Silent Hill Review

I get into a lot of movies ahead of time due to a few contacts, so I thought I would start posting some reviews for you guys. Let me know if this is OK Oscar, and if everyone thinks this is a good idea.

Silent Hill

Let me start my saying that the previews for this movie have really got me excited to see it. I am so sick of crappy video game addaptions that I was hoping that a story line as rich as Silent Hill would translate well. I had just gotten done watching the "directors cut" of Doom at a friends this weekend, so I was a bit down on video game movies as Doom was spectacularly shitty.

Silent Hill is not at all what you think it will be. I will try very hard not to have any spoilers as this movie will really surprise a lot of people. Let me say first off that the characters are all very well developed and you have a vested interest in them from frame one. The movie really flows well and the set design is out of this world.

A good portion of the movie takes place in a old hospital that is about the creepiest set I have seen since the Texas Chainsaw basement. The movie wastes little time getting to Silent Hill and then proceeds to slowly tighten the noose of dread around the audience. I really felt at times that there was no way anyone would ever survive such a nightmare.

That brings me to the one caution I have for the casual viewer. This movie is breathtakingly violent and disturbing. Some of the scenes reminded my of a cross between The Cell and Hellraiser. There are quite a few genuinely horrifying images that just amazed me. I am a adament horror fan, so I have seen quite a few movies over the years. I don't think this should deter non gore fans as the horror is more atmospheric than the sado-masacistic gore of movies like Hostel. I have included a link to an image that Aintitcoolnews pulled off a site that seemed to have gone down. I should warn you that it is graphic in nature.

http://www.aintitcool.com/display.cgi?id=22491

Keep in mind that this is one of many disturbing images that serve to immerse you in the nightmare that Silent Hill has become. That's really as much as I can put without giving away what is a great plot that made me believe that a good director and set design can translate a video game into a good movie.

I give Silent Hill 4.5 out of 5 Slappys (Weeweeslap stars)

Silent Hill is directed by Christophe Gans and comes out on April 21st, 2006.