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Movie Review

Silent Hill

By Shamma M. Raghib

Horror Movie
Directed by Christophe Gans
Starring: Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates, Laurie Holden, Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean
RATING R, for strong horror violence and gore, disturbing images, and some language
Campus Rating: 6.5/10

Rose da Silva knew something was wrong with her daughter Sharon when she saw that the child was sick and sleepwalked in her dreams. Things got stirred up when the child screamed 'Silent Hill!' in her dreams. Her parents quickly Googled to see that Silent Hill was indeed a lonely ghost-town, the victim of an out-of control coal fire that is still burning beneath the streets! Considering all odds, Rose sneaks out with Sharon to the utter disappointment of the father Chris.

A car accident, the disappearance of Sharon after a car crash on the way to Silent Hill and a nosy cop in a motorbike (Laurie Holder) all combine in a chain reaction that leads Rose to the heart of darkness. Silent Hill has a peculiar sound effect- an air raid siren that precedes the coming of darkness that goes over the ghost town frequently.

The movie has incredible setup. The shades of gray makes your heart beat ten times faster as you see little movements in the corner of your TV screen and this moves you away from the real danger! In this town, anything and everything can happen without a proper explanation. With the arrival of gray darkness, the walls literally shred apart and reveal something beneath the decaying town. The darkness reveals that human-faced screaming roaches, twisted lava infants and something called 'Pyramid Head' in fact inhabit the ghost town. It is a brutal, dark and hideous place that caught me literally biting my nails!

At times the story line is weird… like it baffled me how the mother knows that there are secret clues here and there! I did not understand why the mother even took the child to a scary place and risked both of their lives in a car chase that ended in an obvious crash! Even with these little problems, the movie is surreal! The game-based movie has a tint of 'The Ring', a bit of 'The Never-ending Story' and a pinch of Dante's 'Inferno'. That being said, Silent Hill is the closest you will get to a nightmare in a movie theatre. Be sure to take your better halves if the film ever comes to Cineplex Bangladesh! If you don't sweat and cover your eyes in fear, then you should not watch horror flicks anymore!