SILENT HILL

Retooling video games for the big screen has heretofore been a relatively cynical exercise; given the critical mauling most of them receive. The primary objective is to exploit the gargantuan gaming market and drain it of every dollar it holds.
So it seems nothing will prevent filmmakers from kick-starting the ultimate cash-cow franchise and despite the deeply mediocre results of previous game-to-screen efforts Gallic filmmaker Christophe Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) has adapted the gaming hit Silent Hill, with a screenplay by Pulp Fiction co-scribe Roger Avary.

The film opens with Rose (Pitch Black's Radha Mitchell), desperate to determine the cause of her daughter Sharon’s (Jodelle Ferland) inexplicable night terrors. She is convinced that the answers lay in the subject of her daughters nightmares: the eponymous ghost town located in America’s south. Against husband Christopher’s (Sean Bean) better judgment, Rose sets out with her daughter to find some closure. Once there, Sharon strangely disappears and as Rose attempts to find her, local cop Cybil (Laurie Holden) comes to her aid and together the pair explore the mysterious town, finding themselves beset by the plethora of demonic beasts which populate it.

Gans’ striking visuals impress however as a coherent whole the film is a baffling mess. Those unfamiliar with the game will be utterly lost in the early stages as the film lurches from one bizarre scenario to the next with no evident context or narrative thrust. Despite Mitchell’s solid central performance, the supporting players are reduced to paper thin characterisations, their motivations never fully articulated. By the time the film actually deigns to provide some desperately needed plot exposition, we simply no longer care. At this point, the only joy to be siphoned from the confusion are some terrifically realised scenes of horror as well as a climax that showcases some interesting uses for barbed wire but on the whole, it’s a magnificent squandering of the collective talents involved.