johnlinkmovies

I saw SILENT HILL on 1.2.09. Sort of wish it wasn’t the first movie I do up with my ranking system this year. I feel like I like this movie lots more than most, so my numbers might seem off to some.

Let me preface these rankings by saying that I mostly dislike the torture-porn horror movement. I’m also not at all a fan of the re-visitation of Japanese horror flicks. They all are about as derivative on screen as they were in conception.

So SILENT HILL seems like a movie I should hate. It’s neither of the above categories… it’s something worse… a video game movie. But I did enjoy the games (though I’m not a big video gamer) and thought I might half like the movie. Instead, I loved it.

SILENT HILL is basically about a woman who is trying to find her daughter in the ghost town Silent Hill. The town has a haunted, and disturbing past, which left few survivors. For unknown reasons, those who visit are sometimes transported into a parallel nightmare world, where monsters and demons are hungry for blood.

These rankings are reflective of how I felt about SILENT HILL (2006) after seeing it on 1/2/09. It was my third viewing of it.

NOTE: THIS RANKING UTILIZES THIS SITE’S ORIGINAL SYSTEMIC ARTICLE WRITING METHOD. THE METHOD BY WHICH THE RANKINGS WERE ARRIVED AT, HOWEVER, REMAINS THE SAME.

FILM

I like the visualizations in this movie. Christopher Gans keeps true to the overhead perspectives of the game, imitating moments from Silent Hill 2 and 3 shot for shot at times. The nightmare world feels truly like a nightmare, and the moments when Rose and her husband share the same space in different realities are among the film’s more subtle highlights.  The effects are a little weak at the end, but the monsters look mostly good throughout. SCORE: 7.

MOVIE

Ahhhh, I fuckin love this movie. It’s creepy and scary and fun. Watch with a jumpy person and it will make your night. Just don’t let them talk to much. You’ll miss too many plot points. It moves quickly, and doesn’t wait for its audience to catch up. SCORE: 9

ACTING

Admittedly, the low point. Sean Bean has been better in many things. Radha Mitchell is serviceable, but not exceptional. The acting in the climax is shoddy at moments. SCORE: 4

WRITING

Much more layered that you would expect from a video game movie. It holds your hand a little too much sometimes, but also lets you figure out some key moments for yourself. I love that it does not lay out the different realities in Silent Hill too literally. It leaves some interpretation for the viewer. Where are Rose and Sharon in the end? Purgatory? You tell me…

Sadly, there are clunky moments of dialogue which lead to some unintentional comedy. This may have been more in the editing than in the writing though, so I won’t hold it to the fire too much. SCORE: 6.

BONUS

I’ll give the music a bonus point. Holy shit, does it put you in the mood for a horror flick. Most of the music is lifted from the games, which serves the tone very well. BONUS: 1

TOTALS

FILM: 7; MOVIE: 9; ACTING: 4; WRITING: 6; BONUS: 1

POINTS: 27

FINAL SCORE: 6.75

~ by johnlink00 on January 4, 2009.

Posted in ~ S ~, ~~~ 2006 ~~~
Tags: horror