People in the Movie: Radha Mitchell (Pitch Black), Sean Bean
(Lord of the Rings, TV’s Game of Thrones (s.1) ), Laurie Holden (TV’s The
Walking Dead)
Director: Christophe Gans
Pigeonhole: Horror / Video Game
The Basics: Silent Hill is a
series of horror video games, and the movie is based on elements from several
of the different games.
Rose
(Mitchell) and Chris (Bean) have an adopted daughter named Sharon (Jodelle
Ferland) who has been sleepwalking and having night terrors in which she keeps
repeating the phrase “Silent Hill”. Rose
decides to travel to the town of Silent Hill, against Chris’ wishes, in an
attempt discover more about Sharon’s past and to help her move past whatever is
disturbing her dreams. Rose quickly
learns that Sharon’s dreams are just the tip of the proverbial iceberg, that
Silent Hill is a terrifying hell on earth that no one may be leaving.
Recommendation: Visually speaking,
this is one of the all-time great horror films I have ever seen. It truly is like a video game come to
life. Fans of the games should like it,
and fans of horrific imagery should love it.
‘R’ rating is for violence, gore, and images. If you are not otherwise familiar with video
games, I might suggest watching a trailer before seeing this movie because it
demonic type horror, which may not appeal to some people.
My Take: Silent Hill is an
outstanding movie visually, but where many films in this genre would let the
effects be “enough”, the producers and director took the time to create and
develop an interesting back story and to progress the plot throughout. This film is almost 2 hours long, which is
not typical horror (at usually 90ish minutes).
**spoiler alert** Rose takes Sharon
to Silent Hill, but has a minor car accident literally pulling over the town
line. Rose blacks out during the crash
and awakes to find Sharon gone, so she proceeds on foot to find her. The town appears abandoned, there is a fog
seemingly everywhere, as well as grey ash is falling from the sky. Rose sees a little girl running through the
town, so she chases after her, but never seeming to catch up. Rose hears a strange alarm sound and blackness
envelops the environment. Strange human
sized demons start coming towards her so she is forced to hide out in one of
the abandoned buildings.
Meanwhile,
Chris has also driven to Silent Hill to look for Rose and Sharon but strangely
there is no ash falling, or fog. After
being escorted out of Silent Hill by the police, Chris breaks into the city hall
of a nearby town looking for Silent Hill’s old records and discovers the town
was abandoned due to underground coal mine fire that is still burning. But everything is not as it seems, and the
tragedy that occurred there seems to be linked somehow to Sharon.
Rose
eventually makes contact with fanatical cult still in Silent Hill who appear to
live in a church, and they are led by a woman named Christbella. It seems that this cult is obsessed with
witch burnings, and that many years ago they made the decision to burn a little
girl born out of wedlock to “cleanse” her.
This event is what has led to what is happening in Silent Hill. She survived the burning, but her hate and
anger grew opening the gate into this nightmarish reality where demons walk,
and now it is time for the cultists to pay for their sin of not protecting an
innocent child. The final standoff is
quite horrifying, I must admit.
The
conclusion is also entertaining, because one would think since the cult has
been vanquished, that all would be back to normal, at least for Sharon and Rose
– but it isn’t. Even though we see them
leave Silent Hill and return home, their atmosphere is in the fog; and then Chris
is shown also in the home, without the fog, and he cannot see Sharon and Rose. Silent Hill sequel, here we come.
Final Thought/Extras/For Fun:
The element of the abandoned town due to the coal mine fire came from the true
story of Centralia, PA
where the fire is still burning today…
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