Rose cannot accept the knowledge that her daughter Sharon is dying of a fatal disease. Over the protests of her husband, she flees with her child, intending to take the girl to a faith healer. On the way, she ends up driving through a portal in reality, which takes her to the eerie and deserted town of Silent Hill. Sharon disappears in Silent Hill, and Rose follows what she thinks is her daughter's silhouette all over town. It's soon clear the town is not like any place she's ever been. It's inhabited by a variety of creatures and a living darkness that descends and literally transforms everything it touches.
...And so far as that goes, it's fine.
I will go a bit farther.
While trying to avoid anything spoiler-like, I will tell you as much as I can about this. Silent Hill began as a series of games by Konami, and they're currently working on the fifth title in the franchise. This is because the games are creepy on a level not found in any other franchise to date. Fatal Frame can stretch its fingers out and reach a distant second, but that's about it.
Most of the titles in the so-called "survival horror" games are pretty much not scary per se; they're survival games. The main character is usually military or police, set against an army of zombies / dinosaurs / zombies / more zombies / zombies of a new and different type / diseased humans who act like, but really aren't zombies / you get the idea. Silent Hill isn't like that. At all. There are monsters, sure, but in Silent Hill, one of the persistent themes of the series is the disjunction between perception and reality; in fact the main character of the third game asks another character about the monsters, and gets "is that what you see them as?" as a reply.
Silent Hill is about atmosphere, and it's certainly a more cerebral franchise than, say, Resident Evil. Don't get me wrong; RE games are fun, but as far as I'm concerned they're only horror by virtue of the grossout, which is the wimpiest horror. Silent Hill games are different. They are scary. Really scary. Looking-over-your-shoulder-in-the-parking-lot scary. Psychological horror, persistent exploitation of the fear of the dark, disturbing sounds, terrifying images, and uncertainty of perception are all themes you can expect to see explored in a typical Silent Hill game.
Inevitably, they decided to make a movie.
When I first heard about the movie, I cringed. Video game movies are first and foremost never like the games; secondly, they suck, and thirdly, they SUCK.
This one doesn't.
I described the games for one reason: because I suspect that word of mouth will drag an awful lot of people who don't play games to see it, and I want them to know what they're walking into. The movie is the best, by far, translation of game to movie I've ever seen. All the themes from the games are there, and it can be severely disturbing. Walk into it with your eyes open, because it's worth the ride.
I realize the critics right now are pretty unanimously hating it, but after reading several different reviews, I'm starting to wonder how many of them actually saw the movie, and how many of them reworded other reviewers' comments, because they all have the same complaints, and they're complaints that simply don't apply to the movie I just saw.
"The plot makes no sense."
Um, kay, so you can't understand more than one concept at a time, due to a steady diet of "romantic comedies" and other brainless "entertainment?" It's not hard. Little girl sleepwalks and yells name of creepy town. Mom takes her to creepy town to find out why. Girl disappears; mom hunts for her. Town is really, really creepy. Woooo, too tough for me, there, boy.
"It's dark."
It's a movie largely predicated on fear of the dark, just like the games it's based on. If nyctophobia is one of your big scares, gee, you think it might just be DARK?!?
The next two go together: "It's too much like the games," and "It's not very much like the games." To which I answer: pick one, and I'll disagree. If you can't even decide which one of those applies, shut up.
Here's the deal: they used plot themes from the games. The plot is remarkably similar to the first game, though not exact. The monsters are, by and large, directly from the first three games in the series. Most of the music is from the games. Several of the characters are from the games, directly. The locations and town map are from the game. It's a hell of a lot like the game.
However, all that does is supply a fan of the game with tons of "moments," when you recognize something from the game you didn't expect to see, and go "OOOOoooooOOO!!!" If you're not a fan, it's more than possible to enjoy this as a straight horror movie; it does quite nicely even without the background of having played the games. In this case, having a history with Silent Hill is more of a bonus than anything else.
Normally, I either outright hate (Wing Commander,) or laugh at (Doom) game movies; although I'm willing to give them a chance, they're almost always disappointing, like the American re-filmings of Asian movies; often for the same reason, the games are largely made by Asians, and exploit fears and cultural themes not prevalent in the West. This movie was one that I unashamedly enjoyed, both as a fan of the games, and as a horror movie buff. Is it art? Well, I don't know that I'd go that far; but it's a hell of a good show, and there was only one real "OMG can you BE that stupid" moment involved.
For the fans: Pyramid Head from Silent Hill 2 is in the movie, and at one point does something so outrageously hideous that I turned to my wife and said "Ok, honey, we're definitely buying this one." She agreed after she got through saying "eeeeeeewwwwwwww." And just wait until the first time you hear that air raid siren. All your hair will stand right on end - outstanding.
Go see this movie. It may be the only horror movie to come out this year that deserves the bloated, inflated ticket price theaters charge. It certainly deserves the venue; the big screen and surround sound will help make this an experience, sure enough.
