I've never played the video game that Silent Hill (2006) was based on, so didn't know any of the established elements going into the movie. The plot is essentially a mother (Radha Mitchell) searching for her adopted daughter (Jodelle Ferland) in the ghost town, Silent Hill. Silent Hill, evacuated because of a still burning coal fire seems to be anything but deserted. The mysterious town is gloomy with an ever falling snow of ash, periodically disrupted by a siren announcing unnatural periods of darkness which seem to invite all manner of disfigured human monstrosity to manifest. These aren't the only monsters as there is also a group of apocalyptic religious zealots who are convinced that the outside world has been destroyed, and still more secrets.
The plot is thin, essentially, like a video game in which a character explores a strange landscape and tries to make sense of all they encounter. This didn't really detract from the movie, as much as help build the weird atmosphere by not feeling compelled to explain everything. The visuals ranged from beautifully creepy to Hellraiser inspired haunted attraction. It would have been much stronger relying on more of the former and less of the latter. I found myself less involved with the characters and their fates than with what they might find around the next corner, and didn't really mind this, or find it off-putting, since I found myself intrigued enough by the world they inhabited.
Silent Hill is not a great, or particularly memorable, movie, nor will it please everybody, but it's worth a look.
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