I don't share the hate on that others may with movies that are based on video games. There have been terrible adaptations, and total garbage to be sure (Wing Commander, Street Fighter, Resident Evil 1 and 2), but there has also been some infinitely fun movies such as Super Mario Brothers and the Uwe Boll pictures. None of these movies would be considered “good” by traditional standards, but as truly mindless entertainment they are among the best in the class.

Silent Hill sits somewhere in the middle of these efforts; not bad, but definitely not great either. Its ambition is different than other pictures of its kind, so it's difficult to gauge Silent Hill on video game movie terms. Cristophe Gans places scaring his audience in high priority rather than mindlessly entertaining them. It's an approach that works well for Silent Hill's trailers, but ultimately doesn't win over the audience that it wishes.

The problem definitely does not lay in its cinematography or monster design, both of which look great. Christophe Gans has an uncanny ability to suck in his audience based on how great his movies look, despite having little to no coherent content. Even though I may be disappointed with how little what is happening on screen matters, I still watched Brotherhood of the Wolf to the end, based simply on its look. Silent Hill is definitely no different, and along with just looking good, this picture should definitely look into getting some sound editing awards as well, as it is mixed in near perfection, falling to muddled lows for high effect, and blaring air raid sirens to perfection. Gans realizes what can be achieved by being unconventional with his sound design better that perhaps any director since Fritz Lang made M, or perhaps the climax of James Mangold's Cop Land. Disorienting the viewer can be done in many different ways, and I like that Gans uses any way he can to accomplish this feat.

I don't understand why movies such as Silent Hill wish to be structured like mysteries, however. The fact that the movie spends so much time trying to explain itself destroys its entire intent. I don't care why this town is the way it is, especially if the explanation doesn't make sense. So don't waste so much time and try my patience attempting to create a mystery around it. I think it's the tendency that new horror movies are headed towards; the Japanese Ringu method of scaring you, which can be effective in its own right, but for the most part distracts from the horror rather than adding to it. I would much rather it just be a town with some bizarre inhabitants and goings on, and I would also prefer the horror stem from the need to make it out alive, rather than the need to solve a mystery. At over two hours of running time, I wonder what Silent Hill would have been like with all of the explanation edited out, leaving just the horror and a more reasonable seventy (or so) minutes. The individual scenes of brilliance would be allowed to stand alone, and perhaps Silent Hill would be remembered for them, and not for frustrating its audience.