Silent Hill

 (2006) ****

When her adopted daughter Sharon is continually plagued by nightmares of the town, Rose takes her to Silent Hill to find out why. Rose crashes her car at the town line to avoid hitting a figure in the road and is knocked unconscious. She awakens to find Sharon has gone missing so Rose must search the abandoned town full of unspeakable horrors to find her.

I love this film and had to rewatch it in preparation for Silent Hill: Revelation, which I am excited and apprehensive about. I really wish that Christophe Gans who directed this film had directed the second then I would have more faith because he really gets it. Not that I wish to condemn Michael J. Bassett who may very well live up to his predecessor, I will find out very soon. My opinion of Silent Hill could be biased since I played the games and knew the place well before the film broke ground. Christophe  Gans paid specific attention to the little things that only a gamer would appreciate as well as making the film scary enough for mass appeal. It’s the little details like Rose dropping a tool after using it so she can’t use it again, this is right out of the game. When I would settle in to play Silent Hill I became totally immersed in that world. When Rose first exits her car in the ash gently snow falling all around her it brought me right back into that world. As a rule I am not a fan of films made from video games, they often play out as campy or disjointed. The only two that I can think of at this moment that really got it right were Silent Hill and Resident Evil. As I think of it the same goes for video games made from films, most of the time they don’t work very well either. If you want a better in depth on this film I will refer you to these reviews by Jordan, Octo and 50P.