The Silent Hill video games that this film is based on took the 'survival horror' formula first seen in the Resident Evil games and twisted it into something much darker, more mature and yes, actually scary. The good news is that the film version of Silent Hill is even more of an improvement on the Resident Evil movies (and indeed any video game adaptation) than the respective games were. Not only is Silent Hill a good game adaptation but it is also a good movie in its own right.

The story wastes no time in getting the characters to the titular town with the heroine, Rose choosing in a somewhat peculiar decision to take her daughter who has been suffering from dangerous sleep walking episodes to the town whose name she keeps screaming on her unconscious little excursions. Before she gets there she also makes the curious move of speeding away from a cop who has pulled her over. Of course the cop gives chase and blah-de-blah-de-blah we end up in Silent Hill with the little girl missing and Rose handcuffed by the cop (Laurie Holden) who looks more like some fantasy leather fetishist's version of a policewoman rather than anything resembling any form of real life law-enforcement. This all sounds rather silly and in truth, it is but it is easily forgivable in light of how closely it follows the game's set up and the good stuff that is yet to come. Silent Hill, after all, is not about reality and the sooner the nightmare begins, the better.

A large part of the games were the striking visuals and fans will be relieved to know that these are have all been faithfully reproduced in live action and they look stunning. The town itself, shrouded in mist, ash drifting silently from the sky is the iconic Silent Hill image and is a suitably eerie and other-worldly setting. As Rose explores the town in search of her daughter she encounters various hideous creatures and these too are excellently realised. The variety of monsters is equally impressive, there are hordes of misshapen burnt child-like things, twisted twitching humanoid shapes which spit a corrosive black acid, and then there is the gaggle of corrupted demonic nurses who despite having a corpse-like palour and demented malformed faces are in possession of disquietingly sexy physiques. This is not to mention the fan-favourite Pyramid Head character, a demonic being who ressembles a large man wearing massive rusty metal pyramid on his head and carrying an absolutely fucking huge butcher's knife. He is a terrifyingly brutal and incomprehensible prescence who benefits from having very little screen time. The hell-like incarnation of the town that Pyramid Head inhabits, a rusted labyrinth of metal grilles and fences, is yet another triumph for the visual effects team.

The sound design for the film is a magnificent highlight. The clankings, draggings, and screamings of the 'dark' version of Silent Hill are wonderful and serve to enhance the atmosphere of the film enormously. The music is also very good and, borrowing from the game again, uses some very unusual serene piano pieces which really highlight the melancholic, dream-like nature of the story.

This film does walk a very precarious line between making reference to the games and being reliant on them. Fortunately, for the most part it succeeds in keeping its balance. There are lots of little nods, like the moment when Rose and her sexy new leather-clad friend have to hop between buildings through an upper-storey window, a sequence straight from the game. There are less successful references too however, such as when Rose must memorise a map in order to find a particular room. This detracts from the plot and is utterly irrelevant to anything else in the movie - a small scene which really should have been excised at the editing stage.

The script also suffers from being a little unevenly paced. Having spent a good portion of the film following Rose running around town, avoiding mosters and doing little else there is a sudden blast of exposition which explains the whole story in one flashback and monologue. It is clumsy and unwieldy though not as damaging as it really should be. The script also falls short occasionally with some dodgy dialogue but for the most part it does well at weaving a new story out of the complicated and often confusing backstory created by the games.

Silent Hill's greatest strength is in its steadfast refusal to be anything other than what it is. It is a truly distinct and individual film which has its own look, style and mythos. It does have its flaws though and hopefully these will be ironed out in time for the sequel which is sure to soon follow. For the time being however, Silent Hill is defintely a town worth visiting.

7/10

Review By Matt Compton