The only horror film to open this week is Silent Hill,
a genuinely creepy film that will chill and terrify you, especially
in its first hour. Although the novelty of its bizarre images will
wear out eventually, it is still worth catching for the impressive
magnitude of its imagined world.

Radha Mitchell plays the mother of an adopted girl (Jodelle Ferland)
who often goes sleepwalking. When found, the girl would scream,
"Silent Hill! Silent Hill!" — which is the name of an abandoned
town. Thinking that her daughter may be suppressing the memory of
some unpleasant incident that occurred before the adoption, Radha
decides to take her to the town to help her remember it. But when
they arrive, they discover a macabre fourth dimension from which
there is no escape...

The mood and atmospherics of this film are terrific. A sense of
surreal paranoia and gloom pervades this film, replete with man-eating
cockroaches and ashen zombie-ghosts. There are some truly nightmarish
sequences and terrifying creatures, even though the second half
of the film is bogged down by too much dialogue.

Based on a popular horror videogame of the same name, Silent
Hill is a must-see for horror fans and lovers of the video
game. It's not the perfect horror film, but it's certainly more
original and intriguing than The Omen.