I�m not a big fan of horror films. Unlike John and Oliver I just don�t get much of a rush from them, and as a genre its output is generally of a much lower quality than is the norm. With Silent Hill though I figured I might just take a chance. Even though I�d never played the game it is based upon I�d heard Richie rave about it and figured its heavy use of atmosphere, allied with a healthy spoonful of gore, would be an effective trip to terror town no matter how poor, or lazy, or stupid, the director and screenwriters are. Obviously I was wrong.
Silent Hill starts out badly and goes on from there. A young girl with a sleepwalking problem and a habit of also talking while asleep, of a place called Silent Hill no less, is taken by her desperate mother Rose (Mitchell) from her skeptical father and driven to find this mysterious place. On the outskirts of town they are pulled over by a female bike cop and in panic flee towards Silent Hill. Getting closer to the town they are enveloped by a dark fog, and when a figure stumbles into the path of the car Rose swerves and is knocked unconscious. Waking she finds her daughter missing and begins her desperate search of the deserted and creepy Silent Hill.
At this point the film could have redeemed itself. The set-up to get them there in the first place was rubbish, but once the child disappears it becomes as much a mystery (ala Flightplan) as a horror. This could easily have taken Silent Hill up a notch or two on the horror rung and kept the audience interested when the gore starts to bore. Sadly this never happens, as Mitchell is simply kept moving from one dull, dark location to the next, pursued on and off by a variety of poorly-realized creatures (the first lot are especially lame). The only saving grace in that regard is Pyramid Head, but the original game designers came up with him first and he�s not any more impressive than your typical run-of-the-mill slasher guy. He just has a cool pyramid on his head.
A sideplot, and one only added at the producers request, involved Sean Bean�s husband investigating Silent Hill to find his missing wife. Other than making it clear to all of us that Silent Hill itself is split into several realities (the real and underworld), and that they can exist at the same time and place, his role goes nowhere. He doesn�t find her, he doesn�t even come close, and there�s barely any new info given out during his time on the screen. It�s said he was only added to have a male character in the film, and the lack of thought over what he, and by extension the film, should achieve is clearly evident. |
