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Silent Hill (2006)

Average user rating

2 reviews

Movie review

From Time Out London

French director Christophe Gans’s adaptation of the Silent Hill computer game is visually inspired and thematically ambitious, yet ultimately uninvolving. Distressed by her adopted daughter Sharon’s sleepwalking and talk of Silent Hill, her mother Rose (Radha Mitchell) drives her there. A former West Virginia mining community now poisoned by gases from an underground fire, it is also permeated by an ancient evil and peopled with disfigured demons, including a pyramid-headed giant, armless monsters and faceless nurses. Aided by motorcycle cop Cybil Bennett (Laurie Holden), Rose tries to unravel her daughter’s mysterious past. Gans’s fluid visuals make fine use of the striking set designs by Cronenberg collaborator Carol Spier and the fetishistic creature designs of Patrick Tatopoulos. Yet the nightmarish imagery, much of it reminiscent of ‘Jacob’s Ladder’ and ‘Hellraiser’, is more disturbing than frightening. Scriptwriter Roger Avary’s clumsy storytelling is also problematic, with confusing shifts between the haunted town’s different time/space dimensions.

Author: Nigel Floyd

Time Out London

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User reviews of this film

Danni said...

Posted on Mar 07 2010 03:04 My favorite horror movie, It was unlike anything else, stayed true to the first silent hill game, and I couldn't stop watching it.
I've seen this movie about 10 times now, and it never gets boring.
The storyline, and how it's acted out and the special effects are amazing.
I would highly recommend this.

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Richard Marks said...

Posted on Nov 27 2008 21:19 Excellent film; well crafted other-wordly feel; easy to get drawn into this disturbing time and place. Must see for anyone wanting to see a film unlike anything else ever made.

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