Silent Hill [Blu-ray]
A towns terrible secret is about to reignite a 30 year old battle with the ultimate evil when a desperate mother comes to silent hill insearch of her missing daughter. Studio: Sony Pictures Home Ent Release Date: 02/24/2009 Starring: Radha Mitchell Sean Bean Run time: 125 minutes Rating: RA lot of movies can be described as “dripping with atmosphere,” but in the case of Silent Hill it’s literally true. Faithfully adapted from the Konami video games by French director Christophe Gans and Pulp Fiction cowriter Roger Avary (both self-confessed video game addicts), this dark and grisly horror-fest is nothing if not a triumph of cinematography and production design, consisting of a minimal and mostly incoherent plot propped up by a mysterious maze of sets that literally seep, drip, and ooze with the atmospheric evil of past misdeeds. Welcome to the abandoned and perpetually foggy ghost town of Silent Hill, where grey ash falls like snow, a devastating coal-mine fire still burns in a hellish underground, and demons of various shapes and sizes make your worst nightmares seem like a walk in the park. It’s here that distressed mother Rose (played by Pitch Black heroine Radha Mitchell) has taken her daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) in hopes of discovering the source of Sharon’s sleepwalking nightmares. What they find instead is a burned-out legacy of unspeakable evil, as Silent Hill’s dark secrets are revealed. As opposing denizens of Silent Hill’s meta-morphing underworld, Canadian actresses Alice Krige and Deborah Kara Unger seem to be the only ones who recognize this morbid mess as campy comedy; Gans (who established his visual flair with The Brotherhood of the Wolf) and Avary take it far too seriously, and the entire movie is utterly devoid of any emotional hooks or plot logic that would make us care about anything that happens. In crafting a loyal big-screen rendition of Silent Hill and its Playstation sequels, they’ve forgotten that movies play by a different and more demanding set of rules. As a result, they’ve made an impressive-looking but ultimately hollow horror film that only Silent Hill game-players can truly appreciate. –Jeff Shannon
User Ratings and Reviews
4 Stars Great Game Based Movie
Many of the negative reviews for this movie center on how it doesn’t make sense. If you have ever played the game you would already understand that. It’s not so much about understanding the story as it is about realizing, not to give anything away, the entire darkness surrounding Silent Hill is a living hell created by the tormented mind of a child and the evil that was done to her. Silent Hill is one of my favorite video game series and this movie is a great companion to Silent Hill 3 (PS2). I would venture the guess that if you enjoy the games you will enjoy this movie. I think you will like it even if you haven’t played but just enjoy horror movies in general.
4 Stars Visually Fantastic, but without the making-of featurettes
Not really sure WHY someone decided to leave the making-of featurettes off this release.. why leave ANYTHING OFF a BD release? Like there’s a danger of running out of room? Doesn’t make sense, unless they’re planning an inevitable special edition. Meh.
I’m taking off a star for that.
Otherwise, I love this movie, and it shines in BD format.
Director Christophe Gans has done an expert job distilling the visual tone of the original game… and those familiar with the games will recognize all of Akira Yamaoka’s evocative music, used here perfectly. The entire production, unlike other videogame to screen versions, was done with the insight and blessings of Konami, and if fans of the games take issue with the details of the story, they hopefully might realize this film is more for those who are new to the series.
This is more of a classic ghost story than a horror movie. Or like an especially dark episode of the Twilight Zone. Silent Hill is a town with a secret so terrible, it literally fell into purgatory.. and it and it’s inhabitants are hovering there, waiting… twisting in their own personal hells.
I really don’t want to spoil the story, this film I don’t think is really ABOUT story.. it’s a mood piece about a mother going to the edge of sanity to rescue her daughter. And there is plenty of iconic imagery here to enjoy along the way.. even at it’s most graphic, it has a surreal Hieronymus Bosch beauty to it.
4 Stars Good rendition of the game to movie!
This movie has grown on me over the years and has become one of my favorites in the realm of suspense and horror. The Blu-Ray edition helped take it to a new level with a much better improved sharpness and depth, though not as consistent as other Blu-Rays. It has some moments when it doesn’t have that ‘wow-factor’ that other Blu-Rays have, but again for this type of movie and the atmosphere it is great. I am glad I purchased it on Blu-Ray.
3 Stars From console game to movie
This movie did okay from game to movie but still lacks the overwhelming creepy feeling you get from the game. I think part of that comes from not being able to interact with the movie whereas the game is controlled by the player. Good imagery, decent acting, creepy score but lacks that certain something. The ending of the movie was a bit disappointing to me.
5 Stars Another Great Movie Made From Game DVD
I really don’t know why a lot of the supposed professional movie reviewers gave this movie such a bad grade if your a fan of the games or not it still was a great horrific movie. To those who have played Silent Hill 1 through 3 we all know the basics of the storyline and of course with Hollywood producers there are going to be some changes in the movie that differ from the game. This movie storyline does seem to follow-up with the first except instead of the father you have the mother coming to Silent Hill to try and help her adopted daughter remember her past that she has about Silent Hill. Again if your a fan and played the game I’m sure we all remembered the Pyramid Head guy from the game he to will also be in the movie as well as a few other recognizable creatures from Silent Hill. The actors they got to play in the movie were great no complaints for any of them and the special effects were spectacular too. There is a great deal of difference in the picture detail and audio between the standard dvd an the blu-ray dvd
but I feel it was mostly the audio a lot of background noises and other things you didn’t hear before with the standard dvd you hear excellently with the blu-ray dvd. So if your looking for a good horror movie or a good supernatural movie this one would be a good dvd for your library..
Filed under: Blue Ray Movie Reviews