SILENT HILL

(2006) Not a gamer myself, many a time would watch my friend Kye play Silent Hill, and right off found myself intrigued by the darkness of the game - not just literal darkness, but also the darkness of the story and characters, not the least of which were a bulky dude with what looked like a pyramid for a head, and a gaggle of nurses in bloodstained uniforms, whose faces ... well, with no faces technically. Gruesome stuff. All that and more can be found in the film version, which begins when Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) can no longer handle seeing her adopted daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) suffer with nightmares and sleepwalking jaunts, the young girl waking up screaming "Silent Hill!", so against the wishes of her husband (an under-utilized Sean Bean) grabs up Sharon and takes off in her SUV for the small town, determined to find answers. But when a female deputy (Laurie Holden) finds Rose's attitude suspicious and beings pursuing the mother and daughter, in her attempts to get away Rose crashes her vehicle ... and awakens the next morning virtually under the huge sign welcoming her to Silent Hill, still slumped behind the wheel, the passenger door wide open and Sharon nowhere to be seen, as a thick gray fog encompasses everything in sight. When Rose steps out of the car to what appears to be snowfall raining on the town, she quickly realizes it is ash ... and Rose's trip to an alternate universe and the creepy, too-quiet town known as Silent Hill that has seemed to swallow up her only child, has begun. First off, having finally watched this film uncut and all the way through, I am still bowled over by how much it actually looks like the game; the filmmakers took great care to create very nearly the same world, tense and quiet as death (well, until the horns begin to blow and the skies turn black ...) and sinister as all get-out. But beyond the visuals, the film is also quite creepy in its execution of story - the whys and whats of Sharon's connection to the town, and Rose's struggles to find her before the town itself (or its denizens) swallows either or both of them alive. Creepy and inventive, Silent Hill has its graphic moments, but also relies equally on atmosphere and building tension to bring you the chills. (rated R)  8/10 stars