I decided to treat myself to Silent Hill again! When Silent Hill came out, I received free passes to see an advance, late night screening. It was April 20th, whether it was the film itself or the ‘celebrating’ the patrons had done; Silent Hill was viewed in awed silence from beginning to end. While not perfect, this film is gorgeous and I still get that slackjawed wonderment when I watch.
I’ll divulge here that I’ve never been brave enough to play more than an hour of the Silent Hill games alone. Although I’ve attempted to play every game in the series, I’ve always been terrified to wander out among the monsters armed with a cell phone and a wood plank. Thus, my ability to compare plot differences is suspect, at best. Silent Hill (the movie) does, however, do a pretty good job of conveying the foggy creepiness of the games. For the first dozen or so viewings, I’d get the cold tingles down my spine.
From the moment I bought the DVD, this one went into heavy rotation. Honestly, I think I watched it on repeat for a month. Even with hundreds of viewings, Silent Hill stands up. It continues to be beautiful, confusing and somewhat dazzling. I didn’t fully realize until this most recent go-round that I didn’t really understand Silent Hill. Being visually arresting goes quite a long way to cover for the ambiguous, cloudy plot. It’s particularly clear that the male characters were last minute additions and have no real function. Dark Alessa is omnipotent yet strangely limited in what she can do. This one isn’t old enough to qualify for my ‘Spoiler City’ rule so, without giving too much away; Dark Alessa can heal a mortal wound but not heal burns?
There is something to be said for Silent Hill’s ambiguous nature. Look around the internet a bit and it will become clear that Silent Hill is not the same film to any two people. Even fans of the game series can’t seem to come to a consensus about the film. Good or bad, there’s some charm to a Choose Your Own Adventure-style film. There’s enough wiggle room that it would be silly to say anyone’s interpretation is ‘wrong’. If you haven’t seen it yet, give it a try, I don’t think you’ll be disappointed. I wish the same could be said for Silent Hill: Revelations.