Silent Hill is the latest in a stream of video-game-to-film projects that have been flowing into theatres over the last few years. Silent Hill, as a game and a film, is meant to do one big thing and do it well: creep you out. Happily I may report that it succeeds in that area quite well.
The story in video game movies is often hard to follow, many times owing to the fact that the game itself had little story line to begin with. Horror games of this type generally have a bit more of a plot, though one filled with occasional moments of incoherence. This confusion is present at times in Silent Hill though to a much lesser degree than negative reviews led me to believe.
Silent Hill is the story of a little girl whose sleepwalking leads to precarious predicaments, causing her parents much consternation. During these nightly jaunts she utters the words “silent hill”. A google here, a google there and soon mother has run off with daughter to the mysterious town of Silent Hill against dad’s wishes in the hopes of finding a cure. Carelessness and the ghostly image of a girl in the road leave mom out cold. When she awakes her daughter is missing and the nightmare begins.
Silent Hill exceeds expectations in two key areas: visuals and the use of sound. Making Silent Hill into a movie has been the pet project of Brotherhood of the Wolf director/screenwriter Christopher Gans for the past several years. His love of the source material and his expertise in creating spectacular imagery shows in the look and feel of Silent Hill. This film has all the visual elements that one wants in a good horror story. Intense camera angles, an eerie lighting scheme, and some of the most scary sets I have seen in a long time are but a few of the things that make this film great to look at. Horror staples like the old abandoned schoolhouse and the sinister hospital are used to great effect in Silent Hill as well. The color palette and tone set the mood throughout the entire movie and the special effects are top notch. Fire plays a key role in the plot and the special effects crew does a fantastic job with using the pealing, eroding effects of fire during scene transformations. The creature effects are top notch as well and rival the evil incarnations of Clive Barker’s imagination. This isn’t your old-timey horror flick, here there be monsters and they are very scary.
Sound is another area in which Silent Hill shines. The use of sound and (as Jeff pointed out) the strategic use of quiet or muted sound really accentuated the mood of the film. Silent Hill is a movie that benefits greatly from a good surround sound system and the theatre we were in was anything but silent. The sound effects were jarring in their intensity and were a fantastic overall piece of the film. The combination of incredible sound and stunning visuals are easily among the best I have seen in the horror genre and rival those in other film genres also.
Silent Hill‘s rough edges were in the story department. That is not to say that the story was not entertaining, but there were some flaws. Most notably before the climax of the film is a long piece of exposition accompanied by flash back visuals that could have been much more effectively communicated had they left the narrative out. The scenes themselves told the story, I did not require spoon feeding to accompany them. The narrative piece goes a long way towards grinding the intensity of the tale to a halt. To its credit Silent Hill ratches up the intensity (and subsequently the gore) immediately after this.
The performances in the film were very good. Radha Mitchell fit very well into the role of a strong, protective mother. She is very attractive but her looks don’t detract from the film. The film makers could have easily went off course with this role by hiring someone who looked pretty but was unbelievable as a person forced to brave horrifying circumstances to save their child. Mitchell was fantastic. Sean Bean was great in a somewhat limited role as the father in the film. The young girl playing Sharon, Jodelle Ferland, was terrific. She played both the innocent and the haunted child very, very well. Rounding out a great cast was Deborah Kara Unger and very menacing performance by Alice Krige. All of the roles had an aspect of being one-dimensional but the above actors all brought a little something extra to their performances that really showed in the final result.
I went into Silent Hill with very low expectations. Surprisingly I found a very entertaining creepy film. There are enough pure scary moments, paced quite well, that make this a terrific movie to terrify. The foreboding, menacing feel of the first three quarters of the movie gives way to some fairly intense gore at the end but even that didn’t feel so much gratuitious as it did just plain evil. Silent Hill at its heart is a tale of vengeance and it is safe to say that punishment is repaid in kind. While the closing scene left me a bit cold my opinion of the overall film was that it met the creep-out factor of some of the great scary computer games I have played. If you see it, go prepared to be amazed by the visuals, wowed by the sound, at times puzzled by the plot, and know that you will leave and never look at nurses…or barbed wire…the same again.
Oh I’m so glad you liked it. I haven’t seen it yet, but will be. Sean Bean is in it, what can I say 🙂 Hadn’t heard anything but negative reports, and didn’t realise that Gans was involved.
Thats settled it, this weekend I’m heading along.
i was thinking of seeing it Saturday, but had heard some bad reviews. however, if YOU like it…it must be good! Thanks 🙂
Thanks Fence and Janet…no pressure now! 😉 Believe me, just because I liked it does not mean in ANY way that it is good! The reality of my viewing experience is that I got what I wanted out of it AND I went in with sure expectations that it would suck beyond belief. Had Gans not chosen to stick so faithfully to the game play experience (and kudos to him for doing so) he and Roger Avary could have easily (in my opinion) fixed some of the holes in the story and made a horror film that even the harshest critics would have enjoyed.
I also went in with low expectations and really enjoyed it. Carl hit all the right notes in his review. The use of sound and lack of sound really added to the creepiness factor for me. I hope both of you enjoy the film this weekend.
oh good – i was so looking forward to this flick – i remember playing the game – the first one (mostly late at night with the lights out) and sound was an important part of what drew me into the creepiness of the game (i remember this one part in the abandoned elementary school – or hell school – it was so quiet that i was creeping along turning every which way until i emerged into the courtyard and this loud raucous music started up – well, i bolted straight through not even stopping to see what was there – when i finally went back to the courtyard all that was there was the music and a key, i had just psyched myself out) – the game was also stock full of strange camera angles and sometimes all you had for a light was a zippo lighter
i’m glad the movie is actually and genuinely creepy – it’s been a while since i’ve seen a good horror flick
What you’ve described in your comments Mysfit fits is pretty well with things presented in the movie! Gans said he wanted to make a movie that was true to the game so if you see it I would be interested in reading your reactions comparing the game to the movie experience. The scariest game I ever played on the PC was Clive Barker’s Undying and parts of it really, really creeped me out. I’m interested in playing the Silent Hill games now.
I would say that this is one of the best horror movies that I have seen in a LONG time. Carl, great job of this review. I really did not know what to expect walking in there as well. I was trying to figure how they were going incorporate the game into a movie. Did anyone notice that the only time that they used the radio/phone/electric devise and the static alerting them to creatures was when the two women had found that the road was blocked? I thought they would utilize this a little more often, since what I remember from the game, this is something you relied heavily upon.
However, I thought it was a good enough made film, to actually buy on DVD or even go see at the movie theater again. I do not see movies that intrigue me like this that often. Especially horror.
I have just got to play this game. If you haven’t played Undying, Jamie, and you think your PC would run it….its been out for several years…I’ll loan it to you. It is worth playing. Very creepy.
I would love to borrow the game if you don’t mind! I have been looking for a computer game for quite some time now and nothing has really seemed to jump out at me. Of course I don’t want to spend 40-50 dollars and hate it so I’m sometimes iffy about games I think I will like.
The game is pretty good, the music is just as enticing and creepy.
Done, I’ll grab it and bring it in for you.
Fence has put up her review of Silent Hill here, I suggest you check it out as well. Very well done.
thanks for the plug Carl 🙂
I’m glad I went to see it because I really did enjoy this film. It may have been far from perfect, but I think the first half worked really well as a creepy atmospheric film.
I’m almost tempted to check out the game, but I was creeped out once playing Resident Evil (I think), all that moaning and groaning makes me wig out 🙂
all that moaning and groaning….sounds like my work place on a Monday morning! 🙂 Everyone loves Mondays!!!
(omg, i just accidentally erased a long comment i had here – damn and i was being so eloquent – i will now attempt to recreate it):
finally saw it last night – woohoo! dead on the game, as a far as i recall: creepy school, creepy hospital, creepy kid-things, hell-world, weird camera angles, limited line-of-site and lighting, great use of sound and not-so-sound and i’m not entirely sure the game even had a plot/storyline. it probably did, but who cares!
“a long piece of exposition accompanied by flash back visuals that could have been much more effectively communicated had they left the narrative out”. here! here! carl, you hit it on the head. i too do not need spoon feeding – it seems to me that this is the only part of the movie that does not take horror movie-goers seriously (i.e. our ability to be scared and still comprehend what’s going on)
creepy, beautiful, lovely – awful script. i thought the dialogue was terrible, esp. between the two women (like: i just finished screaming my head off over this dude and his bug-things with human faces, but trust me cop-lady, we’re going to be ok). and i thought the movie could have handled its own suspense better, especially early on in the film – it just felt like the timing was off or something. it did really well building unease but something would break the tension right before a horrifying scene (like in the bathroom) and the gruesome image would just hang there kinda flat, without delivering the kind of shock that could have been. though, this did get better as the movie went on (i.e. the nurses… brrr…). as for Sean Bean’s character, enough has been said, i think – perhaps he’ll come in handy in the sequel.
but i was not disappointed, not in the least! as Fence put it, it wasn’t perfect but it was enjoyable. i agree with you, carl, the sets were fabu!! and a lot of the visuals, esp. of the big baddies, reminded me of Brom’s artwork. the gore was just that: spectacularly gory and very evil – just like i remember – and i actually liked how not-Bradbury the ending was.
all in all, it was a good attempt at scaring the crap out of you and as far as the genre is concerned, a great horror movie. i just wish i was easier to scare or even creep out (i.e. the creepy kid-things were so cute!).
Great thoughts Mysfit, I appreciate your efforts to recreate your lost entry and not cheating us! I agree with everything you said…the bad guys were very Brom-esque! I will be interested to see if there is some kind of director’s cut when this comes out that may address some of the issues we’ve brought up. Its probably wishful thinking but you never know. I would love to see that exposition scene recut without the voice over, or with very limited voice over. I’ve seen it twice now and I actually look forward to catching it again once it comes out on DVD.