Introduction
In the recent barrage of films inspired from video games, Silent Hill - the movie comes as a very pleasant surprise.
I had played the second game in the series (Silent Hill 2) on the XBOX and had fallen in love with the game, so was naturally excited when I heard they were making a movie on it.
The game itself has a fantastic story line and for the time you are playing it - does the job of transporting you to another dimension perfectly. The game is based on the survival / horror genre and is a lot of fun playing.
When I popped in the DVD and played the movie, I was shocked to the see the amount of resemblance to the game. Everything, down to the names of shops in the street were painstakingly reproduced and the environment created was the exact same that you’d experience when you played the game.
A brief overview of the story as follows...
A small girl called Sharon (played by Jodelle Ferland) has repeated nightmares and she sleepwalks and calls out the name of the "Silent Hill" town.
Her mother - Rose (played by Radha Mitchell) decides to take her to the town to see if she can cure her of her nightmares. On their way, they meet with an accident and on waking up, Rose finds her daughter missing.
So begins the story with the explorations and uncovering of the towns eerie history.
Silent Hill is actually a ghost town in which a massive fire broke out 30 years ago, killing most of its residents...
The cast of the movie do their jobs well, and everyone plays their part to instill into you - that particular emotion, which makes the entire experience of watching this movie very, very, worthwhile.
Sean Bean (Boromir - Lord of the Rings, National Treasure) plays the father of the child. The movie comes off as one made with a lot of passion and the director Christophe Gans and his team should be given a lot of credit for the effort taken.
The movie is really well made and besides being a tribute to the game series, brings out the entire experience of this franchise to even people who have not had the chance to play the game.
The sets are really well done and like I said, I was astonished at the resemblance to the entire game.
The music has been taken off the game itself and adds to the authenticity of the experience. The monster and creature design is again well done, and I would also like to mention the brilliant camera angles used throughout the production.
However, the movie is pretty eerie and might not appeal to everyone. There are a few really gory scenes which many people may find disturbing...
Saying this, the movie is not your run of the mill horror flick - it has a lot of psychological and mythological themes explored in the film and if you watch carefully, you will enjoy the movie even more.
If you want to get away from the drudgery of romantic comedies and action flicks into a dark world and at the same time not be petrified, Silent Hill is the place to go!