Silent Hill (Movie)

Warning: Spoilers Throughout

Well, it was more spooky than scary. The translation from video game to screen was the best I've seen - they took all the right elements from the game, and a lot of the shots, camera angles, sets, etc were spot-on perfect.

On the other hand, a lot of the acting was atrocious. Boromir and the Borg Queen did a great job, but most everyone else was disposable. Rose and Cybil, who had most of the screentime, were particularly bad. The voice actors from the games would have done a better job. But then, bad acting is part of the standard horror movie experience.

And while I'm on the subject of horror movie cliches, Silent Hill had more examples of "why did she do that?" than any movie in recent memory. Characters made weird decisions throughout.

Also, it seemed to cater to the dumbest members of the audience. I'm not saying that the movie was dumb, I'm just saying that every time a slightly complicated plot point would come up, the director would hit you over the head with it until he was sure you got it. The characters would have the same line of dialogue six times in a row, or they would beat you to death with the fact that there were two dimensions.

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Okay, now the real spoilers:
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I thought they were particularly cruel to Cybil. We were already led to believe she was dead after she was beaten by the cultists, and then they show that she's alive just so they can graphically kill her again. After drawing out her death so long, I was sure she was going to get rescued, but they decided just to be cruel instead. I don't need to see every second of a face bubbling and burning off to have fun at a movie.

And I didn't care for the ending. Okay, the idea that she stays in the alternate universe was cool, it's just the way it was presented that got on my nerves. They drew it out for too long, and once again, they beat you over the head with the fact it was two worlds. You knew as soon as she entered the house that she was still in Silent Hill, just by the lighting. But they kept going back and forth, husband on couch (lit in bright sunlight), Rose with empty couch (lit in grey), husband, Rose, husband, Rose, husband, Rose, until the audience wants to cry out, "WE GET IT ALREADY!!!!"

Also, it seemed like the ending was setting it up for a sequel. This bothers me, because Silent Hill doesn't need that kind of setup. If they want to follow the "feel" of the video games (or comics, etc) then each movie should be it's own self-contained story with its own set of characters. The only common thread would be the spooky ghost town of Silent Hill.

Overall I liked it, but that doesn't mean I thought it was "good". There's a lot of "bad" movies I love.