Silent Hill (The movie), review

Silent Hill (The movie)

I went to the movie with perceived opinions. I knew that the movie at one time was going to be called something else, but TPTB decided to keep the SH name. From the preview shots, I knew that at least the mood and look of the Silent Hill games were being maintained in the movie. Yet, I was afraid the acting and story might suffer.

Luckily, I was wrong.

The movie is basically the SH1 and SH3 storylines wrapped into one. The only major difference is the gender of the main character is now female. There is a bit of SH2 also placed in the movie, that being Pyramid Head and some of the creatures from that game. However, overall, this is a retelling of SH1.

Like the game, the movie maintains mood and style over action. There are basically three different levels of Silent Hill. Level one: The town is simply empty. There isn’t any fog in the town. Level two: Thick fog covers the entire city. There are a few monsters in this level. The town still looks the same, but now there are people in this level, but they seem…off. Level three: This is the creepy ‘hell’ version of the city. Everything is different here. Blood on the walls and demon-like creatures roam the hallways.

When the town switches to the Hell version, we actually see the old town chip away and the hell version take over. This is by far one of the neatest things to watch in the movie.

The acting at times can be a little silly. There are some lines of dialogue that I would change, but nothing too major. I enjoyed watching Sean Bean’s character and the subplot that he goes through, because this subplot answers many questions about the tow and his daughter.

Two composers did the music in the film. Akira Yamaoka’s music is the most prominent, because it is straight out of the videogame. This is one of best parts of the film, because the music is just eerie and written just like the VG version. This has to do with the fact that Akira also wrote the music for all four SH games. Jeff Danna’s music gives Yamaoka’s music structure and a theme.

Some people will have a problem with the ending. But the film lets you make up your own mind as to what happened. Before I end this rather stupid review, I should say that if you want to watch the movie, make sure you play SH 1 and 3 before diving in. It will make things easier to understand.

Grade B-

This scene will bring back memories of the first game…

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Cybil Bennett (the Cop) is straight out of the first SH game. While her fate is the game varies depending on what actions you take, the movie has completely different fate.

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In the movie, the fog is comprised of ash, while in the game, the fog is actually fog. Just spooky fog.