Silent Hill - Review

 Movie Review

 

Title                        : Silent Hill

Genre                      : Psychological horror, mystery

Country of origin    : United States

Written by               : Roger Avary, Christophe Gans, and Nicolas Boukhrief

Directed by             : Christophe Gans

Release Dates         : April 21, 2006

Silent Hill is a Canadian-French horror movie adapted from Konami’s survival horror video game Silent Hill series. It was released on April 21, 2006. The movie tells a story about a mother who wants to save her daughter from a mysterious town that has been infected with mysterious power.

Rose Da Silva (played by Radha Mitchell) and her husband, Christopher Da Silva (played by Sean Bean), adopted a girl whom they named Sharon (played by Jodelle Ferland). Lately, Sharon has been acting strange. She often sleepwalking while saying Silent Hill. Rose can’t stand it anymore, tries to find an answer by taking Sharon to Silent Hill, despite her husband’s disagreement.

When Rose takes Sharon to Silent Hill by car, she is pursued by a police officer, Cybil Bannet (played by Laurie Holden). When Cybil saw Sharon at a gas station, Sharon panics because she doesn’t want Cybil to see her drawings about Silent Hill. Cybil was feeling suspicious of Rose because she thinks that Rose is taking Sharon hostage, thus leading her to chase after Rose.

Upon entering Silent Hill, Rose sees a child standing in the middle of the road. Panicked, Rose drives her car to avoid the child, knocking herself unconscious. Later, when she regains her consciousness Sharon has gone missing. Rose looks at her surroundings. Silent Hill is now covered in fog with falling ashes.

Determined to find her daughter, Rose wanders the empty streets of Silent Hill. Suddenly, she hears the sound of a siren. In an instant, the town transformed into a distorted dark place with monsters roaming around the streets. Rose struggles to find a way to get to her daughter by running away from the disfigured monsters that chase after her.

Later, the town reverts back to its normal states with fog and ashes clouding the air. During her search, Rose meets a woman named Dahlia Gillespie (played by Deborah Kara Urger). Dahlia tells Rose that her daughter was abused by the townspeople. Dahlia took a glimpse of Sharon’s photo in Rose’s locket. According to Dahlia, Sharon resembles her daughter Alessa so much. Rose feeling afraid of Dahlia’s sudden change of behavior, runs back to her car. There, she meets Cybil who then arrests her. The both of them walk back to the entrance of the town. However, they find the streets has been cut off by a large fracture.

Together, Cybil and Rose see the dark side of Silent Hill. Pairing up, they try to find Sharon who is believed to be in town. Later, Rose and Cybil meet Anna who then shows them a safe place to protect themselves from the dark side of Silent Hill. The place turned out to be a local church. When they almost reach the church, suddenly there is a sound of a siren echoing. The three women run as fast as possible to get to the church. However, Anna is left behind. She has been caught by a monster with a huge pyramid head which pulls of her entire skin from her body, leaving her dead. Horrified, both Rose and Cybil enter the church quickly.

Inside, they find out that the church is occupied by a cult led by Christabella (played by Alice Krige). Rose tells her that she is trying to find her daughter, Sharon. Christabella then tells her about a “demon” that knows about Sharon’s whereabouts. Rose asks Christabella to get her to find the demon. Then, Christablla takes Rose and Cybil to a hospital in Silent Hill. There, Christabella sees a photo of Sharon. Just like what happened with Dahlia before, Christabella thinks that Sharon and Alessa are so much alike. Because of this, Rose and Cybil are branded as witches by her. Rose struggles to enter the elevator that may lead her to the “demon” (Alessa). Cybil, tries to help Rose, prevent Christabella and her cultist followers to get to Rose. Rose can get to the elevator with the sacrifice of Cybil.

During her travel to find Alessa inside the hospital, Rose meet a group of distorted nurses that wield dangerous object such as knives and crowbar. The distorted nurses react to the light from Rose’s flashlight. Rose goes past the nurses by turning off her flashlight. Then, she finally reach the room where Alessa is.

Inside the room, Rose meets dark Alessa. Dark Alessa tells the truth behind the twisted form of Silent Hill. Silent Hill used to be a normal town. There, a girl named Alessa was born. Alessa doesn’t have a father just like the other kid. She is branded as a witch by everyone in town. Because of this, she was burned alive. The cult claimed that it was done in order to purify the sin that had been manifested as Alessa. However, the plan failed. Alessa is alive, and the fire that was used to burn her burned the entire church instead. Later, Alessa was saved. Dahlia had called for help but she was too late. Alessa suffered burns all over her body. During her hospitalization, Alessa’s dark intentions incarnated itself into dark Alessa. Dark Alessa told Alessa that it is time for her to take revenge. Upon touching her hand, Alessa has spread the nightmare all over Silent Hill, turning the town into its twisted state full of monsters.

After telling the truth behind Alessa’s condition, dark Alessa asks Rose to help her and Alessa to take revenge on the cult. Rose agrees with her for the sake of Sharon. Rose decides that she will take dark Alessa within her. Together, they will give the cult what they deserve.

From watching this movie, there is a strong message behind it. For whatever reasons that we have, hurting innocent people is not the right thing to do. In addition, we may get what we deserve from the things that we have done in the past, whether it’s good or bad. So, we have to be careful on what we are going to do if we don’t want to experience the bad result of what we did in the past.

Overall, Silent Hill is a good movie. Just like typical horror movies, it will give you a creep when you watch it. Honestly, I don’t recommend this movie for those who are afraid of blood. However, I do recommend this movie to those who like a horror movie that may bring out your adrenaline. I hope everyone who read my review will find this movie interesting just like I do.