An Average Movie-Goer’s Review
Spoilers! If you don’t want spoilers – check out the Spoiler-Free posts
I love horror movies and if I’m going to watch them anyway, why not write an entertaining/funny review from the POV of an average movie-goer and not a professional critic.
Today we’re looking at 2006’s Silent Hill, a loose adaptation of the Silent Hill video game series.
Rose Da Silva (played by Radha Mitchell) must traverse the ghost town known as Silent Hill in order to find her lost daughter, Sharon, after they crash on it’s outskirts. She soon realizes the town harbors multiple deadly secrets and races to her daughter before a murderous cult gets to her first.
Quick Review:
If driving in the fog without your lights on is bad and driving on a clear day is good, then this movie is like driving at night with random moments of intense fog but your lights work really well. What does that mean? I’m not sure.
Is Silent Hill Scary?
Silent Hill has some pretty scary monster designs and a few jump scares but you never really feel terrified watching the movie. You’re more scared/worried for the main character than feeling scared by the movie.
It’s a good spooky time movie and will leave those who fear monsters with some nightmares but the pacing of the story may remove some of that terror along the way and you won’t leave fearing the dark.
Detailed Plot:
The movie opens with parents Rose and Chris Da Silva (played by Radha Mitchell and Sean Bean) looking for their adopted daughter Sharon (played by Jodelle Ferland) in the middle of the night. Rose finds Sharon having slept walked to the edge of a hill and manages to save her just in time before she falls.
As she tries to wake her up, Sharon continuously yells “I want to go home” and “Silent Hill”. Apparently, this isn’t the first time this has happened and yet there aren’t multiple bolt locks on the door.
In the next scene, Rose tells Sharon they’re going to visit Silent Hill without Chris to help figure out why she continuously yells about it. Meanwhile, Chris is attempting to contact Rose who is ignoring his calls, and looks at the computer’s history finding Rose has been researching Silent Hill, which is a ghost town.
This makes you wonder why the hell anyone would willingly visit a ghost town that their child is continuously yelling about while sleepwalking, yet here we are.
Already on their haunted ghost trip, Rose and Sharon pull up to a gas station where she finally gets in touch with Christopher. They argue about her trip but Rose retorts that the adoption agency told them Sharon came from West Virginia and since Silent Hill is there it makes sense to go.
It doesn’t.
A nosy police officer Cybil Bennett (played by Laurie Holden) also takes down Rose’s license plates because plot and she was acting a bit weird. Further down the road, Cybil pulls them over for reasons unknown. As Cybil approaches the car, Rose sees the sign for Silent Hill and takes off speeding.
Getting closer to Silent Hill, the car’s radio goes ballistic causing Sharon to scream. Distracted with trying to fix it, Rose almost hits a mysterious shadowy woman on the road and crashes the car, knocking herself out.
She wakes up right outside Silent Hill with Sharon missing and apparently having missed a giant snowstorm. Walking through it’s revealed the snow is actually ash from a coal fire that’s been burning under the town for decades.
In the distance a girl who appears to be Sharon runs past, making Rose give chase and leading her deeper into the town. Following her down some steps, sirens begin to wail as the sky darkens.
What Rose doesn’t know is the town of Silent Hill is essentially part of three different parallel layers of reality. There’s the normal reality where it’s an abandoned ghost town, the fog layer which is where she and Sharon have found themselves trapped in, and a final hell-like layer that temporarily and randomly bleeds into the fog layer bringing about monsters.
Now in the hell layer, her way lit only by a flashlight, Rose continues following brief glimpses of the girl until she comes to a disemboweled man in a gas mask tied to a chain link fence. She screams which alerts several small squealing and burned child monsters to her position.
After a screaming match with one, they tear away her jacket and she is just barely able to escape them until she falls and hits her head. Crawling away in a dilapidated restaurant the monsters inexplicably begin to burn and disappear as Rose passes out.
She wakes up to find the town back to its foggy brightness and the chain fence now a wooden fence. She runs through the town to the main road but finds it now leads straight off of a cliff.
From behind a woman in tattered clothing, later revealed to be Dahlia Gillespie, appears telling Rose only the “Dark one” can open the door to leave the town. Instead of freaking out, or questioning Dahlia on what the actual fuck is going on, Rose tells her of her missing daughter.
Dahlia responds by telling her “they” hurt and took her own daughter, Alessa. Rose ignores this not even asking who “they” are and shows Dahlia a picture of Sharon in her locket. Dahlia says Sharon is hers and reaches out for the locket. The two struggle before Rose breaks free and runs off.
We cut to a scene with Chris arriving at the gas station and asking for directions to Silent Hill. It’s part of this whole subplot with Christopher trying to find Rose and Sharon by going to Silent Hill and meeting a cop but honestly, it doesn’t really add anything to the movie except to remind us he exists.
We cut back to Rose now arriving at the car, finding a drawing of a school that gives her the next destination. Before she heads there she attempts to call Chris and leaves him a voicemail where she calls him “Christopher” so that seems overly formal.
Her voicemail is interrupted when Officer Cybil shows up pulling a gun on Rose and arresting her. Rose tries to tell her there’s something weird going on in the town but Cybil responds with “nu-uh you’re weird” and implies Rose kidnapped Sharon for all she knows.
Unable to get a response on her radio, Cybil tells her they’ll have to walk back to the next town but, just like the main road in Silent Hill, the bridge leading out is completely gone.
It’s then time for our reminder that Chris is still alive as we see him get to the bridge just outside of Silent Hill in the normal reality. A police officer there tells him the bridge is closed but when Chris tells him his wife drove through here in a jeep, the officer calls over Detective Thomas Gucci (played by Kim Coates).
Detective Gucci tells him they found the jeep but there was no one in it or anywhere near it. The two then make their way to Silent Hill to look for Rose and Sharon.
Speaking of which we cut back to Rose and Cybil who have changed plans and are now heading to a fire lookout tower where they might find a radio but they’re interrupted by this thing.
Cybil pulls out her gun but before she can shoot it spits out black acid forcing her to remove her helmet and jacket. Cybil then starts shooting and Rose runs off back into Silent Hill.
Using a map of a bus stop, Rose is able to find the school where she believes Sharon ran off to. Searching the building she almost bumps into others in gas masks and carrying canaries but she manages to avoid them by running into a classroom. There, she somehow opens the one desk that belonged to Alessa decades ago and sees a girl run past in the distance.
Rose follows her running up several flights of stairs and arriving in a bathroom where the girl has vanished. But, in one of the stalls is the dead twisted body of a janitor named Colin.
Writing on the wall points her to pull something out of his mouth which she does with little hesitation almost as if she wanted there to be something. Reaching in she pulls out a piece of ceramic tile with the word hotel on it, making it her next destination.
As she leaves the bathroom, the others in gas masks spot her and she runs back into the bathroom locking the door. Moments later they start banging attempting to break in but then run off when the canary they’re carrying starts to go nuts.
Sirens start wailing meaning we’re transitioning to the hell reality, the walls start to peel off the fog layer revealing the hell underneath. Unfortunately, this also calls on the monsters. If there’s one thing this movie does right, it’s the transition.
It then goes wrong for Rose when the bathroom stall opens up and the reanimated body of Colin crawls out. Rose runs out of the bathroom avoiding the monster and, running through the school, she now sees it littered with hanging bodies.
She sees the others in gas masks being attacked and devoured by some piranha-roach monsters that are crawling all around the walls. She runs the opposite way avoiding them and collapses right outside the school doors.
But then this absolute unit called Pyramid Head walks out with a big ass sword:
In between all of this were a few scenes of Chris and Detective Gucci wandering around normal reality Silent Hill and not finding Rose but they weren’t important.
Anyway, Rose runs through a different part of the school and collapses crying from the terrifying bullshit going on when the piranha-roach monsters start flooding into the room. She’s saved just in time by Officer Cybil who pulls her into a dead-end boiler room with an iron door. Together they seal the door with an iron pipe, keeping the piranha-roaches out.
They then hear a loud metallic scraping and Rose realizes it belongs to Pyramid Head who has found them.
The two are able to avoid the sword busting through the door with Cybil firing off a few shots at the monster. But the opening created by the sword allows piranha-roaches to start flowing in. Just as they start climbing up their legs they fall off and disappear as Silent Hill transitions back to the fog reality.
After a pep talk from Rose, they both agree to head to the hotel in hopes of finding Sharon. There’s a quick scene of Chris leaving Silent Hill but anyway, Rose and Cybil reach the hotel where they’re just in time to stop a woman named Anna from attacking Dahlia.
Anna explains she’s part of a church group that shunned and cast out Dahlia long ago as a sinner. Cybil finds a drawing similar to Sharon’s drawing in the key storage box for room 111. The two along with Anna head down the hall but room 111 doesn’t appear to exist. Rose, noticing a large painting that matches Sharon’s drawing, cuts through the large painting to find the hidden room 111.
Entering it, Rose spots the girl she’s been chasing and follows her into a burned-down room, separating from the group. Reaching the girl, she reveals herself to be Alessa who looks exactly like Sharon. Alessa stretches out her arms and engulfs herself in flames, showing no pain whatsoever.
The fire dissipates and Alessa vanishes just as Cybil and Anna find Rose. Sirens start to wail forcing them all to start running toward the church where Anna says they will be safe.
As they approach, they see dozens of others also running there. Dahlia appears and is attacked by Anna but Rose stops her. She then tells Dahlia she saw her daughter and attempts to tell her more but the environment transitions to the hell-reality with Pyramid Head manifesting behind Anna.
Pyramid Head grabs Anna with one hand and then rips off her clothes AND HER ENTIRE SKIN with the other hand.
Rose and Cybil dive into the church with the other church members closing the door behind them. At first, they attempt to attack them both with one ripping off the locket Rose carries of Sharon, but Cybil fires a shot into the air causing them all to back off.
The leader of the cult, Christabella (played by Alice Krieg) allows them to stay, telling the rest of the group that Anna strayed too far from the church and was punished.
Ugh, we then cut to Chris who since leaving Silent Hill has been busy. Attempting to find out more about the fire in Silent Hill, he broke into the archives to get police records, which led him to find a picture of Alessa looking exactly like Sharon.
This then led him to the orphanage where they adopted Sharon to find out more but the nun there refuses to give more info and has called Detective Gucci.
Gucci arrives and arrests Chris telling him he could lock him up or he can go home. Gucci tells him a cult burned Alessa to death on the day of the fire thirty years ago believing her to be a witch. Not able to do anything, Chris heads home.
What did he accomplish? Nothing.
We cut back to Cybil and Rose speaking with Christabella who tells them about the cult church group who believe their faith keeps the darkness away. Rose ain’t having any of that bullshit and tells her she only cares about finding Sharon.
Christabella tells her only the demon would know where she is but no one has ever returned from the demon’s domain in the basement of the hospital. Nonetheless, she agrees to have her men take her halfway.
On their way out, Christabella sees the locket dropped by Rose and holds onto it. I guess theft isn’t against her church’s teachings. The group consisting of Rose, Cybil, Christabella, and four of her men arrive at the hospital.
Christabella shows Rose a map and tells her to memorize it as the monsters below are attracted to the light. She adds that she will pray for Rose and Cybil but doesn’t expect them to return. Personally, I think just saying “break a leg” would have sufficed.
Before Rose and Cybil enter the elevator, Christabella gives Rose back her locket but it opens up revealing Sharon’s picture. This causes Christabella to call them witches and order her men to attack them.
Rose jumps into the elevator and Cybil shows off her badassery by fighting off all four men easily then pulls out her gun to hold them back. She tells Rose to find Sharon and sends the elevator down, leaving her alone with Christabella and her men.
Cybil then reveals her gun is empty and Christabella’s men attack her taking her hostage.
In the basement, Rose traverses through the halls, following her memory until she comes face to face with a group of knife-wielding faceless nurse monsters. It takes her a bit too long to remember the monsters are attracted to light while she waves a flashlight at them.
She finally turns off the flashlight and tries to maneuver through them while they twitch and jerk around. One realizes there’s a traitor in their mists and swipes just missing Rose but slicing the neck of another nurse monster. This causes the other nurses to start swiping and before long they’re all attacking each other while Rose makes it out from under the group.
Rose makes it past the door to the demon’s domain and is bathed in white light which turns into a huge exposition dump narrated by Alessa. So here’s the story:
- Alessa was a normal girl who didn’t have a father and for this, she was made fun of and ostracized. Running away from the kids to the bathroom she ran into a janitor, Colin, who abused her.
- Her mother, Dahlia belonged to the cult, led by Christabella, who believed they have to burn sinners and witches to restore innocence and purity.
- Christabella convinces Dahlia to let them burn Alessa alive as part of the purity ritual. Dahlia realizes her mistake and contacts the police. But they’re too late and the group attempts to burn Alessa alive at the hotel.
- During the ritual, a platform breaks spilling hot coal and igniting the hotel on fire. Alessa is freed by Detective Gucci and despite her skin burned black she’s still alive.
- She’s then kept alive in the hospital where her anger and hate grew strong enough to manifest the dark part of her soul into a demonic figure. This figure appeared to Alessa promising revenge and when she agreed the hell-reality created the fog reality as an in-between for the normal-reality and hell.
Once the flashback is over Rose appears in a room with a nurse and the real Alessa still alive but bedridden, now around 40 years old.
Demon-Alessa appears telling Rose she has many names but for now, she’s the dark part of Alessa. She also reveals Sharon is the quasi-child of adult Alessa. The good that was left in her manifested as Sharon and Demon-Alessa brought her to the orphanage 9 years earlier.
She tells Rose all they want is revenge and with Rose now here they can use her to get into the sacred ground of the church. Then Demon-Alessa reveals Christabella knows where Sharon is and is on her way to take her for purification which means burning alive. Rose agrees to whatever the Alessas want.
The two hug and Demon-Alessa assimilates into Rose’s body.
The movie cuts to Christabella and her men arriving at Dahlia’s home where Sharon has been this whole time being watched over by Dahlia. They take Sharon, bring both to the church, and prepare the burning ritual but first they plan on burning Officer Cybil who is currently tied up.
Christabella lights the pyre and they lower Cybil’s restraints, igniting her on fire and killing her while the cult members watch and laugh.
The cult tie up Sharon but Rose arrives at the church in time to delay the ritual. She tells the followers they were lied to by Christabella, Alessa wasn’t a sinner, and now they are damned. She reaches Christabella telling her “God is not here.”
Christabella responds in a completely rational way and realizes her mistake. Oh, wait no, she stabs Rose in the chest.
Rose falls but it’s revealed her blood being spilled was part of the plan as the darkness and the hell reality spill out from her wound, creating a pit in the floor. The cult members begin to panic as Rose rises, wound healed, and both demon and adult Alessa rise from the pit.
Controlling the barb wire, Alessa massacres all the cult members while Demon-Alessa dances in their blood. Dahlia sees her daughter and is shocked at what she’s become. Rose rushes up the stairs and frees Sharon covering her eyes and taking her into a corner. Demon-Alessa approaches them, looks Sharon in the eyes and it appears as if she assimilates into her.
After a few minutes and after every cult member is dead, adult Alessa disappears. Rose and Sharon walk out of the church leaving Dahlia to wonder why she was spared.
The two make it back to the car where Sharon immediately runs into the back seat to nap. They drive away from Silent Hill with the bridge out of town reappearing at Alessa/Sharon’s will.
“Still am, just got a bit of blood on it.”
The movie ends with the two arriving home but it’s revealed they’re still stuck in the fog reality while Chris at home can feel their presence yet is unable to see them. (sequel baiting!)
What Happened at the End?
At the church, Demon-Alessa did assimilate with Sharon when they looked at each other in the church. If we recall Alessa’s anger and hatred created the fog world and only she could open it up to let people leave. That anger and hatred also came from what the cult did to her and her mother, Dahlia, betraying her and allowing the cult to sacrifice her.
Now as a part of Sharon, she has a new mother in Rose who clearly truly loves Sharon. In the end, although Rose and Alessa-Sharon leave Silent Hill, Alessa keeps them in the fog dimension as a way to ensure nothing can separate them again. By staying in a dimension of her creation nothing will ever come between them and Alessa can grow up with a loving mother in safety.
Of course, this is my interpretation and there is a sequel that might completely disprove that.
Review
Not bad the world or worlds created by the story is great which isn’t surprising as it’s an adaptation from an amazing video game.
Ignoring what it changes from the game since this is an average movie-goer review, the acting is great, especially Radha Mitchell. The story gets a bit convoluted and if you’re not paying attention you might miss an important bit, unfortunately, the Sean Bean scenes add to the confusion since he finds things out before the main character in a different order.
The CGI was surprisingly great and held up really well for a 2006 movie. The transitions between fog and hell are some of my favorite of the movie and that’s saying a lot since the monsters, besides the vampire child monsters, are all well done.
The movements of the nurses stand out and are definitely creepy but Pyramid Head is frightening, terrifying, and shines in the short moments he is in the movie.
Overall it’s a great spooky time movie if you’re looking to watch a monster gore movie. The only real downsides of the movie are the Sean Bean-only scenes that feel tacked on and the final exposition dump that feels forced.
Cast IMBD