Silent Hill

—1. Overview
—2. Cast and Crew
—3. Photo Pages
—4. Trailers, Clips, DVDs, Books, Soundtrack
—5. Posters (Horror Films)
—6. Production Notes (pdf)
—7. Spiritual Connections
—8. Presentation Downloads

Curious of her daughters constant sleep walking and accompanying nightmares, Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) sets out on a mission to find the place mentioned during Sharon’s episodes. In route, a young girl steps into the road causing Rose’s Jeep to crash into the mountainside. Once Rose awakens she finds that her daughter, Sharon, is missing. In order to find Sharon, Rose must face the deepest and darkest of evils in the supposedly haunted city of Silent Hill. In the light, Rose is free to wonder the streets of Silent Hill, but when the darkness overcomes the city is full of undead monsters, demons, and villains. Meanwhile, outside of Silent Hill, Rose’s husband Christopher (Sean Bean) is on a desperate search to find his disappeared wife and daughter. Inside and outside of Silent Hill, a dark secret is hidden beneath the lies and deceit and only Rose can put the sordid pieces together.

By no means do I consider myself a “gamer,� although I do posses many traits that could classify me with the gaming community. The bottom line is that I absolutely stink at video games. I can only boast of four video games that I have beaten in my lifetime without the aid of cheat codes or “game genie� type assistance. However, about a year ago I rented a game called Silent Hill 2, oblivious to what I was getting myself into. I’m a fan of scary movies but scary video games were completely new to me. The game scared the pants off me, to say the least. Having experienced the video game, I have to boast the production of the film in that they completely recreated the feel of the video game. The progression of the plot mirrored the journey of the video game and yet kept the audience unawares.

The acting in a horror film can make or break the film and in this case, it made the film. I was impressed with the performance of Radha Mitchell, who carried the film. Laurie Holden who played Cybil Bennett, a femme fatale police officer in tight leather pants, shared this burden briefly. In some films of this same genre, the film is carried by the special effects but it was a relief to see a good, character driven horror film. While Radha and Laurie carry out the plot inside of Silent Hill, itself, Sean Bean’s character is involved in a plot outside of the city. I believe Sean Bean to be an underrated actor who always delivers a great performance. Also, I would love to hear him narrate some Discovery Channel specials; he’s got a great voice.

Two characters in this film brought such a great amount of impact to the movie: Jodelle Ferland, who played Rose’s daughter, Sharon, and Alice Krige, who played Christabella, the priestess and former school master of Silent Hill. Jodelle plays three parts in this film: Rose’s daughter, Sharon, the source of Silent Hill’s curse, Alessa Gillespie, and then a demon, or possibly, Satan. When Rose finally confronts “the demon� in the form of this little girl, Alessa, Rose inquires the name of the demon to which she replies, “I have many names.� Jodelle’s performance as the demon is absolutely, 100% creepy. I have to wonder if that was her delivering the lines or if she was overdubbed, because she was one well-spoken pre-teen. Alice Krige’s character, Christabella, was the character the audience loves to hate. She was the one who brought the curse upon Silent Hill by doing wrong to Alessa and her mother. Christabella is the leader of the small group of living people left in Silent Hill who are not welcoming to outsiders.

The direction and production of this film were great. There were two worlds in the film: outside of Silent Hill and inside. Once inside Silent Hill the weather was either dry with ashes falling from the sky or pitch black with rain. The two worlds were kept completely separate by the “ashy� look of Silent Hill. The two plots were defined by whether the audience saw crisp, vivid picture or ash-filled daylight.

Although some of the special effects looked a little corny at times (at one point the audience burst with laughter at the sight of one particular creature who walked with an awkward step) the film was altogether scary. The creatures of the Silent Hill, as in the video game, are terrifying. Roaches with human faces, scorched-undead-wailing children, zombie nurses, and a death-dealer wearing a huge triangular helmet and carrying a large sword similar to something out of Final Fantasy are amongst the hoard of evil in the film. There is not much blood or violence through the first two-thirds of the film, however the end of the film gets very gory. I think that was a good trick because the audience doesn’t really see that coming since there had been so little gore up to that point in the movie.

This film is full of Christian elements and overtones. In the second scene of the movie we see a billboard outside of a church building that reads, “Corinthians 6:2-3 Do you not know that the saints will judge the world? Do you not know that we will judge angels?� This billboard makes three appearances in the film, so it obviously had some significance. This verse can be found in 1 Corinthians and I found it odd that the sign did not specify which Corinthian letter the verse had come from. My guess is that it was just a creative decision. However, the subject of judgment is a constant theme in the film. While in a conversation with Christopher Da Silva, a police detective says, “There are three kinds of judgment: Man’s, God’s, and the Devil’s.�

Following clues that she hopes will lead to her daughter, Rose enters a school building. As she passes by the camera the shot focuses on the wall behind her. On the wall is painted a mural that quotes a verse from Psalms. I cannot remember the verse exactly, but it was somewhere around chapter 43 and it dealt, once again, with judgment.

Later in the film, Christabella and her congregation pray in unison a prayer from what sounded like Revelation 21. However, I could not pinpoint the exact Biblical reference.

I found the imagery interesting in that when the darkness would come and the undead attacked, the only safe place was the church atop of a hill. When Rose and Cybil join the group inside of the church they are accused of being witches and threatened to be killed. Christabella, learning of Rose’s situation, takes them and decides to help them. To prepare Rose for confronting “the demon,� Christabella asks one question: “Do you have faith?� Rose answers, “I love my daughter.� To which Christabella replies, “That’s not what I asked. Only your faith can save you.� It was so awesome to hear those words spoken in this film. I was thinking to myself, “Wow! That was a salvation message right there! How awesome.� To my dismay, that message was later dumbed down when Rose’s faith had nothing to do with the climax of the film and, in fact, the “faith� of Christabella and her menagerie is viewed as corrupt and evil. While telling Rose about what Christabella did to Alessa, the demon tells Rose to be careful what you use to battle evil because sooner or later evil will turn your own vices against you.

Christbella and her church are an example of over-zealous, judgmental Christians who think no one is worthy of salvation but themselves. However I was upset that amongst all this talk of good, evil, and judgment the names of God and Christ were never mentioned. Perhaps this was done to say that the church in this film was not necessarily a Christian church, however, the Bible references throughout the film alluded to such.

Although this film does not paint the brightest picture for Christianity’s sake, it does raise some interesting questions. The question, “Do you have faith?� could send an audience member home thinking about whether or not they have faith, or what they have faith in. The ending, which I dare not reveal, also raises a question of life after death. Both of these facts in the movie could be an easy opening to a discussion of salvation.

Overall, I give Silent Hill two thumbs and a big toe up. Waiting for video would not be a bad idea, but I definitely recommend the film to fans of the video game and horror genres.

— Overview