Silent Hill - Directed by Christophe Gans
Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language.

With Silent Hill, director Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) tries to put an end to the crappy video game movie curse. As a vocal fan of the Silent Hill game franchise, Christophe has some pretty big shoes to fill.

In this very faithful adaptation, mother Rose (Radha Mitchell) takes daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) to the ghostly town of Silent Hill. It is a town with a daemonic past that harbors a dark secret at its burning core. After Sharon is captured by a fanatical cult, Rose must make a pact with evil to get her back.

Silent Hill is a gloriously loud, fantastically gory adventure into the dark areas of the human soul. In a presentation that feels refreshingly un-Hollywood, Silent Hill's greatest and most lasting appeal is in its visuals. Translating the game's very unique (if not terribly disturbing) art design to the big screen gives this horror tale a haunting appearance that sets it apart from other movies in the genre.

However, occasionally poor dialogue and equally sub-par delivery weighs Silent Hill down in the opening and middle acts. Child actress Jodelle Ferland played the role of the creepy little girl well, just not the emotionally distraught one. Likewise, the intimidating Laurie Holden was great when beating down a bunch of thugs with a collapsible baton, just not so much when her character was forced to talk.

The Bottom Line~

Christophe Gans' Silent Hill is a disturbing psychological thriller enhanced with some of the more shocking gore scenes in recent memory. The story, however, is plagued by poor dialogue and is confusingly ambiguous even for fans of the games. But for the visuals alone, this one is worth seeing on the big screen.

Memorable Moment~

A pyramid-headed daemon grabs a hold of the situation, having his way with a slow-moving puritan. Ouch, that's gotta hurt.

Rating: 4 / 5