Highlights
- The Silent Hill movie gained a cult following despite its initial lukewarm response, capturing the tone of the popular video game series.
- The story follows a mother's search for her adopted daughter in the abandoned and dangerous town of Silent Hill, filled with grotesque creatures.
- The movie is a loose adaptation of the first Silent Hill game, evoking the creepy atmosphere with the inclusion of the iconic Pyramid Head and elements from other games.
When Silent Hill first released in 2006, it received a lukewarm response as it did not stay entirely true to the popular video game series of the same name that it was based on. However, it eventually gained a cult following over the years, especially since the supernatural horror film succeeds in capturing the tone of the games.
Directed by Christophe Gans, Silent Hill stars Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, and Sean Bean. It was later followed by a sequel titled Silent Hill: Revelation, and a third film, Return to Silent Hill, is also currently in production. The first installment, however, continues to be regarded as one of the best horror game adaptations till date.
What Is the Silent Hill Movie About?
The story follows Christopher and Rose Da Silva, who are disturbed by their adopted daughter Sharon’s sleepwalking episodes and nightmares about Silent Hill, the name of which she keeps repeating, and unknowingly makes scary drawings of. The town was engulfed in a coal seam fire in the 1970s, and has since been supposedly abandoned. Desperate for answers, Rose drives Sharon there, despite Christopher’s objections. When Cybil Bennett, a police officer, becomes suspicious and signals for her to stop, Rose speeds up the car to escape. A figure suddenly appears on the road, causing Rose to crash the car and be knocked out. By the time she regains consciousness, Sharon is missing.
A distraught Rose ventures into the fog-shrouded Silent Hill, where the streets are empty and ash falls from the sky. She often spots the same child she saw earlier (who resembles Sharon), and discovers that the town becomes completely dark at certain points, which is when grotesque creatures attack. Cybil finds Rose and arrests her, but finds that all roads going back now lead to a cliff. Rose escapes when Cybil is busy shooting down several inhuman creatures and, guided by Sharon’s drawings, visits the school building. She learns of a young girl named Alessa Gillespie, who was burned by the Brethren, a fanatical religious cult, as they believed she was a witch. Her mother Dahlia continues to wander in the streets, mourning for her.
Meanwhile, Christopher searches the town for his family with police officer Thomas Gucci. Upon arrival at the school, he believes he can smell Rose’s perfume but he cannot see her. This is because Rose is trapped in another dimension, while Christopher is in the ‘real’ world, where fog and monsters are absent. Gucci urges Christopher that he should now leave due to security reasons. However, Christopher secretly goes through old archives for information, and finds a picture of Alessa, who looks remarkably like Sharon. His attempts to question the founder of the orphanage, from where he adopted his daughter, are interrupted by Gucci, who threatens to arrest him if he does not stop investigating. Christopher finally gives in and goes home.
In the other dimension, Cybil joins Rose to find Sharon. They run into Anna, a Brethren member, who takes them to an old church that is apparently safe from “the darkness of hell” as the churchgoers’ “blind conviction” repels the monsters. Christabella, the leader of the Brethren, informs Rose and Cybil that they would need to “face the demon” to find Sharon. She leads them to the hospital but, just as they are about to head down to its basement, Christabella notices Sharon’s likeness to Alessa, and orders the Brethren to stop them. Cybil fights back, allowing Rose to escape.
In the basement, Rose enters Alessa’s room, where a flashback reveals the truth: Alessa was condemned by the townspeople for being born out of wedlock and, when she was raped by the school janitor, Christabella convinced Dahlia to let her “purify” her daughter. The attempt to burn her eventually resulted in the town’s destruction. Hospitalized, Alessa’s anger split her soul apart, one half manifesting as Dark Alessa, who is responsible for the fractured dimensions of Silent Hill, and the remaining innocence manifesting as Sharon, who was left outside an orphanage in the real world.
What Does the Silent Hill Movie Take From the Games?
The movie is a loose adaptation of the first Silent Hill game, and also takes a few elements from Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3 (all of which are published by Konami). Both the film and the game involve a parent taking an adopted child to Silent Hill, who disappears when they crash their car in the town's outskirts. The difference is that the game has a male lead, Harry Mason, and his daughter’s name is Cheryl. They both visit the resort town for a much-needed vacation, especially since Harry is still recovering from his wife’s death from years ago. After Cheryl disappears, he looks for her in Silent Hill, where the residents also worship a demonic cult while living alongside monstrous creatures. Another notable difference from the game is that Dahlia is an innocent bystander in the film when Alessa is burned, whereas she is actually one of the main antagonists and the leader of the cult in the original storyline.
While the film was never intended to be a faithful adaptation, it still evokes the same creepy atmosphere as the game, especially with its inclusion of the iconic Pyramid Head.
How Does the Silent Hill Movie End?
Rose lets Dark Alessa’s spirit enter her body so it can now have access to the church. Meanwhile, Sharon, despite being protected by Dahlia, is captured by Christabella. Cybil is burned to death and, just as Sharon is about to suffer from the same fate, Rose enters the church and confronts Christabella. She declares that there was never any apocalypse, as the cult members believed, and nothing can save them as they are “already damned”. Christabella stabs Sharon in rage, and her blood drips on the floor, which releases Dark Alessa’s spirit. An adult and disfigured Alessa, confined to a hospital bed, rises in the air and kills the townspeople with barbed wire. Only Dahlia, Rose and Sharon are spared, and the latter two finally leave.
However, the world around them remains hazy and bleak. When they arrive home, Christopher finds that the front door has been opened but cannot see Rose and Sharon as they are still separated from reality. The last shot of Sharon’s face indicates that she and Dark Alessa are now reunited in one body. Now that Alessa has her own mother, she does not want to let go of the world that she has created.