Silent Hill (2006)

A woman goes in search for her daughter, within the confines of a strange, desolate town called Silent Hill. Based on the video game.

Director:

Christophe Gans

Writer:

Roger Avary

Stars:

Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Laurie Holden

8 nominations.

Cast

Cast overview, first billed only:
Radha Mitchell	...	Rose Da Silva
Sean Bean	...	Christopher Da Silva
Laurie Holden	...	Cybil Bennett
Deborah Kara Unger	...	Dahlia Gillespie
Kim Coates	...	Officer Thomas Gucci
Tanya Allen	...	Anna
Alice Krige	...	Christabella
Jodelle Ferland	...	Sharon / Alessa
Colleen Williams	...	Archivist
Ron Gabriel	...	Old Mechanic
Eve Crawford	...	Sister Margaret
Derek Ritschel	...	Young Police Officer
Amanda Hiebert	...	Gas Attendant
Nicky Guadagni	...	Distressed Woman
Maxine Dumont	...	Christabella's Aide

Storyline

After the continuous sleep walking episodes of Sharon, the young daughter of Rose Da Silva, the decision is made to take Sharon to the place only mentioned in her restless dreams- Silent Hill. However, the road to Silent Hill is anything but easy to access, and Rose creates a high speed chase between herself and a police officer only to end in a crash for them both. When she wakes up, Sharon has disappeared and Rose is at the entrance to the deserted, dream-like town of Silent Hill. As Rose begins the search for her daughter, she does not realize the terror and mystery surrounding her. Rose is led on a blind search for her beloved daughter, finding herself getting more and more entwined into disturbing past of Silent Hill.

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Plot Keywords:

silent hill | police officer | police | sleepwalking | dust mask | 

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Taglines:

Welcome to paradise..................

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Genres:

Horror | Mystery

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Motion Picture Rating (MPAA)

Rated R for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language

Details

Official Sites:

1000films - Metropolitan Filmexport [fr] Sony Pictures [us]

Country:

Canada France Japan USA

Language:

English

Release Date:

21 April 2006 (USA)

Also Known As:

Terror en Silent Hill

Filming Locations:

Canada

Box Office

Budget:

$50,000,000 (estimated)

Opening Weekend:

$572,504 (Australia) (1 September 2006)

Gross:

$1,353,049 (Australia) (15 September 2006)

Company Credits

Production Co:

Silent Hill DCP Inc., Davis-Films, Konami Corporation

Technical Specs

Runtime:

125 min

Sound Mix:

SDDS DTS Dolby Digital

Color:

Color

Aspect Ratio:

2.35 : 1

Did You Know?

Trivia

When Rose is arrested the camera pans behind the Jeep showing the Ohio license plate "C3J 46E5" with a county code sticker "75" in the bottom left corner indicating Shelby County, Ohio. The license plate is a custom plate as in that standard issue plates are formatted as 3 letters and 4 numbers (AAA 0000) and was registered after 2004 because Ohio license plates changed formats in 2004.

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Goofs

As the long-haired cult member is smothered by Alessa's barbed wire, the ladder that Sharon is supposed to be tied to is clearly visible and Sharon is not there.

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Quotes

[first lines]
Rose: Sharon! She's not here! Oh, god. Christopher, can you see anything? Sharon! Sharon!

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Crazy Credits

The first segment of the end credits plays out much like the end credits of the games.

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Connections

References The Last Man on Earth (1964)

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Soundtracks

"Letter - From the Lost Days (SHF2)"
Vocalist Mary Elizabeth McGlynn
Written and Performed by Akira YamaokaCourtesy of Konami
(plays on the car radio)

User Reviews

Great ideas, creepy atmosphere and eerie mood – but the rest is badly executed

I remember I sat down to play Silent Hill a couple of years ago because the mystery genre intrigued me and the game had an interesting look to it, so I started running through the abandoned town of 'Silent Hill' as the main player. I stopped playing very soon because, in truth, not a whole lot was happening. It was mostly an uncomfortable experience, eerily lit and hauntingly scored. I could feel an intense build-up in that foggy place but I never reached the culmination, so I gave up. OK, fine - I was scared.

Years later this film adaptation is bravely made by Christophe Gans and, even though I'd played less than ten minutes of the game, I immediately recognised the haunting visuals of the abandoned city. So 'well done' here is an understatement. It is superbly breathed new life into.

The plot has been glossed over slightly in a Hollywood fashion, but captures the essence of its characters and storyline - which is: as a last resort, a mother takes her ill daughter to a place she often mentions in her sleep - a place near where she was adopted from. But the hope the mother has for her daughter's recovery quickly shatters and turns into despair when the little girl vanishes in the misty mysterious old town.

I truly cannot credit the atmosphere of this film enough. Christophe Gans has successfully captured the eerie mood of Silent Hill and it is a nightmarish place - a fog-enshrouded hell that shifts between two modes: barren ashen daylight and a gruesome decaying state with fiery ember, demons and enhanced by chilling (and very sudden) sound effects. It's strangely fascinating, surreal and above all frightening.

The problems of Silent Hill (2006) are that there are not nearly enough build-ups. They should have been used not only to stay faithful to the video game upon which it was based but to wield tension in the right way and shock us when the build-up finally culminates. But here we are introduced to horrid creatures early on and often without much foreshadowing devices. Because they are presented to us so generously and clear-viewed, they are not that scary. At all. Some even manage a raised eyebrow, like the crawly CGI cripples.

In the end, I think this is quality horror entertainment and probably one of the better game-to-film adaptations, abut it is much too chaotic

• too many monsters and too often and too clearly to be frightening.

The mood and atmosphere are what is frightening and so it should have been used even more in Silent Hill, but instead the director feels pressured to introduce creatures to satisfy mainstream audiences' need for bloody gorefest and kinetic action.

7 out of 10