Silent Hill attempts to be a stylish modern day horror epic instead it just ends up being a confusing poorly lit waste of time.
Based on the hugely popular game franchise the film tells the tale of young girl who comes up missing in a haunted town and the strange and confusing things that happen to the mother and police officer attempting to find her.
While the film does have a certain visual flare it is unfortunately horribly lit with entire segments of the film being rendered unwatchable by the fact that you just cant see what the hell is going on. I cant believe that through all the test screenings and stuff that no one didnt speak up and say Hey, you cant see what the hell is going on. But apparently no one did.
There are some truly creepy segments of this film. The character of Pyramid head is awesome. He is only in the film a few short times but complete rules the screen when he is. Most of the film is spent running around streets and through buildings pretty much in the dark with things kind of randomly jumping out at you and although some of things are kind of nasty and creepy you only see them for a brief second and once again, they are lit badly and barely visible.
Much like the game I liked the premise for the storyline and the almost claustrophobic effect that the ever present fog that envelopes the town brings to the film and when that damn warning horn goes off, well its just creepy as hell. There are some pretty decent effects in the film particularly towards the end of the film when one of the characters gets roasted and plumps up like a Ball Park frank.
In the end though the films muddled storyline and the fore mentioned lack of being able to see what is going on leaves you feeling like you have seen something that could have been great but instead falls way short and ends with a CGI infused final chapter that leaves you more confused then when you started.
The disc does come with a set of six production diaries included that you need to check out because you can actually get a look at some of the awesome creatures that you cant see that well in the actual film. It is worth the price of the disc just to check out these diaries.
Silent Hill will be released on Aug. 22nd in both Widescreen and Full screen editions at an SRP of $28.95.
Pre-order Silent Hill on DVD at Amazon.com
