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 Hell

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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

In the room where Rose encounters Alessa scribbling furiously on a desk, the cult symbol from the games can be seen on the wall behind her, just before Rose runs across the catwalk.

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Goofs

When Christopher breaks into the Brahams archives offices at about 0:59:45, the clearly visible orange anodized end caps and typical wiring on the fluorescent tubes identify them as Kino-Flo lights, a specialist type manufactured solely for the film industry. The arrangement is quite different to a conventional domestic lighting system. Orange end-caps indicate a tungsten-balanced tube; blue would be daylight.

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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

Referenced in The Nostalgia Critic: To Boldly Flee: Part VIII (2012)

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Soundtracks

"Lovin' You"
(uncredited)
Written by Anna Tsuchiya, Joey Carbone, Anthony Mazza and Ron Harris
Performed by Anna Tsuchiya
Courtesy of Avex Entertainment
(plays first during credit roll in Japanese release)

User Reviews

Horror? No. Psychological triller? Yes. Oh yes.

Horror? Try psychological triller and you might be closer to understanding why is it that I found Silent Hill such an amazing piece of work.

With that in mind, the reason why Silent Hill worked for me was because it had a story to tell. Granted some of us are already familiar with the storyline and are frustrated with the pace of the film. Others may gripe at how much of a disappointment the movie was because of the lack of certain monsters, the lack of development in the characters they liked best, the lack of answers to puzzling questions, the fact that the storyline was too convoluted and confusing et cetera et cetera.

Yet, the heart of the film lies mainly on one simple idea - Silent Hill is first and foremost, a physical manifestation of a child's mind that is shattered, tainted and shackled by an abuse so terrible that one is unable to articulate it into words. (Ever wondered why Silent Hill is called "Silent" Hill in the first place? If you think along the lines of language being an ineffective medium in the expression of "truth", *cha-ching*! You're right!)

In this light, I cannot understand why so many people had a problem with the pacing of the movie because in the first place, such apparent "meandering" is necessary to the entire film. And why not? The inability for any one character to get to the heart of the problem is prevalent during the entire narrative framework of the film *No one* character dared to talk about it and those who sought the truth are met with an air of secrecy. The "truth" therefore, is oppressed by a *complete breakdown of words* and all that is left is to "show" and let the people "experience" what had happened themselves. (Such is the path that Rose must take because she "chose" to seek out the truth surrounding her daughter's psychological problem and since language fails in Silent Hill can the "truth" cannot be communicated through "words" it must be "shown".)

The same rule applies to Christopher. He tried to uncover the "truth" but was thwarted by people who are reluctant to talk about the town. Everyone who had prior knowledge of the town was unable or unwilling to describe what happened because they 1) are suppressing their guilt 2) are afraid of opening up a can of worms that is best left forgotten. Even Rose and Cybil are faced with a group of people who were so adamant into seeing things in their point of view that they have "blinded" themselves to the atrocity of what has taken place in Silent Hill. (Notice how most of the monsters i.e. Nurses, Pyramid Head, Janitor, are in a state of blindness? Coincidence? I think not.)

And still at the heart of all THAT, a child's horrifying story is desperately waiting to be told. The meanderings are not meant to be a flaw in the plot, in my opinion, but an attempt to show how the outside world tried to suppress and confine the deepest desire of a little girl

• the desire for "truth" to be known. Therefore the "truth" cannot be

"told" because words will ultimately fail in Silent Hill. It must be "shown". That was why Rose had to go through all the various stages of her journey to seek out the "truth". That was why it was crucial the narrative had to be mapped out thus and it reached its summit in the dramatic finale where the fanatics were reluctant to accept the "spoken truth" but was forced to accept it nevertheless through a physical manifestation of "truth" - the manifestation of their past deeds.

Hence in my opinion, this film isn't about monsters, busty characters, bloodshed, storyline or whatever it is that one normally looks out for in a film of this genre. This film is about a little girl's story that is struggling to surface in a world dominated by a viciousness she could not comprehend but fall victim to nevertheless. Think about it. To be thoroughly abused in a world that you never fit in and cannot comprehend. And later to want to seek vengeance for the wrongs that had been done to you but are unable to articulate it into words because there is no one out there who understands or listens to you. The intense hatred due to the complete lack of control that one is forced into, the desire to achieve "satisfaction" at any cost and the obsession with "vengence" - now that's a scary thought for a little girl of 10 to have, wouldn't you say?

So was it good? Heck yeah. And I'm going for another round of this when my next paycheque comes in.