Silent Hill (2006) Review

 

Poster

Silent Hill

Release Year: 2006

MPAA Rating: R

Running Time: 2 hours and 7 minutes

Viewer’s Rating: 6/10

 

“Only the dark one opens and closes the door to Silent Hill.”

 

Silent Hill is a popular survival horror game franchise developed and published by a Japanese company called Konami. There are currently six main game installments; the first one was released in 1999 and became the main influence in creating the film adaptation. I was actually surprised when I read that it took five years for the director Christophe Gans to obtain rights to make this film and he seemed so zealous about it: he was interviewed and he even made a video and sent it to Konami about how much the franchise meant to him. Dear Gans, I apologize but I believe that your five years are somewhat wasted. Why am I saying this? Maybe it is because I have a feeling that this film would have been much more appreciated and respected if the script were to be more faithful to the original game plotline and eliminate the altercations made to the origins of Silent Hill, its characters, and its turn of events.

 

Here is the game summary: 32-year-old writer Harry Mason is driving towards Silent Hill for vacation with his adopted 7-year-old daughter Cheryl until an apparition of a girl suddenly appears on the road and Harry swerves and crashes his jeep. When Harry regains his consciousness, he discovers Cheryl missing and heads to Silent Hill as other roads have been mysteriously obliterated. During his search for his missing daughter through the seemingly abandoned town, he faces terrifying monsters, discovers the true origins of his daughter and the strange events that surround the town.

 

The film somewhat has a similar plotline but has some altercations: Sharon DaSilva (Cheryl’s character in the film, played by Jodelle Ferland) begins to suffer from chronic nightmares and also begins to sleepwalk while screaming out the name “Silent Hill.” Thus her adopted mother, Rose (Radha Mitchell) decides to take Sharon to Silent Hill to discover the cause of her daughter’s strange condition. As expected, she is knocked out from a car crash and Sharon goes missing afterwards. Like Harry, Rose goes in search for her daughter and in process faces monsters yet instead of fighting them, screams and runs around, only to cause severe frustrations and head/earaches to the audience. In fact, I think there was way too much running around and screaming in the film, which dragged the movie and thus made it less fun than it was supposed to.

 

Some of the differences between the film and the game may also bother several fans of the game. Perhaps the most disturbing change I am still having a difficult time getting used to is how Harry’s character is replaced with a woman. Why? Not only it is because the screenwriters have deliberately switched the gender of the main character, but also it is because in the game, when a player obtains the good+ ending, a police woman named Cybil will replace Harry’s dead wife and Cheryl’s new mother. Yes, Cybil is also in the film and I couldn’t help but immaturely keep having certain inappropriate thoughts in my head.

 

The acting isn’t so bad but at the same time it isn’t so good. Mitchell’s acting as a mother in search for her child and at the same time facing monsters was solid. Laurie Holden portrayed Cybil very well yet the character itself annoyed me at some bits, especially during the parts when she suspected Rose of being a kidnapper not Sharon’s mother. I feel Sean Bean, who played Rose’s husband and Sharon’s adopted father, was wasted though, especially when his character was added in after the original script was declined due to the fact that it only had female characters. As for Ferland, I don’t have much opinion on her. There was one specific line delivery that was so terrible that it made me laugh. And speaking of line delivery, there were so many parts of the dialouge that made me groan and roll my eyes. The backstory can be confusing to those who are not familiar with the games. What’s more shameful is how the backstory is forcefully explained through uses of flashbacks and narrations.  

 

Nevertheless, I appreciate how several scores from the game series’ original soundtracks were used in the film. Composer Akira Yamaoka clearly provides a chilling yet beautiful music to complement with the disturbing enviroment Silent Hill presents. And whoever selected the right scores to accompany the certain scenes did their job very well. I would also like to praise the visual direction of this film. The haunting settings are as dark and nightmarish as the ones in the game and the monsters were very believable, something Silent Hill fans would not be disappointed of. What else is good about this film? The poster. I was so frightened and disturbed by the poster above when I first saw it, I was restless for several hours before I finally fell asleep.

 

Despite its flaws, the film is sure entertaining. However, perhaps the film would have recieved greater acclaims if the game series did not exist. As the film had so many altercations made with characters, the plot, and the backstory, I could not help but keep repeating to myself, “The game is better, the game is better, the game is better.” Yet I did take a few moments to stop and awe or cheer whenever a certain familiar monster appeared onscreen. Yes there are some creepy scenes and the eerie mood is well executed but sadly, that’s about it.

 

 

Next film review: Audition (1999)

~ by aliciapark on August 28, 2008.