Silent Hill [Blu-ray]

People hate this movie, and I don't understand why. I played the first two games religiously. I unlocked all the different endings and played every scenario with the lights on. Those first Silent Hill games injected fresh blood into the horror game genre. The cornerstone horror game was Resident Evil at the time and with Silent Hill, it brought on a hole different kind of terrifying. Quiet, misty town and suddenly a klaxon starts blaring and the idealistic world morphs into a living nightmare. Mannequins come to life and start beating the crap out of you. Little creepy babies crawl around and try to kill you. The only way to tell something was close by that intended to kill you was a radio tied on a string around your neck. White static noise grows louder and stronger as danger lurks by. Your objective? Find your daughter and get the H-E-double hockey sticks out of Silent Hill alive. Sometimes you do and sometimes you don't. Depends on the scenario you want/need.The movie is very much like a hybrid between the first game and the second game. All the factors that brought together the games and made them terrifying were used in this movie. Select characters from the games were included. Even Pyramidhead makes an appearance with his giant machete sword. This movie is canon to the Silent Hill Universe. Bear in mind, I'm not talking about that abomination they released as a "sequel" to this movie. That movie was truly terrible in every sense of the word and was an affront to the Silent Hill creators. So why do people who played the game hate this movie? I get why people who didn't play the game may not understand why this tiny town is home to some seriously messed up occultists and a ripped dude with an obtuse triangle on his head and sexy, demented nurses trying to cut a w-itch.Confusing, sure. Annoying? Probably, because there is no real explanation as to why a place like Silent Hill exists on an ethereal plane such as that. Silent Hill the coal mining town, sure but not the one that flips back and forth. They did sort of phone in the explanation they gives. Something about demons. Demons? Blaming it on demons is some serious bush-league writing right there. It's easy to pin pretty much everything on demons. End of the world? Demons. Zombies? Demons. Donald Trump? Definitely demons. Jokes aside, this is a great movie. It played very well into the Silent Hill universe that terrorized me as a growing adolescent. It's well-worth a watch knowing it was based on a video game. Keeping that in mind, it helps alleviate what may be perceived as ridiculous or confusing.

I know nothing about the games or the lore that props them up. I watched this film a year or two after it was released. I'm not a horror buff by any means but I can easily say that there are visual moments from this film that simply cannot be unseen.Having no barometer, knowing nothing about the story line of the thing ... the myths and legends and monsters contained therein? I just sat down and watched it ...It's pretty brutal in a visceral regard, but also the smallest bit cerebral; it's not a thinker, be sure ... but one's mind is somewhat engaged throughout; there is a story here.But the visuals ... shiza the visuals; I so want to start dropping spoilers and I think I will so you have been warned. Read on after this at your own peril:[ SPOILERS BELOW ]... the part when that dude literally rips the skin off of that chick ... like pulling off a glove, so horrible ....... the part where that poor police woman was slowly and painstakingly roasted over a fire pit... the barbed wire, man ... the barbed wire .......My apologies but there's only a few films I've seen (and I've seen many) that have left such simple and disturbing images lodged like unshakable ticks in my brain ... I love occasionally returning for another view ...All of the above from a guy who only occasionally watches horror tripe.;-)

(Note: The first portion of this review was written regarding the original 2006 Blu-Ray release. An edit at the bottom will discuss the 2019 Shout Factory Collector's Edition.)In the world of video-game to film adaptations, there are sadly few success stories. "Mortal Kombat" usually comes to mind as the best example of a video-game done right on the big screen. And the most recent "Tomb Raider" film, while a bit shallow, is a fairly good representation of its source material.But the one video-game film that sharply divides audiences is director Christoph Gans' 2006 release "Silent Hill," based of course on the best-selling survival-horror franchise. While it was initially met with mixed reviews, it has garnered a strong cult-following in the ten-or-so years that have passed since its release. This is in no small part thanks to its wonderful visuals and keen use of atmosphere. And yet, despite this, there are still many that bemoan it as a failure. It's a film you either love or loathe, with no in-between.My thoughts? Well to me, the "Silent Hill" movie is a mixture of both good and bad. More specifically, as an adaptation it is a bit of a failure, simply because of how much it changes in the story and the characters. But as a stand-alone film that's more "inspired by" than "based on" the video-games? In that sense, I really enjoy the film. It's a movie clearly made by fans of the games, who are giving it their all. They just didn't quite understand how important the things they changed were to the fanbase.The film follows Rose de Silva, a mother desperate for answers. Her adopted daughter Sharon has been struggling with nightmarish visions of a town known as "Silent Hill." Deciding to nip the problem in the bud, Rose takes Sharon to the town to find out why it haunts her so... only to discover that it's a literal ghost-town. After an accident separates the two, Rose must go on the hunt to save her daughter... But she will soon learn the dreaded secrets of Silent Hill, and begin to encounter the strange and twisted creatures that roam its streets...The film's greatest strengths are for sure its wondrous direction and visuals. Aesthetically, this movie really nails the look and feeling of the games, and it does a good job building tension. The performances also work quite well, with no sore-thumb amongst the entire cast. Combined with some fun twists and turns and some genuinely effective scares, and you have a darned entertaining and often eerie excursion into the unknown.The problem is how much it changes from the source material. While I won't give out too many spoilers, those who are fans of the franchise may find themselves a bit miffed at the liberties Gans' and writer Roger Avery take with the story. If you're looking for the classic cult of the games, out to birth their dark god... you won't get that here. Instead, the film plays the terror as more the result of witchcraft and fanatical Christian cultists. It's a bit sad, as the film nails the look and feeling of the game so well, and with a rewrite or two could have perfectly captured the game's narrative. But Gans and Avery felt the need to rework the story for whatever reason.It comes down to this... if you want a perfect adaptation, you won't get that here. But if you want a fun, frightening film that shares similar visuals and themes with the games, you'll more than likely enjoy the "Silent Hill" film. It's not a perfect film, and it doesn't 100% work as an adaptation. But as a stand-alone movie? It's pretty good!As for the Blu-Ray. It looks and sounds fantastic, with great sharp detail. Unfortunately it lacks the in-depth making-of documentary from the DVD special edition. So you may wanna pick up the DVD in addition to the Blu-Ray if you're a completionist like me.2020 EDIT:I recently had the opportunity to upgrade my disc to the 2019 Shout Factory Collector's Edition. And in every way, it is a vast improvement over the prior 2006 Blu-Ray release. I especially have to commend them for the new 2K remaster, which looks fantastic. The image is sharper, crisper and more vibrant than ever before in a home-video release.And the special features really knock it out of the park. From a new audio commentary with cinematographer Dan Laustsen, to hours and hours worth of new in-depth interviews with the director and various other cast and crew members, to the inclusion of the delightful making-of feature from the original DVD... this set is filled to burst with great bonus content.I'm going ahead and bumping up my score to a perfect 5 out of 5 because of this delightful new edition. It's worth every penny. If you're a fan of this film, you owe it to yourself to pick up Shout Factory's Collector's Edition.

This is quite an old horror film but still has the creep factor for me. I haven't seen it for ages and it is still scary even with the siren going off warning young mother Rose that the horrors of silent hill are coming to life. Rose takes her daughter to Silent Hill one of America's fictional ghost towns to help her recover while the husband (played by Sean Bean) tried to track her down. There are some interesting characters and the actual setting of the town Silent Hill is enough to creep most of us. Some people might know it is an actual computer game which I did not know at the time I first watched this. Rhada Mitchell is convincing as the mother and some of the other characters are good. It has a strange ending which I wasn't what to make of at first but it's still a good horror.

As a fan of the game I really appreciated the way they kept that true spirit to the game, which is creepy to say the least. the music was strongly linked too, which was a character in itself. It is not as scary as the games (scary as hell) but I really enjoyed the visuals and the soundtrack is superb. The gender change was clever I thought. Its not the dad running around looking for his daughter, they switched parents, so the mother is on her own trying to figure out everything while trying to avoid being taken out by nasty twisted creatures. Radha is just so bad ass in this. I have always loved her but she really works it in this.What I am most happy with is that they put in the alley way scene at the start of the movie and actually did an ok job of it. In the game it is a gazillion times scarier but it brought back some good memories. Anyone who has played the first game will always mention that fist part when you hear the sirens go off. every hair stands up and then they just slam you will the worlds scariest soundtrack. Pure genius. Even the camera angles and directions are the same, it actually lifts up over her as she runs past and goes back down from behind her. I loved that.Speaking of the soundtrack, the tracks include songs from games 1-3 and they are all amazing. you can buy them for all games and bring you deeper into the world. the one thing about the games is the amount of emotion involved. All three games (in particular the 2nd one)has very sad and tragic stories. I am very happy they gave Lisa some screen time because her case actually made me very sad along with many gamers out there. That's how much you care about the characters.This movie is a fun ride, depending on what you call entertainment. It is a bit twisted and some parts are quite extreme but so is the game so if you don't mind images like nurses with no faces, children with twisted heads and screaming.....you know things like that, then there shouldn't be a problem. Ooh and the barbed wire part...holy moly that had me crossing my legs.This is still one of my favourite movies.....just for that one quotes..."To rid the world of this demon - WE MUST BURN THIS CHILD!" - "look at me....im burning"The extras are quite good, there is a long "making of" feature that shows you all the people that are in the costumes YES THEY ARE ALL ACTED OUT. It is amazing to think that each creature had its own "driver" and actor. I would absolutely recommend buying the dvd to see how this movie was made, especially the part with the nurses. Omg wow so cool. Pyramid head is in here and the "lying creatures" or armless man. SO SO CREEPY!The entire cast is amazing in this, every single one whether good or bad, they all just added to the whole movie. This movie has a very strong female leading cast. they are a bunch of power houses, every single one. Poor Chris did what he could haha.Absolutely fantastic movie.

Go buy this blu ray as it so faithful to the game looking back at it since I first seen it I enjoyed it more this time around appreciating the style and cinematography of the direction it was filmed, nothing amazing but video game adaptations are and have been extremely poor but I recommend this one just because I enjoyed it may a few stupid things I didn’t like but overall a creepy film plus the silent hill theme is there aswell go it or watch it

For this adoption of a computer game made into a film by the director Christopher Gans who again turned to the writer Rodger Avery who he previously worked with him on his 1995 "Crying Freeman" film, that film was from a manga magazine but this time instead of being a unaccredited writer for that film he wrote the screenplay for Silent Hill.Instead of changing the story from the game the action and gory scenes are played almost exactly as it does in the video game making the whole movie experience quite strange and surreal for anyone who hadn't played the game and scary for a whole load of other reasons, I found the film a little slow at the beginning but once the town of Silent Hill is found the pace picks up.The story is where a Mother searches for her lost child in the town of Silent Hill, this role is played by Radha Mitchell the town appears to be built on a permanently smouldering coal seam.The monsters that feature have been directly lifted from the game along with the backgrounds which gives the film another world atmosphere that is both dark and disturbing in equal measure, this is better than your average game to film adoption and has some genuine moments that make the viewer jump.This DVD is presented in 2:35.1 aspect and has a really well mixed 5.1 surround sound track, and has some interesting special features including a Making of documentary, the original trailer, photo gallery and U.K. T.V. spots.

This is a tricky one...Fans of the game are going to be divided over the slight liberties taken with the plot, but more than likely they should be extremely pleased to see that Silent Hill the movie is the most faithful game-to-film adaptation ever seen up to now. Whole passages of action and imagery and sometimes even camera angles have been faithfully reproduced on screen, so the atmosphere of the original game has been in part quite successfully recreated. More difficult though, is assessing the movie's success as a stand-alone product and not just a fan's wet dream of seeing Playstation graphics come to life. The biggest hurdle to overcome was actually decyphering the original confusing plot and turning it into a coherent screenplay. Well, just understanding the plot is hard enough, and as someone who has played the game and read up on a few plot explanations myself, I still can't relate a clear version of it to anyone else.But let's start with the basics. A couple find that their young daughter is beset by nightmares and sleepwalking, and she's constantly crying out the name "Silent Hill" during the more upsetting night-time episodes. So the mother, Rose, decides to cart the girl off to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to and trace the root cause behind it all. Now, there's a rather unnecessary sub-plot introduced here in which Rose's husband disagrees with her decision and then tries to follow her, which actually does the film a dis-service. Because, as we follow Rose's trip into a nightmare and fall under the spell of the subsequent horrific imagery, the film constantly snaps us out of it every 20 minutes or so to show us Sean Bean (the husband) trawling the internet from his comfortable living room, or driving around in his car or getting mixed up with less than helpful officers of the law. This really hurts the flow of the the film, although it may have been against the original plan as I have read that the whole husband idea was a late addition to the film after initial feedback pointed out there were no male characters in the film! They could have got round that one by keeping the main character as Harry Mason, rather than changing it from father to mother and thus creating the character of Rose.That's not to say I don't like Rose, and when the film is concentrating on her Silent Hill nightmare, its capable of being quite a dazzling horror film. Rose stumbles across many ghastly sights and locations, and is chased and attacked by twisted monsters such as the "body-bag" monsters and faceless nurses from Silent Hill 2, and the cockroaches and babies from Silent Hill 1. The locations are also brilliantly recreated, including the school and hospital, plus the industrial, metal clad "otherworld" version of the town that keeps popping up. I really wanted to see the amusement park too, but sadly this has been omitted. Anyway, if you concentrate hard enough you should just about be able to work out the film's explanation for the whole grisly nightmare, but be warned that they don't make it easy for you. How many versions of Alessa / Sharon are there supposed to be? What exactly happened in that terrific-looking but garbled flashback? As one who played the game, I thought I would be able to fill in any blanks myself, but I was dismayed to discover that the film script actually changed one of the core elements of the denoument...But the sad truth is that this is a bewildering experience for gamers and un-prepared cinemagoers alike. There's some powerful imagery here, like Alessa rising up out of the ground in her hospital bed and unleashing barbed wire on the terrified onlookers, but it would have helped the film if much more of it could be understood. Some of the shock sights like the disfigured nurse (Lisa Garland, it is assumed) and Pyramid Head (yay!!) are thrown in with very little explanation, which just jars the viewer still further. I had a lot of high hopes for this movie, and it came pretty close to satisfying them on some occasions - I was squirming in my seat with delight when I heard original music from the games playing up there on the screen. But it failed to fill me with the same horror that I experienced when playing the game, and I think it will also fail to manage it with new-comers to the story, which is a shame becasue there's a disturbing and unique tale in there somewhere. Maybe it was just too hard to crystallize into a motion picture. But they sure tried, and for that I am impressed.