Silent Hill

Starring: Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden,
Directed by: Christophe Gans
Rating: R
Genre: Horror, Drama
2006

Times Seen:
Tim: 1

Summary: A woman (Radha Mitchell) goes to a small town in West Virginia called Silent Hill to find her daughter. What she finds there is beyond a nightmare and she soon finds herself in a fight to save her and her daughter's life.

Review:

Tim: This film scores tons of points for atmosphere—a creepy, isolated West Virginia town, snowing ash, draped in fog, with occasional air raid sirens as the world changes from a bad dream to a certifiable supernatural nightmare. It is against this impressive backdrop the film is set, and it is considerably better for it. This creepy world takes a bad movie and makes it quite tolerable.

The movie’s implausibility begins when a mother takes her daughter to the very town she’s been calling out in her terrible nightmares. I’m not entirely sure, but this seems like a potentially terrible idea. This sweeps them both up in a nightmarish world that is never completely explained, which actually adds to the fear we feel as we watch. The movie barely lets up, which will keep you nervous and on your toes. The plot itself is pretty pointless, and there’s a great deal of back story revealed that isn’t particularly new or exciting. However, none of this matters much because we are so caught up in the setting and the monsters that seem to lurk around every turn. The film’s climax is hard to watch, but it delivers in the frightening, chilling way that you would expect.

Radha Mitchell makes a good horror heroine, and it’s nice seeing Sean Bean, even though his role is virtually pointless and anyone could have pulled it off. We at least care enough about this family to be somewhat interested in their plight, which is all the film needed to sufficiently scare us.

Silent Hill represents a surprisingly effective leap from video game to the big screen. The film suffers from the typical horror movie flaws, but I doubt that will matter too much to you. The film’s conclusion is quite vague, and leaves much to be interpreted. Despite flaws, I really enjoyed this movie, and even horror fans who are not fans of the video game (I know very little about it), should find enough here to enjoy.

Rating 1-10
Tim's Rating: 7



If You Enjoyed This Movie, We Recommend: Resident Evil, Pitch Black