Rating of
1.5/4
"Silent Hill" by Yojimbo
Yojimbo - wrote on 03/31/12
A young girl seems to be traumatized by a childhood experience in a supposedly haunted town called Silent Hill, so her adopted mother takes her there to find the reason for her horrific nightmares. Silent Hill is based on a popular "survival horror" videogame in a similar vein to Resident Evil. The film is actually extremely faithful to the game, containing the same characters, plot elements and locations and recreates the gruesomely deformed creatures that inhabit it really well. Unfortunately, it's a bit TOO faithful. A videogame plot is merely an excuse to introduce you into the action and create atmosphere; otherwise it's pretty irrelevant. A film needs characterisation, narrative progression and logic to create drama; watching a woman explore darkened corridors, run away from monsters and follow a series of randomly littered clues cannot replace storytelling. The result is basically just like watching someone else play a fancy looking videogame, which is not exactly hugely entertaining. I would sincerely suggest playing the game instead.
