Silent Hill (2006)

"Silent Hill," directed by Christophe Gans, who manages to build a convincing and believable mythos by giving viewers enough information to ponder and chew on without discouraging them from further research or speculation to find out more, is a consistently interesting and very effective psychological horror film that will keep you locked in and engaged throughout its entire runtime.The plot is simple: a little girl by the name of Sharon continuously gets horrific nightmares, and while she is sleeping, she screams out the name of a town, named Silent Hill. Her mother, Rose, in an attempt to find out why her daughter keeps having bad dreams while screaming this town's name, decides to take her daughter there.It's a straightforward premise, but the film's sense of mystery and dread works so well, and the history and world building of the movie is so effective, that you can't help but be completely captivated and wonder what in the world is going to happen next.One thing that makes this movie very effective is its set design; it truly is spectacular, looking eerie and hellish for the most part, but full of life when it needs to be. However, what really makes the set design so fantastic is the way the film utilizes it for its visual storytelling. For example, at one point Rose visits an abandoned school that stands dusty and derelict, but on the inside is rich in its history and visual storytelling. Religious quotes preaching vengeance are engraved in the wall of the school, the word "witch" is carved on the surface of a student's desk, and a dead janitor is found tied up with barbed wire inside of a bathroom stall, his body twisted and contorted in impossible ways. These sights, taken separately, are all sickening in their own right, and they will make your stomach churn, but you'll find yourself unwilling to look away because of the wealth of information about the town that you'll be getting from witnessing them. However, once these things combine together to form coherency, that is when your blood will really start to boil as the horrifying truth about Silent Hill comes to light.When it comes to storytelling in general, though, "Silent Hill" starts to falter. The way that the stories are conveyed by the clever use of setting and of the different images that are being shown is smart as it lets the audience slowly piece together the story and come to their own conclusions about what is going on. If the film would have left it at that, it would've been a brilliant example of a movie where viewers actually have to watch attentively and pay close attention to what they are being shown if they want to grasp the narrative and understand the story. "Silent Hill" feeds us information little by little, in such a way that you really wouldn't know what you are seeing is important until after you've already seen the film, and this is a good thing, as it encourages further viewings to pick up on things that you wouldn't have noticed or fully understood the first time. Unfortunately, one scene of obvious exposition does take you out of the film, as it comes completely out of nowhere and doesn't fit into the method of storytelling that the film was previously conveying. The information that is being explained is necessary for viewers to understand the story, but such a jarring scene should've been kept on the cutting room floor and it really does feel like the producers pushed the director to put that scene in, because it goes against the clever visual storytelling that every scene prior has. But, this was a major studio release, and without the exposition the audience would most likely not have understood what was going on, but it does feel mildly insulting that the studio didn't think that the audience could've figured things out on their own.While there is the exposition scene that is incredibly jarring and, in this reviewer's opinion, unnecessary, and some cringe inducing dialogue and spotty acting, these things do not detract from the unique horror experience that this film offers. "Silent Hill" is a very effective psychological horror film that utilizes clever visual storytelling and that isn't afraid to demand its audience to pay attention and think while they are witnessing the events unfold. If you're looking for a film that crawls under your skin, sickens your stomach, and builds a sense of mystery within you that will keep you invested and guessing throughout, then look no further than "Silent Hill."

Oh my God, why is this movie so high rated on IMDB ? Even while searching carefully, there is absolutely nothing interesting to say about it. Nothing good in any case... So you can watch this movie if you have a couple of hours to waste. Otherwise, you will definitely prefer to look for your old PS1 and play the video game again.

I think it is fair to say that the general consensus is that Video Game movies suck complete and utter ass, so I've skipped out on plenty. That is until I found a Youtube video crediting this film in particular for being not only faithful to the source material which is a great horror game, but also being just a decent film all around. Well I can certainly say that this film is far superior to most of it's caliber.Allow me to say that this film certainly has plenty of hit or miss qualities as well as straight up double-edged sword qualities. Allow me to explain what I mean by that. First, the story. The narrative is probably the biggest hit or miss I've seen in any film ever. Sometimes the film has great moments because of it's surprisingly great directing, cinematography, and shot composition. However the story just balances out to just "ok" the positives at play here are the twisted themes and mystery elements. But the negatives here are the extremely pretentious and sometimes awful writing, certain lines really miss their mark when they try to be either melodramatic or casual. There were plenty of instances when I sat there and said to myself, "people don't talk like that." which is very dangerous especially in a film that is based on such a character driven game. So the plot was just, meh.Visuals- Without a shadow of doubt are the most inconsistent thing in this film, even though it seemed to be the aspect praised the most around the internet. But I can still see where they're coming from. An element that I thought I wasn't going to even give a shit about but turned out to be awesome was the set design and creature design; OH MY GOD, it's too damn fantastic. The town of silent hill almost feels as if the town has it's own character, kind of in the sense that the real antagonist of the film is the town itself. From the ash that coats the streets and air like snow, to the dark noire atmosphere at night and the bleak environments by day. The set design also fares very well, a great sense of scale and realism, almost as if I was watching a completely practical production. Also let me just say how faithful to the source material the monsters look, the nurses and especially everyone's favorite huge boss spooky boi Pyramid Head are both recreated with delicate care and detail. Also watching Pyramid Head mess stuff up is just so satisfying. Now let me rip the other aspect of the visuals a new one, by talking, or in this case complaining about the CG. The CG looks somewhat decent in the final few scenes of the film, don't get me wrong, but I can never be convinced by the shift between day and night silent hill has. When the environment starts to rust I just don't buy it, maybe more detail and money needed to be put to these scenes because these transitions are crucial to how the viewer depicts the town; which as stated earlier has it's own character.Overall 6/10 is very appropriate, not great, but never throw this film in with the garbage of it's peers.

I've never been a real fan of Silent Hill, I just remember the series as a child; hearing about it that is and maybe playing it a few times when I was a teenager. I never knew anything about the story nor did I remember anything about it; I basically watched this movie without any knowledge of the Silent Hill world.Now on to the review:I was impressed by the movie's atmospheric psychological aspects, and room left for audience self interpretation. The self interpretation aspect however went a bit too far in the ending; I've never known the Silent Hill series was actually an alternate dimension... I believed it was a place in their 'reality' infested with some kind of monsters. The alternate reality aspect wasn't explained in too much detail, that caused me to begin to lose interest in the film and made the ending seem abrupt.