Silent Hill is a step up in how to make a video game to film adaptation. With that said, Silent Hill is still very flawed and is far from a solid motion picture. There is some bad acting to be had in this film and some scenes that go on longer than they should. Since the genre of horror was born, its reputation was never strong in the acting department with the exception of some of course. Still, Silent Hill offers something that the Resident Evil films should have had and those are a creepy atmosphere and stunning visuals.
From a visual standpoint, Silent Hill is one of the best looking films this year. The film looks incredibly haunting and along with that, the mood is set with a frightening tone. For anyone that has played the Silent Hill games, they will be pleased with the visuals that Director Christophe Gans has brought to the screen. The city of Silent Hill is exactly what a haunted city would look like, its dark, foggy and most of all scary. Gans also has a keen eye here to slowly and unexpectedly fright the viewer.
Even though Gans vision is solid, his direction is still flawed. Had Silent Hill been cut down to a one hundred and five minute film it would have worked even better. Instead, this film has some scenes that become annoying and even laughable due to repetitiveness. This film does indeed offer a lot of different situations, but it also has its signs of already saw that, not impressed. However, you don't know what to expect next in Silent Hill and even though the story can be confusing at times, it has a complex story that we don't find out entirely until the final twenty minutes.
Some can argue that they should have evened the story throughout the film. For gamers out there, they know that once you beat a game, the ending is where everything ties in together and it should make the biggest impact. This is what Silent Hill does. The film pours it all in the final act, almost exactly how games are made. This is not to say that Silent Hill does not tell anything while Rose is trying to find Sharon, because there are flashbacks throughout that begin to make sense why Sharon had to go to Silent Hill.
Rose is the main character of Silent Hill and she is played by Radha Mitchell. Her daughter in the film Sharon is played by Jodelle Ferland. Both of them are passable as actors, but the bad acting comes when Cybil Bennett who is played by actress Laurie Holden comes into the picture. She plays a cop and she is laughable at times, but perhaps its not entirely her fault. Unfortunately, the dialogue in Silent Hill is weak and sometimes irrelevant to the story. This is what should always be strong in a film, because its what drives the film through, but writer of The Rules of Attraction, Roger Avary does not succeed here.
Silent Hill is a disappointment in most of the dialogue that is heard and the acting does not help it. Its a good thing Gans had the visual stunning sets and decently looking creatures. While, the creatures are obviously CGI, they are actually pretty well done. All of this is accompanied by a fantastic score. Silent Hill has a solid soundtrack throughout the film that creates terrifying sounds and noises that create a frightening atmosphere. This film is a fun ride half the time, but the other half is lacking in some areas. The scenes with Sean Bean as Rose's husband weren't really needed and could have been done without.
This film is easy to review, but difficult to rate. I found myself liking some of it, but also disliking some of it. When it comes down to it, Silent Hill is a film that I am on the fence with. The positive attributes are just slightly better than its negatives. This is a fifty one percent good film and a forty nine percent bad film. Thats how close I am to not recommending it. However, Silent Hill is simply too visually stunning, creepy and enjoyable that I can't go out without recommending it, at least slightly. Silent Hill is not a solid motion picture by any means and its very flawed, but for once this is a passable video game to film adaptation that can be labeled as horror not action, something the Resident Evil films never had.
