Product Details

• Actors: Radha Mitchell, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean, Deborah Kara Unger, Kim Coates
• Directors: Chris Sikorowski, Christophe Gans
• Writers: Roger Avary
• Producers: Chris Sikorowski, Akira Yamaoka, Andrew Mason, Deb LeFaive, Don Carmody
• Format: AC-3, Closed-captioned, Color, Dolby, DVD, Subtitled, Widescreen, NTSC
• Language: English (Dolby Digital 5.1)
• Subtitles: English
• Region: Region 1 encoding (US and Canada only)
  PLEASE NOTE: Some Region 1 DVDs may contain Regional Coding Enhancement (RCE). Some, but not all, of our international customers have had problems playing these enhanced discs on what are called "region-free" DVD players. For more information on RCE, click here.
• Aspect Ratio: 2.35:1
• Number of discs: 1
• Rating: R (Restricted)
• Studio: Sony Pictures
• DVD Release Date: August 22, 2006
• Run Time: 125 minutes
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (338 customer reviews)
• ASIN: B000GCFO0I
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #12,124 in Movies & TV (See Bestsellers in Movies & TV)
• For more information about "Silent Hill (Widescreen Edition)" visit the Internet Movie Database (IMDb)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com

A lot of movies can be described as "dripping with atmosphere," but in the case of Silent Hill it's literally true. Faithfully adapted from the Konami video games by French director Christophe Gans and Pulp Fiction cowriter Roger Avary (both self-confessed video game addicts), this dark and grisly horror-fest is nothing if not a triumph of cinematography and production design, consisting of a minimal and mostly incoherent plot propped up by a mysterious maze of sets that literally seep, drip, and ooze with the atmospheric evil of past misdeeds. Welcome to the abandoned and perpetually foggy ghost town of Silent Hill, where grey ash falls like snow, a devastating coal-mine fire still burns in a hellish underground, and demons of various shapes and sizes make your worst nightmares seem like a walk in the park. It's here that distressed mother Rose (played by Pitch Black heroine Radha Mitchell) has taken her daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) in hopes of discovering the source of Sharon's sleepwalking nightmares. What they find instead is a burned-out legacy of unspeakable evil, as Silent Hill's dark secrets are revealed. As opposing denizens of Silent Hill's meta-morphing underworld, Canadian actresses Alice Krige and Deborah Kara Unger seem to be the only ones who recognize this morbid mess as campy comedy; Gans (who established his visual flair with The Brotherhood of the Wolf) and Avary take it far too seriously, and the entire movie is utterly devoid of any emotional hooks or plot logic that would make us care about anything that happens. In crafting a loyal big-screen rendition of Silent Hill and its Playstation sequels, they've forgotten that movies play by a different and more demanding set of rules. As a result, they've made an impressive-looking but ultimately hollow horror film that only Silent Hill game-players can truly appreciate. --Jeff Shannon

Product Description

A mother seeking to stop her daughter's night terrors takes her to the town the girl mentions in her sleep.
Genre: Horror
Rating: R
Release Date: 1-JAN-2007
Media Type: DVD

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

31 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars My faith in the horror genre' was waning until..., August 23, 2006

By	PohlSE (Texas) - See all my reviews

Silent Hill is a movie based on a video game.

Still reading? Good, because you will be pleasantly surprised to learn that, unlike every other video game-based movie ever made, this is a great film! And it's a great film that fans of the game can enjoy as well as moviegoers who never heard of the game (or who have been offended by the drek that usually comes to the theaters in the guise of video game movies).

Silent Hill is a ghost town that was abandoned in the seventies because of an underground coal fire and now haunts the nightmares of a little girl. In an attempt to help her adoptive daughter Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), Rose (Radha Mitchell) takes her to Silent Hill and enters a nightmare-like alternate reality. Going any further into the plot would spoil the surprises in this film and the surprises are part of the fun.

The creatures that inhabit this alternate Silent Hill are very disturbing and nightmarish and they move in a very fluid way that is both familiar and strange at the same time. Seeing them in action (and, unlike most horror films, in full lighting) causes an almost immediate flight or fight reaction until the rational side of your brain remembers that it's only a movie.

Also on the plus side is the music of Silent Hill. Very creepy, very fitting, and, very good; at least half of the reason this film works so well is because the music and sound effects do so well in conveying the sense that something is moving just beyond your vision.

There is a downside to the film and it occurs almost dead center in the film. The beginning and ending of the movie is rife with psychological-based horror, and creatures dredged up from the depths of nightmares. But the middle is where we get an explanation for what's going on and it's a jarring change of pace that, thankfully, doesn't last too long.

But the rest of the film makes up for that one pacing stutter and the entire film comes together in a great conclusion that may or may not hint at a sequel.

Silent Hill also accomplished two very important things; it proves that a video game can be successfully translated into a great film, and it restored my faith in the horror genre' by giving me real chills without resorting to cheap tricks.

A must see!

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars differs from the rest, August 20, 2006

By	Robert (Budapest, Hungary) - See all my reviews

I am a fan of the Silent Hill games.

I read nothing but negative critics about this movie and I thought it might be a bad one... until I saw it. This one is an outstanding work. The story is unique and brilliant, as well as the acting, even the smallest parts are played by very talented actors. The director took care of all the details to make a perfect and scary movie about Silent Hill. Amazing. Can't wait to get the R2 version.

23 of 25 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Shocker, August 15, 2006

By	Meredith Wedge "helio" (Canton, Massachusetts) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I went with my mom to see this movie because surprisingly my mom really likes horror flicks and loves these kinds of movies. I thought it would be very boring but it turned out to be a very mindbending and one of the most scariest movie moments i've ever experienced, buy this dvd. The only part i did not really like was the shocking ending but other than that BUY IT.