A woman named Rose, desperate to find her child Sharon, finds herself trapped in an alternate dimension as she searches for her daughter in a world of decay inhabited by strange beings. Over the protests of her husband, she flees with her child, heading for an abandoned town to which the child seems drawn. Sharon disappears in the town, and Rose follows what she thinks is her daughter's silhouette into what seems like an alternate reality. It's soon clear this place is not like anywhere she's ever been. It's smothered by fog, inhabited by a variety of strange beings and periodically overcome by a living Darkness that literally transforms everything it touches. Joined by Cybil, a local police officer, Rose searches for her little girl while learning the history of the strange town and realizing that Sharon is just a pawn in a larger game.

Ah, the tricky but troublesome genre of video game to big screen adaptation gets another chapter in its somewhat rocky and sometimes frowned upon history. What is it about video games made into movies that is so tricky and why do some work and some fail. There has been much discussion a lot of it led by prominent film critic Roger Ebert whether a video game can be considered and art form and I am one who believes it can be. Many video games have storylines and plots more complicated and rich than a lot of movies out there. They are beautiful to view and can draw you into another world that captures hundreds of hours of your time mastering them and defeating them.

So why do many fail in their adaptations, most have really good stories, and really good visuals to begin with you would think they would be instant successes but they aren’t. And I think the reason is simple the people these movies are made for and because of are the gamers, the ones who have spent countless hours in their worlds of fantasy and horror and they are the hardest to please because of it. People like me who maybe played Silent Hill all of a half hour before seeing the movie and that years ago aren’t the intended audience but funny enough we are the ones who enjoy the movies the most. I liked Silent Hill, I enjoyed it for what it was an what it wasn’t and walked away feeling like I got my money’s worth while many gamers might not have this same appreciation for the movie.

The movie has a fantastic overall creepy feel to it, it’s like constantly having goosebumps run up and down your arms for nearly two hours. I was surprised by the somewhat Mary Magdalene storyline the movie falls prey to but I am guessing that was part of the game. It just seemed so contrite though at times, I was more involved in how everything seemed so creepy much like the game which I played my brief stint of at three in the morning and not the story that seemed to get almost gothic on me. Without having played the game or games all the way through that was one of the few things that bothered me, I wasn’t satisfied with the way the story turned out and ended because it wasn’t something I wasn’t expecting or felt that the movie set up very well. I loved the movie for its overall creepy and frightening feel and it was a fun ride even if I was let down a little in the end.

Laurie Holden stole the movie for me, she plays an awesome role as the bad ass cop who finds herself in the middle of an unbelievable and uncanny situation. She deals with the situation like most of us would, first disbelief then anger then she finally accepts that she is in a world unlike anything she would ever have dreamed up and teams with Radha Mitchell to fight back. I also liked Radha Mitchell as she does a good job of the concerned mother who just wants her child back and is willing to go to almost any means to do so. Sean Bean was a little bit of a disappointment but then he is barely in the movie anyways so its no big deal really. The movie becomes a virtual CGI world of monsters and horrific creatures which fit a movie based on a video game and the overall creepy feel had me done in from the beginning to the end. You will end up liking the film as well unless of course you are one of those hard core gamers who might find disappointment because it doesn’t follow the game perfectly.

Grade: B-