Silent Hill (2006)

Director: Christophe Gans
Venue: DVD
DVD Features: making of and previews for other films
Trailer

This time, my review is “hot off the press”, as I just came downstairs from the home theater. I had to be a little bit clever to snag this feature from the video store. Because it was just released, everyone, it seems, decided to check it out this weekend. As I watched the movie, I realized that I have no category here for music or soundtrack. However, since I don’t expect to be commenting very often on the sound in films, I think I’ll just mention it in this first paragraph here. Silent Hill had a fantastic audio track. The score was appropriately eerie and just the kind of thing I plan to have playing at my Halloween party this year. I may have even caught some snippets of Portishead, which is great atmosphere music, not to mention one of my favorite bands.

If you’ve played any of the video games that this movie was based on, there’s a good chance that you already know much more about the plot than I could possibly tell you. Personally, I’ve played about an hour’s worth of the first game, but it was enough that I could identify the trailer before anyone else in the theater. There’s no mistaking the snowlike falling ash as any other town. The basic premise of the plot is that Rose (Radha Mitchell) has an adopted child named Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), who is prone to sleepwalking and drawing creepy pictures. Rose decides to take her daughter up to the ghost town Silent Hill, in hopes that whatever it is haunting her dreams will be put to sleep by the visit. The town was long ago vacated because of a horrible fire, which still burns in the coal underneath the ground. On the road into town, Rose looses control of her vehicle and knocks herself out on the steering wheel. When she comes to, Sharon is missing and she runs off to find her, discovering a clan of which hunters and a slew of gruesome horrors along the way. I like the plot of this movie. It’s original and somewhat off the beaten track of horror movies. Sure, the witch hunting has been done before, but there’s a bit of a twist to it.

Plot: 4 stars

The acting in Silent Hill, admittedly, could have been much better. Horror is a genre that never seems to be taken seriously as quality film in the circles of those who decide these things. Thus, it rarely attracts the higher quality actors to its casting call. There are some exceptions, of course, but Silent Hill isn’t one of them. The little girl in the movie, Jodelle, plays a dual role. There’s a good Sharon and her evil incarnation, Alessa. It may have been a better choice to have cast twins for the separate characters, because I detected evil in this child by the first scene. While she does a decent job of portraying a creepy devil child, I couldn’t buy the innocent routine at all. The police woman (Laurie Holden) wasn’t believable in the slightest and neither was the husband/father (Sean Bean). His concern for his wife and daughter seemed forced and transparent. The ringleader of the which hunters, Christabella (Alice Krige), was similarly weak.

Acting: 3 ½ stars

For the most part, there isn’t any combat in Silent Hill, just running. The one scene in which there is some physical struggle, involves Holden versus a gaggle of religious fanatics. As soon as her gun runs out of ammo, she’s completely useless. Cops are trained in hand-to-hand combat, right? If she had known that she would burn at the stake, maybe she would have given the fight a little more energy. Not such a big loss anyway.

Action: 1 star

The visual effects in the film reminded me a little of The Cell. Maybe it was the dual plane or the dreamlike quality of the set, but whoever dreamed this town up, did an excellent job of bringing it to life. Most of the visuals are made possible via CGI. While it is detectable, it’s well made enough so that it doesn’t detract from the enjoyment of the atmosphere. At the sound of air raid sirens, the town changes to a darker version of itself. Paint peels away and decay forms from the shadows. The “monsters” in Silent Hill were very creepy and glued my eyes to the screen, even while the rest of me remained huddled underneath a cozy blanket. Excellent other-worldly surroundings really pulled me in and I almost forgot that there was a civilized world beyond the city limits of Silent Hill.

Visual: 5 stars

My favorite line from the movie – “They always said this town was haunted. I think they were right.” Although it wasn’t the best film for dialogue, Silent Hill had one or two lines worth remembering. I didn’t roll my eyes at any point and think, “Whoever wrote this script should be shot.” There wasn’t really much in the way of introspective or meditative thought that went into the movie, but it wasn’t that kind of movie, really.

Dialogue: 3 stars

When that elusive paycheck is finally deposited in my bank account, Silent Hill is one of the first things on my shopping list. I believe that it could stand up to repeat viewings and might even reveal a few suprises the second time around. The DVD features fall terribly short of the mark, but just having the movie will make up for it. I really, really hate it when the DVD features do not include a trailer of the movie itself. If I were making DVDs, that would be the very first item to include. I had an initial fear that Silent Hill wouldn't live up to my expectations. I’d missed it in the theater and was terribly anxious to rent the home version. Usually, that means I’m going to be let down. Murphy’s Law, I suppose. But, it wasn’t such with Silent Hill.

Alternate viewing choice: The Cell
IMDB site
Official site
Rotten Tomatoes review

***Note: If you found this review via IMDB, please let us know by leaving a comment. Thanks!***