follow the storyline of the 1st, and best of the games. Changes have been made though. In the original game you played Harry Mason and were driving with your daughter Cheryl, the two of you happened to go to Silent Hill. An accident occurred, when Harry woke up after being knocked out his daughter was gone. He then followed a phantom girl who looked just like his daughter through the creepy town of Silent Hill while trying to find his daughter.
In the movie the main character is the little girl’s mother, and the little girl’s name is Sharron. Sharron was adopted by this family, but she suffers terrible nightmares as if from a past life. The mother takes her to the place in her dreams to try and figure out what is going on. The place? Silent Hill.
Some elements of the story have been retained, such as Alessa, the fire, the nightmare world. All the monsters are there, Cybill the Cop and Dahlia are also there. However Dahlia’s story has been changed, she’s no longer the bad guy. Alessa’s story and purpose has changed as well. I won’t spoil it for those who intend to watch it.
The movie is creepy for sure, just as the game was. It’s surprisingly not difficult to understand, the game was. The movie eventually spells out exactly what is going on for the viewer at one point. Even before that it explains the history of Silent Hill, something the game never really did. There are a few loose ends, they never explain the demon Alessa or exactly what happens at the end.
If you want a thriller that is creepy and very unusual, give it a try. It’s probably not going to scare you much. What made the game so creepy was a combination of very little lighting, the way the creatures moved and of course the music and sound effects, all of which are kept in the movie.
Dustin
Hi Dustin! I’m a fan from your passions page! I saw Silent Hill in the theatre and was scared to death, Okay, I’ll admit that the video also scared me too (Can someone be scared of a video game?). Did you know that they were originally going to call this movie “Centralia”, a way to separate it from the video games, but changed it at the last minute. I used to work in the film industry in Canada. Beware for Silent Hill 2, no doubt that will be on the way, and I guess we’ll get to see more ghouls!