Silent Hill 
Against the wishes of her husband, Rose (Radha Mitchell) drives her adopted daughter, Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), to Silent Hill – the town Sharon calls out in her sleep. Once there, Rose crashes the car and wakes up to find the daughter missing. Adding to her problems is an thick ominous fog, weird creatures and a strange cult that is tied to the town’s dark past.
Christophe Gans’ adaptation of the uber-terrifying video game is possibly the most beautiful horror film ever made. It is a visual tour-de-force. The jaw-dropping set design by Carol Spire accompanied by Dan Lausten’s astonishing lighting and dizzying camerawork creates a vision unlike any other film. There are shots in this film that would have David Fincher fall to his knees and weep. Even the soundtrack is a work of art, with Gans lifting sound effects straight from the game, as well as Akira Yamaoka’s inimitable score.
Silent Hill is a unique and magnificent audio-visual experience. It’s just a shame that as a film, it is one marred by compromise.
Gans had originally hoped to adapt the game’s far superior sequel,
Silent Hill 2, and gone as far as securing Sean Bean to play James Sunderland. Unfortunately, whereas Gans previous films had been mostly European funded productions that allowed him a great deal of freedom,
Silent Hill was a US co-production. The American studio only agreed to pony up the financing if the first game was adapted, as this would pave the way for future follow-ups. This was the first of many trade-offs. While Gans wished to follow the ambiguous storytelling of the game, the studio and co-writer Roger Avary felt that there needed to be some exposition. And so, the role of the cult was expanded and a pointless subplot where Sean Bean and Kim Coates ran around the town was added. This created a run-stop-run-stop pace, where characters would interrupt scenes to quickly summarise the previous moments. It was a far cry from the Lucio Fulci-style narrative that Gans had intended.
But, even with all those flaws, I still love this film.
Silent Hill 1 – 4 are considered to be the pinnacles of horror gaming thanks largely to the intense atmosphere they create, and their dealings with taboo subjects like suicide, child rape, incest and religious fundamentalism. Whatever mistakes the film makes, it absolutely nails the atmosphere of the games, and isn’t afraid to explore the games’ themes either. It’s hard to believe that the film landed a 15 certificate despite the horrific moments of sexualised violence and child abuse.
Silent Hill is a failure, but it is my favourite type of failure. It is one where the filmmaker reached for the stars. He came tantalisingly close, but sadly, he was held back by the meddling of others. It is a beautiful flower that has been trod on. If anything though, Gans definitely gave the videogame adaptation a mighty leap forward.
