Napalm sticks to kids

In my double movie weekend I was able to catch a rare gem. Normally video game adaptions of movies don't really seem to do to well, especially when the likes of Uwe Boll gets his grubby little paws on them. "Silent Hill" is a rare exception to the game to movie equals bad type of scenario.

Borrowing its ideas heavily from the series of games "Silent Hill", the plot outline is pretty much this. Rose and Christopher have an adopted daughter Sharon, she suffers from horrible nightmares, sleepwalking and blackouts yet she always seems to mention the place Silent Hill. Rose quietly takes Sharon with her one night to find the mysterious town of Silent Hill. After she has an accident while nearing the town and blacking out, she wakes up to find Sharon missing and begins her frantic search through the town to find her. The town of Silent Hill is truly it's own character in the film, with the bleak atmosphere of washed out grey and raining ash the whole place seems claustrophic even while running through the streets. When the air raid sirens all hell breaks loose, literally. The walls and landscapes twist, rot and rust. Metal seems to be everywhere, chain link fences and iron plates. Hideous wretched creatures shamble forth from no where to visually assault the viewer. One of the most memorable of these creatures is Pyramid Head (as he is known in the game). He drags behind him a massive sword that more appropriately resembles a chunk of flat iron with an edge. What he does to one victim is truly amazing and will not soon be forgotten by one such as myself. The movie follows Rose and her frantic search for her daughter and the evils she discovers about the town of Silent Hill.

This movie easily walks away with a five out of five. The story is pretty amazing in itself, just like the video game series of Silent Hill, you never really know what is going on or why it's happening. Although in the movie they do go a little farther to try to tie it up for you. Many of the characters are rather memorable and they don't get lost in the shuffle of all that goes on in the movie. There are some truly solid parts where the sense of dread and apprehention are palpable. And if none of these other reasons sway you to see this movie, just go and look at the visuals. Nuff said.