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Movies / On DVD / Silent Hill
Silent Hill

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Silent Hill (2006)

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Reviews Counted:82

Fresh:25

Rotten:57

Average Rating:4.6/10

Consensus: Silent Hill is visually impressive, but as with many video game adaptations, it’s plagued by inane dialogue, a muddled plot, and an overlong runtime.

Rated: 15 [See Full Rating] for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language

Runtime: 2 hrs 5 mins

Genre: Horror/Suspense

Theatrical Release:21-04-2006

Synopsis: It's always been said that a video game cannot be successfully adapted into a film. With SILENT HILL, director Christophe Gans (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) and screenwriter Roger Avary (KILLING ZOE)... It's always been said that a video game cannot be successfully adapted into a film. With SILENT HILL, director Christophe Gans (BROTHERHOOD OF THE WOLF) and screenwriter Roger Avary (KILLING ZOE) have the benefit of the atmospheric and often terrifying game series of the same name. With a budget reportedly in excess of $50 million, they wisely eschew dense plot in favor of a kaleidoscopic nightmare--culled from several volumes of the game series--designed to give horror fans what they crave. Radha Mitchell (PITCH BLACK) stars as Rose Da Silva, a young mother whose adopted daughter Sharon speaks of the eponymous West Virginia mining town as she sleepwalks. Rose decides to take Sharon there in an attempt to discover why it haunts her dreams--but Silent Hill has been a ghost town since a series of underground coal fires in 1974, and the residents who stayed behind are the stuff of nightmares. SILENT HILL is notable for having a largely female cast (the male characters were reportedly added at the studio's behest), with Mitchell, Deborah Kara Unger, Alice Krige, and Laurie Holden in the principal roles. But the film's real star is production designer Carol Spier (known for her frequent work with David Cronenberg), whose work makes the deserted town into a true vision of hell. Utilizing an effective combination of CGI and latex makeup effects, several of the creatures on display may upset more sensitive viewers, as will some of the carnage, which is strong for an R rating. On the other hand, seasoned horror fans and gamers who have been waiting to see a joystick-free version of SILENT HILL are likely to come away feeling like they've just taken a nightmare vacation to the spookiest town in America. [More]

Starring: Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean, Deborah Unger

Starring: Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean, Deborah Unger, Tanya Allen, Kim Coates, Alice Krige, Jodelle Ferland

Director: Christophe Gans

Director: Christophe Gans
Producer: Roger Avary, Samuel Hadida, Don Carmody
Composer: Jeff Danna
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment

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Reviews for Silent Hill

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1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
Text View | 1 2 3 4 5 >> >|
Arrange By:Fresh | Rotten | Comments | Name | Source | Date
 
 

Silent Hill? Nonsenseville, more like.

Full Review Source: BBC | comment 4 Comments
05/06/06
Paul Arendt
Paul Arendt
BBC
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

although it is rarely if ever jump-out-of-your-seat scary, Silent Hill is an unremittingly creepy municipality of the mind where motherhood, mystery and madness have come home to stay.

Full Review Source: Channel 4 Film | comment Comment
06/15/07
Anton Bitel
Anton Bitel
Channel 4 Film
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

It's this unwavering fidelity to the source material that is also the film's biggest problem.

Full Review Source: Empire Magazine | comment Comment
04/21/06
James Dyer
James Dyer
Empire Magazine
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

French director Christophe Gans’s adaptation of the Silent Hill computer game is visually inspired and thematically ambitious, yet ultimately uninvolving.

Full Review Source: Time Out | comment Comment
05/06/06
Nigel Floyd
Nigel Floyd
Time Out
Top Critic Icon Top Critic
N/R

Click to read the article

Full Review Source: Observer [UK] | comment Comment
05/06/06
Peter Bradshaw
Peter Bradshaw
Observer [UK]

It’s based on a video game not Shakespeare. Enough said. Either stay away due to its provenance or enjoy, as I did.

Full Review Source: FilmsInReview.com | comment Comment
04/22/06
Victoria Alexander
Victoria Alexander
FilmsInReview.com

While Gans admittedly shows us some pretty spooky stuff, his energy begins to flag somewhere around the 60-minute mark.

Full Review Source: Film Journal International | comment Comment
07/13/06
Ethan Alter
Ethan Alter
Film Journal International

Director Christophe Gans charges, hell-bent, right over the plot and winds up with not much more than an oppressive 125-minute running time.

Full Review Source: Combustible Celluloid | comment Comment
09/08/06
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Jeffrey M. Anderson
Combustible Celluloid

Though Silent Hill's shoddy dialogue and incoherent story constantly irritate, several sights and scenes possess a certain surreal grandeur.

Full Review Source: Globe and Mail | comment Comment
04/24/06
Jason Anderson
Jason Anderson
Globe and Mail

Suggests the surreal, almost post-narrative horror movies of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and other directors who favor the emotional impact of bold, grotesque imagery over story logic.

Full Review Source: Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) | comment Comment
05/03/06
John Beifuss
John Beifuss
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN)

Witless, soulless and joyless.

Full Review Source: Hollywood Reporter | comment 1 Comment
04/21/06
Ray Bennett
Ray Bennett
Hollywood Reporter
Top Critic Icon Top Critic

The film is overlong, with too many unnecessary scenes (a lot of the movie seems like pointless running around), but it packs in a few scary moments and offers a nicely ambiguous conclusion.

Full Review Source: ReelViews | comment Comment
04/24/06
James Berardinelli
James Berardinelli
ReelViews

While this latest video game adaptation will most likely thrill its legions of fans with its graphic demonic depictions, the overblown plot deters the film from being a true fright fest.

Full Review Source: Hollywood.com | comment Comment
04/21/06
Kit Bowen
Kit Bowen
Hollywood.com

the closest you’ll get to actually having a nightmare in a movie theatre outside of a midnight screening of David Lynch’s Eraserhead.

Full Review Source: Filmcritic.com | comment Comment
08/21/06
Keith Breese
Keith Breese
Filmcritic.com

There is more blood, human remains and in your face kills in this film than we've seen on the screen in a looooong time.

Full Review Source: Dread Central | comment Comment
04/20/06
Johnny Butane
Johnny Butane
Dread Central

Radha Mitchell is the reason to sit through this overblown Grand Guignol entertainment from the director of the similarly overblown Brotherhood of the Wolf.

Full Review Source: rec.arts.movies.reviews | comment Comment
05/06/06
David N. Butterworth
David N. Butterworth
rec.arts.movies.reviews

Uwe Boll had nothing to do with this movie, but it has his general feeling of murkiness and poor plot structure.

Full Review Source: 7M Pictures | comment Comment
04/21/06
Kevin Carr
Kevin Carr
7M Pictures

about as terrifying as several pages of single-spaced programming code. Granted, that sort of thing can be daunting, but scary, not so much.

Full Review Source: Killer Movie Reviews | comment Comment
04/22/06
Andrea Chase
Andrea Chase
Killer Movie Reviews

This is an average movie, and not what Slient Hill, a standout, resonant game series, deserves.

Full Review Source: Window to the Movies | comment Comment
04/24/06
Jeffrey Chen
Jeffrey Chen
Window to the Movies

Striking visuals tell a story where words aren't necessary ... until that turning point, when dull dialogue, a complicated plot and cheesy graphics start to muddle things.

Full Review Source: Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) | comment Comment
04/22/06
Mark Collette
Mark Collette
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas)
 
 
1 - 20 (sorted by critic A-Z; UK critics are listed first)
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Latest News for Silent Hill

September 15, 2009: Silent Hill Sequel in the Works Opens in new window
The studio that produced the original hasn't confirmed involvement, but the producer and screenwriter of "Silent Hill" are reuniting for a sequel. More...

August 03, 2007: Hadida, Avary Set to Storm Castle Wolfenstein
It's been around since 1981 -- making it older than a number of our readers -- but the Wolfenstein series of games is still going strong, and after over five years in... More...

July 20, 2007: Silent Hill 2 Loses Director and Writer
If (like me) you were actually a fan of Christophe Gans' "Silent Hill," then this might come as disappointing news: Not only does it look like the director's no longer... More...

June 01, 2007: The Weekly Ketchup: Possible New "Terminator," "AVP 2" Update, "Iron Man" Tidbits, And More!
In this week's Ketchup, another European has surfaced as a possibile star for the third "Terminator" sequel, "Alien vs. Predator 2" gets a 'horrific'... More...

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