Just got back from the theater, and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised.  Where do I begin without treading into spoiler territory?  I guess I'll start by saying that the movie is gorgeous to look at; the snowy fog-filled calm of the town is dead-on, and the dark/alternate side is a crazy-cool visceral treat for the eyes.  The monsters, though evidently touched up quite a bit with CG, is convincing enough, while the camera work is fantastic from the first waterfall scene on.  The quick-moving cornering and top-down angle shots for the rest of the film very much feels like you're watching the game in a very good way. 

The soundscape is amazing; the frantic rattling of claustrophobic fences, the beastly shrieks and moans, the industrial pounding of the music..... I give props to composer Jeff Danna for mimicking Yamaoka's musical style so well, but there are distinctions that fans will likely pick up on.   (In fact, can anyone make a clear verification if Yamaoka did indeed do any of the compositions for the film?  The only direct music reference from the game, as least as far as I can tell, is "Ashes And Ghosts," which, by the way, was used to great effect in the movie.)  Needless to say, the score is very good, and I'm hoping a soundtrack release is planned. 

And NOW, for the spoilers. ;)  Major, MAJOR spoilers, which should only be read if you've seen the movie:

The overarching plot doesn't seem so much about the resurrection of Samael (or in this case, the Reaper) as it is more about the prevention of it.  Dahlia isn't the central villain here, but merely an unintentional accomplice to one.  Christabella comes closest to being the central antagonist, instead using deceit and lies to drive her extremist religious cult.  I was a little confused, though, if it is indeed Dahlia who had any sort of control over the dark/alternate side.  After all, she did seem to 'sic' Pyramid Head on Anna.   Other story elements were downplayed or shifted around, such as Lisa's role, and pretty much the entire ending.

Some great fan service, as far as enemies go; from the faceless Mumblers to "The Patient," they were all portrayed very well.  The bubblehead nurses at Brookhaven Hospital were my favorite; I'll bet that first, unexpected tinge freaked out a lotta people.  "Colin" was also damned frightening.

There are a few cringe-worthy lines here and there, like Cybil's "What the f--- is going on here?" after she and Rose's encounter with Pyramid Head; the audience couldn't help but laugh at that.  Alessa's "truth" monologue and Rose's last dialogue exchange with Christabella, however, were great moments.

Midwich Elementary School was definitely the best set piece in the movie.  Once it turns into the alternate side, it doesn't look back.

As said, "Ashes And Ghosts" was featured, during Rose and Cybil's encounter with the Lying Creature. (Which, I swear, looks and plays out nearly exactly as it does in the beginning of SH2.  Same went for when Rose met up with the Mumblers from SH1.)  Danna even seemed to have padded out and extended the cut, which sounded really awesome. 

Cybil got it really bad here.  I mean, DAMN.... >_<  In fact, much of the last third of the film suddenly shifts (really, more like jolts) from moody psychological horror, to downright graphic and bloody mayhem.

The ending feels like it's left open-ended to interpretation, as well as the whole existential argument for Rose, Cybil and Sharon after the crash.  I'd be curious to hear what the rest of you think about it.

I'm almost in entire agreement with you, except the surprise haha. I went in expecting the best and came out with my expectations fulfilled. The connections between each game is fantastic, really made the whole experience that much more amazing. As for the music, it seemed a lot was taken from previous Silent Hill games. Like Promise (Reprise) for example, as well as Ashes and Ghosts. There are others that I can't put a finger on but they all seemed very familiar.

I'm hoping this movie does well because it deserves it. It's about time a video game movie is given justice, maybe Uwe Boll will like, come to terms with his madness now.

On a side note, I can see a lot of people not familiar with Silent Hill not liking this movie, as a lot of the plot revolves around the games (mostly around Silent Hill but there are some minor connections with the others). People wanting a strictly scary horror film might be rather dissapointed but hey, it's time for those fools to pick up a Playstation and play through the games.

Well, let me rant a bit about the music first, as that is the only one of my major complaints.

Not that it's BAD, mind you, but that it is IMPROPERLY CREDITED.

Yes, Jeff Danna's name is the only one listed under music. That's not to say that Akira Yamaoka goes entirely uncredited, though; there is a large handful of tracks listed at the end, and they all bear his name. (Except for Johnny Cash's "Ring of Fire", which inclusion was pretty amusing, I'll admit). But all Jeff did, it seemed, was ARRANGE all of Yamoka's incidental  music. That was especially clear with "Promise (Reprise)"; it was instantly recognizable, but the instruments sounded different. So I am very pleased that Jeff honored Yamaoka's work by  making a faithful reproduction of it. But also because of this, Akira's name should be right up there with his.

Also, Yamaoka should have also been given credit for the ambient soundscapes, which - as far as I can tell - were untouched.

Now, it may be that there are film union laws that might prevent Akira Yamaoka from being so credited. If so, I can accept it; I won't like it, but I can cope. However, if this is not the case, then I still feel this is an injustice.

But that's my only major gripe. The rest of it...?

BINGO.

Christophe and Roger told us how much they love this series, and as far as I'm concerned, they proved it. The aesthetic of this film was excellent. The plot changes didn't annoy me, but really provided an interesting "what-if" side to the Silent Hill mythos.

And here is perhaps the greatest compliment I can give it...

Several hours after seeing it, I still cannot shake the climax of this film. While it was very well justified, it was still horrifying to see. That is when I realized that the filmmakers had done their job, and done it well.

I was actually bored in the theater; I wanted to leave. But I did pay $6.75, so I sat it out, defiantly. Well, the video games scared me - the movie didn't. I wanted to keep playing the games - I wanted to quit watching the movie. Silent Hill is a very good thing...in video game form.

I blogged it a bit; link is in my sig.

Basically, spoiler-free, it was a great movie but they took a little too many liberties with some of the plot points and character development. I can see SquareTex's point about it being a "what if" of the SH story, but I would have preferred a more traditional and full adaptation that would be completely true to the game's storyline. As far as I'm concerned, the price of admission was worth the atmosphere alone.

Warning: Spoilers

Overall, awesome movie.  Hands down the best video game movie ever made.  Nice use of Yamaoka's music (and good arranging by Jeff Danna), excellent set design and atmosphere, interesting story and characters, some very unique and well-done gore, and the fact that it stayed true to the games but still felt kinda "new" at the same time.  My favorite example of them staying true had to be the part in the beginning where Rose was chasing Sharon down the alley right after the siren went off.  The camera angle at that one turn was exactly how they shot it in the game.  I turned to my friend and we both had the biggest smiles on our faces.  Hell yeah.

I do have a couple complaints though.  All the scenes with Christopher really took away from the sense of being isolated in Silent Hill, as you were taken to another town and back to the real world every once in a while.  Could have trimmed the movie a good 20-30 minutes without his scenes (or at least, not as many of his scenes as quite a few of them were pretty pointless).  And also, why the over-the-top gore?  Don't get me wrong, I love gore and I've seen stuff that's much worse than anything in this movie, but I just feel it doesn't belong in Silent Hill.  Gore isn't what Silent Hill is all about.. it's about your inner fears, psychological horror, feeling trapped, alone, etc.  It's NOT about getting raped by barbed wire and then having it split you in half.  Even though I must admit, that part ruled!

One funny thing you guys might appreciate.  Only about 10 or so people stayed for the whole end credits (me and my friends included).  This one guy a little in front of us (who looked like he was in his late 40's/early 50's) was headbanging to Theme of Laura the whole time it was playing, haha.

..and was I the only one who thought of the Konami code when Rose was trying to memorize the map and which directions to go in?  I swear, I was this close to yelling "B A START!"

-Mike

Absolutely not, man. I went with my girlfriend and good friend, who is a bottomless vault of gaming knowledge. We both said "B, A, Start!" out loud and started chuckling during that scene. It was ridiculous and further cemented my girlfriend's belief that she's dating video games incarnate.

You're right in this aspect; the psychological horror of Silent Hill was diminished by introducing the sideplot of Christopher and his search. This is mainly a Hollywood thing, isn't it, to hold multiple plotlines?

What the Chris-sideplot DID help, was the emotional punch at the end. Only by seeing his involvement, passion and love for his wife and child does the ending scene of separate levels of existence become more significant. If he was only re-introduced in the final scene, the promise of their reunion would have been less potent, and that goes for the ending as well.

The gore was really kind of excessive in the graphical sense, although I thought it made sense in context. It was a deep harbored hatred and revenge that was being realized, and I didn't expect anything less than the ownage that was being brought onto those pesky little people.

Thought overall that it was a good movie, a great game-to-movie adaptation despite all its cookie flaws and Hollywood-isms.

I'm not sure I get the B-A-Start reference. Is that the old Contra code I keep hearing about?

Yeah, the old Konami Code was Up, Up, Down, Down, Left, Right, Left, Right, B, A, Start. It wasn't just for 30 lives in Contra; it was in a bunch of old NES Konami games, like Gradius, etc. I wonder if Rose memorizing the map was an intentional in-joke or if it just happened that way.

Not to mention many newer games -- or variants of the code, anyway.  Here's the most up-to-date list of games that uses the Konami Code.

And, of course, the history of the Konami Code, which, yes, interestingly enough, actually started with Gradius - not Contra.

Possibly the worst script ever written. Story needing an interlude for narration? Bad sign. Dialogue that would make any accomplished actor look like they were putting on a school play? Also a bad sign. Roger Avary has been working in film long enough to know that script was pants.

Stunning imagery but then that was handed to them on a plate from the game so can Gans really take credit for that?

And music - putting the Silent Hill cds on 'shuffle' gets you a credit now? Wow. Although, being fair to the guy he did add a viola line to one track. That was pretty good.

Heh... I haven't seen the movie yet.  Although something tells me I'm going to completely agree with Jay on this one!  I've yet to see a good game-to-movie script!  I'm not surprised people on this forum enjoyed the film, since it maybe enjoyable, but probably in a "it's so bad it's kinda fun" way.  It's very hard to make a good "horror" film!  Last great scary film I saw was the original "Texas Chainsaw Massacre" which had almost zero blood in it!  It's definitely all about the psychological terror, and for some reason producers these days go for blood and gore (the fools)!  I do have to admit, I did enjoy "The Ring", although I didn't see Ringu.  I also really enjoyed A Tale of Two Sisters

cheers,

-avatar!

By the way, Avatar - even with what I have said on it, the imagery is worth price of admission alone. It really is excellent in that regard. Maybe when the dvd comes out, I'll do a dialogue-free edit of the journey through Silent Hill.

On a side note - anyone get that Silent Hill Experience UMD? I really want to get it but I can't seem to find it in my usual online places. Ebgames seem to have it but won't ship outside US. Tronix, videogamesplus and other places don't seem to carry it.

Dude, I agree 100%. Everything is a lot scarier when left in the mind of the audience as opposed to showing the gore on-screen. Psychological terror = the best. It's interesting how the scariest things are the ones that we fabricate in our own minds.

It was fanservice and while sitting in the theater, I ate it all up. As with most VG movies, it's 300% better for fans than people who have never touched the source material.

I had alot of fun watching it. Now I hope Konami can fix the game series with the next installment.

I haven't played any of the games, but the entire atmosphere of the movie was despairing.  I'm sure I'll buy the movie when it comes out.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

Script -- awful.  Visuals -- great.  Music -- hell, it's Yamaoka.

The music really was almost entirely Yamaoka's work, not just little bits here and there.  I seriously recognized basically all of it, and the arrangements were generally sparse.  That was the best thing this movie had going for it.

I really think that the Silent Hill they can give justice to in a theater is SH2.  That really could make for a *great* horror movie, because the narrative isn't so freaking bad as the first game's was.  Resurrection of a demon/revenge for a little girl?  Not so good.  Desparate fight to exorcise the demons let loose by killing one's own stricken wife?  Muuuuuch better.

I haven't really played any of the games (I prefer RE) but I've always been a fan of the soundtracks. I would've liked to hear more music from 3 and 4 even if the movie didn't have much to do with those games (from what I've heard). Just having snippets of various songs here and there didn't really do much for me anyway.

I suppose I should watch it again when it comes to home disc just to give it a second chance, but for now I'd have to agree with Jodo on this.

Resident Evil: Apocolypse is still my favorite video game movie so far (except for the kung-fu fighting nonsense).

Sounds similar to the end of Pet Semetary

about an hour into the film i had to piss like a racehorse, but i held it like a trooper cause i was gonna be damned if i missed even 2 minutes to run out to take a leak...

Sorry guys for not reading through the whole thread... but I didn't understand the end.  They were in parallel worlds at the end.  I don't get it.

I never played the game, but I enjoyed the movie.  I think I just may check out the original again.  But someone please explain that ending to me.

***possible spoilers ensue***

Part of Silent Hill's (the series, anyway) charm is that you're not quite sure what the different "realms" mean. General concensus agrees that the "misty" Silent Hill is a form of purgatory while "dark" SH hearkens a psychological hell for whoever is in it.

The Peanut Gallery (meaning myself) thinks that the ending was sequel fodder, pure and simple. If a sequel gets green-lit, we'll likely see Sean bean's character go to Silent Hill in search of his wife and kid. This would be a good opportunity to reference the second game's storyline, with appropriate plot changes.

My .02 after taking it in last weekend....

It was....exquisitely bad.....the acting and the dialogue, might have been acceptable....if it was the original Star Wars....As a comparative movie, to others that....rarely make #1 in the first week (I was impressed at that statistic), it was surprisingly devoid of theater patron "buy in".  Seeing it this week, many people in the audience were laughing, and getting unruly as it carried on...And for me, when I saw how cheesy the female cop lead character was...I knew I expected too much....now I must admit, I think the game is a fantastic work of art, and I think the imagery in the movie was, upon further internal review, great...and while there were limitless close-parallel's to the game, it simply didn't bridge the essence of the video game with the story telling abilities expected from a modern day upper-tier motion picture standards.  I felt like I was watching "Silent Hill Alpha" or some "other system" version of the original....

Rental for sure though...lol

- Brandonk