Radha Mitchell- Rose
Sean Bean- Christopher
Laurie Holden- Bennett
Jodelle Ferland- Sharon/ Alessa
Deborah Kara Unger- Dahlia
Kim Coates- Officer Thomas Gucci
Alice Krige- Christabella
Directed by Christopher Gans
Screenplay by Roger Avary, based on a story by Christopher Gans and Nicolas Boukhrief
Distributed by TriStar Pictures/ Sony Pictures Entertainment
Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language
Runtime- 127 minutes
Website: http://www.sonypictures.com/movie/silenthill/
"Silent Hill" is one of those movies that should succeed on all levels. Should. It has all of the elements of a great, or at least a very, very good horror flick and videogame adaptation. The actors (Radha Mitchell as Rose, the mother looking for her child; Jodelle Ferland as Sharon, the missing child; Laurie Holden as Bennett, the uber blonde bike cop in the wrong place at the wrong time; Sean Bean as Christopher the concerned father of Sharon and estranged husband of Rose), the director (Christopher Gans of "Brotherhood of the Wolf" fame), screenwriter (Geek god, Oscar winner, and the man responsible for the horrendous second commentary track on the recent "Day of the Dead" DVD, Roger Avary), and the general overall look of the flick (make-up, music, atmosphere) say that "Silent Hill" will rock, work, play, and, again, succeed. It has to. It must. How could it not?
Sad news. It almost works throughout. It almost succeeds.
The flick starts out with Rose, crazed and confused, because she doesn't know where her daughter Sharon is. Sharon has been prone to sleepwalking, and when she does sleepwalk she usually ends up in a weird place. Sharon somehow manages to get across the street from where they're staying (the road traffic jump scares here are quite good) and ends up near a giant waterfall. Rose and Christopher pursue their daughter and catch her before she falls into the water. While they try to wake her, Sharon screams out the words "Silent Hill." She's done it before. No one knows what it means or why she's doing it. The parents find out that "Silent Hill" is actually the name of a West Virginia coal town with a sad, perhaps nefarious past. Rose decides that the only way they can find out about Sharon's problems is if they go to the town and do some investigating. Maybe Sharon will remember something while walking the streets (or so that's the hope). Christopher doesn't think it's a good idea. The father wants to go back to the doctors, give them another shot at finding out what's wrong with their daughter. Some stuff happens, and Rose decides to just go for it and take Sharon to the town.
Silent Hill isn't on the map. It's there, sure, but no one seems to want to admit it. Rose gets to the town just before Silent Hill and asks for directions. No one will say where it is she has to go. Rose drives around, eventually finding a road sign stating that Silent Hill is just a few miles away. And then suddenly, a bike cop is on her tail. Rose pulls over. The cop, Bennett, wants to know why Rose is driving towards the fence that blocks access to Silent Hill. No one ever goes there, after all. There was a giant fire that destroyed the town, killed a whole bunch of people. Rose ignores Bennett and floors it through the fence and into the town. Bennett follows. While moving at a high rate of speed, Rose notices a shadowy figure shuffle out into the road. The figure, small thing that it is, looks like her daughter. This freaky occurrence causes Rose to slam on her brakes, lose control, and hit the guardrail.
There's a blackout (one of many to come). Rose wakes up. Sharon isn't in the truck anymore. Rose gets out of her truck and heads towards the town. Everything is covered in ashes. Everything. It's like the town stopped decades ago and everything that existed then is still in the same place it was. But it's all covered in ash. This is where things get freaky. Rose thinks she sees Sharon and goes into a nearby building. She descends a dark staircase, walks down a dark hallway (she uses a lighter to try to see what's ahead). Rose comes upon a dead body, butchered and crucified. This is obviously quite upsetting. She walks right up to the body and examines it. In the background, stalking up behind her, is a shuffling albino mutant midget with glowing orange eyes. This occurrence is even more upsetting as it's slowly revealed that there is more than one of the bizarre midgets. Rose doesn't know what to do (she tries to run, tries to fight back, tries to scream, but the only thing she can really do is stumble away, fall, and try to survive). It looks like it's over. The midgets are going to get her. And then suddenly, the midgets burn up and blow away. Another blackout.
Rose wakes up again. She's in a broken down bowling alley listening to Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire." She composes herself again, walks out of the building, and hits the street running. She runs and runs and runs. She stops. The road stops, replaced by a deep chasm. She turns around and meets a weird, long haired bag lady named Dahlia (Deborah Kara Unger). Dahlia communicates with Rose (although this reviewer still isn't sure what exactly she was saying). Stuff happens. Dahlia warns Rose about something, and then Rose runs off in the opposite direction. She gets to the other end of the street and encounters the same thing: a deep chasm. And then Bennett reappears and arrests her. Rose pleads her case, but Bennett doesn't listen. Bennett is taking Rose downtown.
Things get weird again.
An armless, faceless mutant thing shuffles out into the street and approaches Rose and Bennett. Bennett threatens to shoot the creature if it doesn't stop walking. The monster doesn't listen, shoots out some black acid saliva slime stuff (very cool sequence), frying Bennett's helmet and leather jacket, Bennett unloads a full clip into the creature, and Rose runs off. The creature finally dies, and Bennett goes in pursuit of Rose.
Basically, this is how the rest of the movie plays for them. Run, run, run, monster attack, weird stuff. And had the flick hung with this storyline and just this storyline we'd have a classic. But they had to bring Christopher into the flick full on. Christopher decides to pursue his wife and his daughter and goes on the same basic search. Christopher goes to the town next to Silent Hill and starts asking questions, just like his wife. He gets nowhere, goes riding around, and finds the road leading to the bridge. When he gets there he finds a bunch of cops (Kim Coates as Officer Thomas Gucci is the main one) looking for Bennett. Christopher pleads his case, and Gucci and his police team go into Silent Hill. But when they get to the town it doesn't look anything like the town Rose inhabits. There's no ash, no destruction, and no glowing eye albino midgets. Yeah, it's a ghost town, but the sun is shining. It isn't the scary place we all thought it was. What the heck is going on here? Where is the noon lunch whistle warning of the impending barrage of monsters? Where is the dread? Gas mask men running around carrying canaries? Again, what the heck is going on here?
And then there's the ending. No spoilers here, but this flick needs something a tad less ambiguous. Or, if it isn't meant to be ambiguous (and there is always that possibility) it shouldn't be so dang obtuse. A movie like this, a movie with this much cool stuff, needs to end with something memorable and worthwhile. There is absolutely no need for the "artist" ending it has. It's ridiculous. If it's meant to set up a sequel, even then, it's still ridiculous. This ridiculousness is what tarnishes the movie, turns its "greatness" possibilities into disappointment. Remember the ending of Ang Lee's "Hulk," with Nick Nolte turning into a bolt of energy and flying off into the sky for some reason? That ending makes more sense than this one.
Radha Mitchell does a decent job as the concerned mother. She's scared, she loves her daughter, and she's believable in her concern. When the monsters start showing up you want her to turn into Sigourney Weaver or Angelina Jolie and start kicking butt, but while she's resourceful enough to stay alive, she never does anything too weird (no double reverse spin kicks or lighting a cigarette and then throwing the still lit lighter on a puddle of gasoline so she can incinerate a monster). Laurie Holden is very good as the bike cop Bennett. This woman can kick butt. When she whips out the collapsible nightstick and starts swinging, watch the heck out. Her initial presence, sort of a female Tackleberry, is odd (it's that whole helmet thing) but when she's hit with the slime acid spit, it all gets better. It's too bad things end the way do for her (cool makeup, though). Jodelle Ferland as Sharon (and the ghostly Alessa) is creepy and disturbing, as she should be. You do feel for her when the bad stuff starts. Same goes for Deborah Kara Unger as Dahlia the weird beard bag lady. The creepiness factor shoots up big time when Christabella (Alice Krige), the town elder appears. Stilted, ominous dialogue, a constant stare, and a frilly blue dress abound. Even when it gets a tad woolybooly at the end, she manages to keep a straight face. Sean Bean, for all of his character's concern for his daughter, is ultimately wasted as the father. Even when he goes off on his quest to find out what the heck is going on it feels like a waste of time, an unwanted distraction. He's the T-Rex rampaging Los Angeles at the end of "Jurassic Park: The Lost World." If they wanted to set up a sequel with him as the main character, no problem. Here, Christopher is waste of time. And that stinks, because Sean Bean is a decent actor.
On the effects side, this flick is a homerun. The town is spooky as all hooha, the blood flies, the monsters are disturbing, and when "the darkness" shows up, watch out. And it looks like we're going to have a pretty nifty new monster action figure in the toy stores and comic book shops (the pyramid head monster with the giant knife. Makes Pinhead look like Drop Dead Fred). If only they could have attacked Sean Bean.
So should you go and see "Silent Hill?" This reviewer will say yes you should. It's disappointing at the end, but the effects, the atmosphere, the "waa waa" should be experienced in the dark of the theatre, with the speakers blaring and the big screen making everything look that much worse. It's art.
But it could have been better.
It should have been better.
The 411: “Silent Hill” is a decent enough horror flick right up until the end, when everything gets stupid. What’s wrong with a straight up flick, beginning to end, with a resolution that doesn’t feel like the moviemakers thought they should try to “transcend the genre” and do the artist thing? You’ll be okay just as long as you say “that can’t be the real ending” when you leave the theatre. Cool effects, though.
