Movies - Silent Hill

[Scrivener]

It's late so I'm not going to write a huge dissertation. In short, I bloody LOVED it. The Cop lady got on my nerves quite a bit, but it's really my only complaint. She just came across as... artificial and out of place.

[MINOR SPOILER ALERT]

They also give her what amounts to a double-death, which is a storytelling no-no.

[END MINOR SPOILER ALERT]

Artistically everything is just fantastic. I was particularly impressed by the films careful use of sound - a vital aspect of filmaking that 99% of all movies (especially horror) ignore at their peril. The camerawork was excellent and well calculated - adding a subtle layer of emotional communication that really helps you understand what Rose is going through. The guys working on this really knew what they were doing and it's a breath of fresh air I wasn't expecting.

At about the 3/4 mark the film gets a little campy but it's short lived because the ending pays dividends. As horror films go it's not really scary - and it's not even disturbing so much as absolutely bizarre - especially when Rose slips into the dark dimension. The wierdness is spaced out for maximum effect, ensuring you don't get too used to the imagery and keeping it potent (a strategy also used in History of Violence to great effect).

Practical effects were used as much as possible during the filming to keep the monsters looking realistic - but there are just certain things that could only be done in CG. Most of it is quite good, even if it's not entirely undetectable... but there are a couple instances where it seems plain unfinished... especially the cop lady's first encounter. Hopefully that will get cleaned up for the DVD release (I can't wait!).

All in all, Silent Hill is an entertaining, sometimes uncomfortable, ultimately satisfying trip to hell.

9/10

SC - this is probably at the uppermost rungs of what you could handle... and that's only because of the very, very end, which is pretty insane.

[Guest $iLk]

I liked it... I recognized Alice Krige (Borg Queen from First Contact) as the religious lady.

Pretty messed up stuff at the end...

[Supreme Cmdr]

I liked it. Can you imagine a movie based on a game being good. And debuting at #1 at the BO? Aren't we all glad Uwe didn't get his mits on this?

I agree 100% with Scriv's assessment.

The end was gory and bizarre all at once. Even when I closed my eyes (I REFUSED to leave, thats how good I thought this movie was), I could still imagine (from the few fragments I caught prior to my eyes closing) wtf was going on. The end was just weird.

9/10