Critic Reviews
Silent Hill (2006) Rank 5 Reviews
Expert Review Summary
based on (190) reviews
Click on the numbers to the right of the graph to see reviews of that rating
Reviews by Score:
Sci-Fi Weekly (Michael Szymanski)
As a fluke, I took my mom (also named Rose) to the screening. She doesn't like SF or horror and doesn't even know what a video game is, yet she ended up really liking it! How weird is that? ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Sci-Fi Weekly (Michael Szymanski)
MovieCrypt.com (Kevin A. Ranson)
Lessons learned: Never underestimate the creativity of a wronged West Virginian with access to barbed wire. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at MovieCrypt.com (Kevin A. Ranson)
The Horror Channel ("Nomad")
Silent Hill is without a doubt the most faithful adaptation of a video game ever made while still being a damn fun ride. You are looking at 30% mystery and 70% pure horror. There is more blood, human remains, and in-your-face ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The Horror Channel ("Nomad")
The King's Room (Paul Perkins)
Well horror films have not been the greatest
films of lately there only been a hand few of good one lately,
Hostel, Final Destination 3 and Slither. Second type of films that
has not been good lately ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The King's Room (Paul Perkins)
DVD Talk (Scott Weinberg)
Movies for Guys
When it happened I was pleased. 5 star pleased, a 6th if we had it. That's my excuse for the 4 stars and I'm sticking with it. The visuals deserve to be seen on a big screen, and that scene is worth the ticket price alone. I'd recommend ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Movies for Guys
The King's Room (Paul Perkins)
San Francisco Chronicle (Peter Hartlaub)
filmcritic.com (Keith Breese)
I have not played the video game upon which this film is based, and I assume that that’s not a prerequisite. If the game is anywhere as creepy and odd as this movie, perhaps I should. The plot concerns a typical family with atypical problems, ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at filmcritic.com (Keith Breese)
MovieWeb (Keith Breese)
I have not played the video game upon which this film is based, and I assume that that’s not a prerequisite. If the game is anywhere as creepy and odd as this movie, perhaps I should. The plot concerns a typical family with atypical problems, ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at MovieWeb (Keith Breese)
Bloody-Distgusting
ToxicUniverse.com (Lee Chase IV)
I will not soon forget many of the images from this movie. During a time when horror pictures are good at repeating themselves or borrowing from each other, here's one that does things we have not seen before, and does them with malice. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at ToxicUniverse.com (Lee Chase IV)
artechock (Matthias Herrmann)
Down in Front (Josh Robinson)
Slasherpool (Fredrik Nordstrom)
Silent Hill is by far the best video-game adaptation that I've seen to this date ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Slasherpool (Fredrik Nordstrom)
Juicy Cerebellum (Alex Sandell)
No matter how you interpret the film, it's nearly impossible to deny what a beautiful work of art it is. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Juicy Cerebellum (Alex Sandell)
Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)
It's refreshing to see a full-blown, straight-faced, supernatural horror movie in this age of grubby torture flicks being mistaken for the coin of the realm. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Mountain Xpress (Asheville, NC) (Ken Hanke)
Hollywood Jesus
Dread Central (Johnny Butane)
There is more blood, human remains and in your face kills in this film than we've seen on the screen in a looooong time. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Dread Central (Johnny Butane)
Horror & Hilarity
The Film Asylum
The Village Voice (Bill Gallo)
Draven99's Musings (Chris Beaumont)
A Guide to Current DVD (Aaron Beierle)
The Cinematheque (Kevyn Knox)
Dread Central DVD review
Film Monthly (Billy Joe Patterson)
Christian Spotlight on the Movies
BeyondHollywood.com
iF Magazine (Sean Elliott)
Movieeveryday.com (Scooter Thompson)
Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
The weird part is is that they might be right, even though they're
made to be evil and insane. If you like horror flicks, you'll like
this, the atmosphere and the monsters are great, the plot ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Greenwich Village Gazette (Eric Lurio)
Arrow in the Head ("The Arrow")
Thankfully Silent Hill got its groove back for its eye
popping finale, with wet gore galore, some
Hellraiser on steroids
inspired happenings and familiar (The Dark anyone?) yet sly final frames that slapped a big grin ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Arrow in the Head ("The Arrow")
Empire Magazine [UK]
Empire Magazine [UK]
A step in the right direction for console-to-screen transitions and a twisted masterpiece of set design. Ultimately, though, it's a little too much like watching someone else play the game. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Empire Magazine [UK]
DVDActive (Casimir Harlow)
Dreamlogic.net (Kris Kobayahshi-Nelson and Chris Nelson)
Film School Rejects (Jarvis Mishler)
Darkmatters (Matt Adcock)
The Video Graveyard (Vhs Caveman)
Mutant Reviewers From Hell
DreadCentral.com
RevolutionSF (Andrew Kozma and Laura Eldred)
Arrow in the Head
Motion Picture Purgatory (Rick Trembles)
Reel.com (Pam Grady)
DVD Authority.com ("Fusion3600")
Bloody-Disgusting.com (Vapor Rub)
The Film Atheist
7M Pictures (Kevin Carr)
DVD Town (James Plath)
And I'm not talking about the town of Silent Hill. I'm talking about the highly successful PlayStation game. What made anyone think that it would translate well to the big screen?
The only way that could have happened is if someone came up with a new ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at DVD Town (James Plath)
Deseret News, Salt Lake City
U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops
Foster on Film - Ghost Stories
New York Daily News (Elizabeth Weitzman)
Cinemalogue.com (Ken Metzger)
eFilmCritic (Matt Seaver)
DVDwolf ("Tom Servo")
filmdeculte.com (Guillaume Massart)
Appreciating Great Trash
The Red Right Hand (Matt Stogdon)
IndependentCritics.com (Jacob Hall)
Chip Remington's World of Movies
allesfilm.com (Hanns Peter Glock)
Frank's Reel Reviews
eye WEEKLY (Adam Nayman)
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A Nutshell Review
MoviePoopShoot.com (D. K. Holm)
ReelTalk (Adam Hakari)
JackassCritics.com (Grim Ringler)
Ain't It Cool Movie Reviews (Harry Knowles)
PopMatters (Cynthia Fuchs)
Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)
eFilmCritic Reviews
Nefarious Films
Hollywood Gothique
eFilmCritic (William Goss)
Screen It! Entertainment Reviews for Parents
MovieFreak.com (Sara M. Fetters)
The Cinema Source (Zak Santucci)
After reading an interview with Christopher Gans (director of Silent Hill) in the L.A. Times, I noticed that the interviewer made a good point. In a year where When a Stranger Calls makes 50 ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The Cinema Source (Zak Santucci)
Cinema Laser (Derek M. Germano)
zBoneman Movie Reviews (Kevin Jones & Adam Mast)
In her frantic search for her daughter, Radha encounters a bizarre assortment of twisted and freakish hell-dwellers, and sees the thin facade of reality dissolve to infernal vistas. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at zBoneman Movie Reviews (Kevin Jones & Adam Mast)
The Cinema Source (Zak Santucci)
Cinema Source (Zak Santucci)
Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
As a nightmarish vision of hell on earth, Silent Hill is a triumph of production and art design. As a coherent story, it's little more than a string of video game scenarios. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Reel Times: Reflections on Cinema (Mark Pfeiffer)
The Video Graveyard (Chris Hartley)
The Stranger (Andrew Wright)
DVD Verdict (Bill Gibron)
Sun Newspapers of Cleveland
Movie-Vault.com (Mel Valentin)
OhmyNews (Brian Orndorf)
In Film Australia
Seattle Post-Intelligencer
Combustible Celluloid (Jeffrey M. Anderson)
The Onion A.V. Club
Filmspiegel (Reinhard Prosch)
Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)
Imagine the town of Dante's Peak as envisioned by H.P. Lovecraft and you'll get a mental image of Silent Hill's impressive art direction and production design. Now imagine it scored by German proto-industrialists Einstürzende Neubauten and helmed by the ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Austin Chronicle (Marc Savlov)
Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Chris Gonzalez)
The strongest aspects of the film are its technical points. Director Christophe Gans has crafted a film that looks incredibly rich and detailed, if a bit on the cheap side from time to time. The film gets progressively better as it ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Chris Gonzalez)
Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
This review requires a little background. I'm a major fan of the Silent Hill video game series, which I consider to be one of the best examples of atmosphere and immersion in the medium. Rather than jolt a player with sudden shocks, ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
With a running time 30 minutes shorter and a less baffling storyline, Silent Hill might have been a real winner. One can forgive the cheesy dialogue - this is, after all, not Shakespeare - and the predictably gory climax. But I don't like ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
When it comes to movies based on computer games, Silent Hill is not the Holy Grail, but it's a step in the right direction. The film is overlong, with too many unnecessary scenes (a lot of the movie seems like pointless running around), but it packs in a ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at ReelViews (James Berardinelli)
EnPrimeur.ca (Nicolas Lacroix)
Les images tordues du film sont impossible à oublier... ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at EnPrimeur.ca (Nicolas Lacroix)
eFilmCritic.com (Brian Mckay)
the filmmakers may be hedging too many bets, trying to make the film both acceptable to fans and accessible to newcomers. But while SILENT HILL is far from perfect, it is at the very least a valiant effort ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Brian Mckay)
Empire Magazine (James Dyer)
It's this unwavering fidelity to the source material that is also the film's biggest problem. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Empire Magazine (James Dyer)
Science Fiction, Horror and Fantasy Film Review Database (--)
Cinematical (Scott Weinberg)
Not much more than a "haunted town" thrill-ride, with only a few plot points tossed in to keep things moving, Silent Hill truly is a feast for the eyes -- provided your eyeballs aren't too squeamish. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Cinematical (Scott Weinberg)
filmcritic.com (Keith Breese)
the closest you’ll get to actually having a nightmare in a movie theatre outside of a midnight screening of David Lynch’s Eraserhead. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at filmcritic.com (Keith Breese)
CineFile : il Cinema in Rete (Alberto Cassani)
El Criticon (Antonio Méndez Casanova)
Boxoffice Magazine
Absolutely atrocious, "Silent Hill" is probably the worst movie ever to be based on a video game. Those types of adaptations are almost always bad -- video games, for the most part, are not known for deep meaning -- but "Silent Hill" sinks to new lows of ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Boxoffice Magazine
Hollywood.com (Kit Bowen)
While this latest video game adaptation will most likely thrill its legions of fans with its graphic demonic depictions, the overblown plot deters the film from being a true fright fest. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Hollywood.com (Kit Bowen)
Q Network Film Desk (James Kendrick)
Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) (Mark Collette)
Striking visuals tell a story where words aren't necessary ... until that turning point, when dull dialogue, a complicated plot and cheesy graphics start to muddle things. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Tyler Morning Telegraph (Texas) (Mark Collette)
MovieJuice! (Mark Ramsey)
Somehow the knowledge that you are three degrees of separation from Dabney Coleman and a computer called W.O.P.R. transforms trite claptrap into the words of the Bard himself. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at MovieJuice! (Mark Ramsey)
Newsday
Far be it for me to dispense advice to mothers of little girls with vexing mental health issues. Still, if my kid were sleepwalking her way toward mile-high gorges and drawing violent pictures while babbling about some mysterious ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Newsday
St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt (St. Paul))
The story is so unoriginal and uninvolving that you may find yourselves wishing the drippy, howling, viscera-smeared creatures would take Mitchell and the other humans out. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at St. Paul Pioneer Press (Chris Hewitt (St. Paul))
The Dallas Morning News
You wouldn't think Silent Hill was written by a former Oscar
winner, but sure enough, the screenplay springs from the pen of Roger
Avary, Quentin Tarantino's Pulp Fiction co-scribe. He won't win
any awards ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The Dallas Morning News
rec.arts.movies.reviews (David N. Butterworth)
Radha Mitchell is the reason to sit through this overblown Grand Guignol entertainment from the director of the similarly overblown Brotherhood of the Wolf. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at rec.arts.movies.reviews (David N. Butterworth)
FilmFocus.Co.UK (Nick Milner)
TV Guide's Movie Guide (Maitland McDonagh)
[ Silent Hill ] starts out a suffocating fog of creepiness wrapped around a memorably malevolent child spirit, but squanders its meticulously established atmosphere on a lengthy climactic sequence. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at TV Guide's Movie Guide (Maitland McDonagh)
The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)
Note: I'm told that if you are intimately familiar with the "Silent Hill" video game, the film makes a lot more sense. That may be true. But sensical or not, it would still be repetitive and dull. SO THERE. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The Land of Eric (Eric D. Snider)
DVD Talk (Joshua Zyber)
The King's Room (Clyde Ayles)
"Silent Hill", I understand, is another movie
based on a game. Well, I can't say much about the game, I am not
familier with it, but I can make my comments on the film, directed
by ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The King's Room (Clyde Ayles)
Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
This is an average movie, and not what Slient Hill , a standout, resonant game series, deserves. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Window to the Movies (Jeffrey Chen)
Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
Have you ever played the video game Silent Hill I have. To me Silent Hill can easily be summed up with one word: frustrating. You walk around the abandoned town of Silent Hill which is covered in a foggy ash searching for clues to help you find ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Film Threat, Hollywood's Indie Voice
Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)
Suggests the surreal, almost post-narrative horror movies of Dario Argento, Lucio Fulci and other directors who favor the emotional impact of bold, grotesque imagery over story logic. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Commercial Appeal (Memphis, TN) (John Beifuss)
Bangor Daily News (Maine) (Christopher Smith)
The literary equivalent of Java script. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Bangor Daily News (Maine) (Christopher Smith)
IGN Movies (Jeff Otto)
Beautiful on the outside, but empty within. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at IGN Movies (Jeff Otto)
eFilmCritic.com (Dawn Taylor)
An abject failure as a horror film, offering gorgeous Clive Barker-inspired art direction run amuck with nothing actually scary going on. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at eFilmCritic.com (Dawn Taylor)
Movieman's Guide to the Movies (Chris Gonzalez)
efilmcritic.com (Uri Lessing)
Think the Cirque du Soleil performed by the cast from "Saved By the Bell" knee deep in diarrhea. It may be engrossing and even embarrassingly fun, but it's also just a big disgusting mess. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at efilmcritic.com (Uri Lessing)
Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
I had a nice conversation with seven or eight people coming down on the escalator after we all saw "Silent Hill." They wanted me to explain it to them. I said I didn't have a clue. They ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Chicago Sun-Times (Roger Ebert)
Entertainment Weekly
Even a horror movie designed to tickle the mossy twisted underside of your brain has to be rooted in some sort of earthly logic. Silent Hill just about slathers its psychedelic sadism on toast: a burned and vengeful girl, her barb-wire tentacles ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Entertainment Weekly
Big Picture Big Sound (Joe Lozito)
It comes as no surprise that the film was directed by the French filmmaker Christophe Gans, whose similarly good-looking but disappointing “Brotherhood of the Wolf” was the highest grossing French film ever and was, ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Big Picture Big Sound (Joe Lozito)
Zap2it.com (Dan Fienberg)
Had Silent Hill been directed by Peter Jackson, perhaps there would have been an explanation or justification for its 127-minute length. But Christophe Gans? Seriously? ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Zap2it.com (Dan Fienberg)
Globe and Mail (Jason Anderson)
Though Silent Hill 's shoddy dialogue and incoherent story constantly irritate, several sights and scenes possess a certain surreal grandeur. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Globe and Mail (Jason Anderson)
d+kaz. Intelligent Movie Reviews (Daniel Kasman)
Reel.com
Silent Hill could have been so much better. This latest video game movie—a cursed genre if there ever was one—should have just taken the name and not bothered with the game. They could have transformed their West Virginia mining town location ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Reel.com
Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
It's like a video game - the visual effects and the setting are carefully constructed, but without that core element provided by the player: a reason to care. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Salt Lake Tribune (Sean Means)
The Independent (Anthony Quinn)
Mitchell makes the mistake of taking the child there, only to find herself
trapped in an ashy phantasmagoria. Hardly a single fright, and not a
fragment of sense, can be extracted from it. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at The Independent (Anthony Quinn)
Toronto Star (Peter Howell)
The profoundly goofy Silent Hill is the latest entry in the spooks-stole-my-kid genre that has inexplicably been sweeping Hollywood of late. And it might just be the dumbest -- but then it is based on a video game, so that's hardly surprising. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Toronto Star (Peter Howell)
New York Post (Lou Lumenick)
THE best thing about most movies that open without screenings is a running time under 90 minutes - these bombs are generally cut to the bone by studios eager to squeeze in as many showings as possible before word of mouth spreads.
Not so with ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at New York Post (Lou Lumenick)
New York Times (Nathan Lee)
Structured around a series of blackouts and gross-outs, Silent Hill is one long free fall through icky surrealism and underlighted nightmares. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at New York Times (Nathan Lee)
ShowBIZ Data
Movie critics finally weighed in on Silent Hill over the weekend after Sony decided not to arrange advance press screenings of the movie for them. (On Friday we speculated that someone at the studio may not have gotten the word and screened it for Roger ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at ShowBIZ Data
MovieMaze (Toni Strasser)
Boston Globe (Wesley Morris)
The makers of the movie you're slogging through will spare no expense to demonstrate how much they hate us. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Boston Globe (Wesley Morris)
Killer Movie Reviews (Andrea Chase)
I’m going to do something that I usually try very hard to avoid in a review. I’m going to plop a spoiler into it. Not only that, I’m going to do it in the very first paragraph. I’m going to do it for two reasons. One, it’s integral to the ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Killer Movie Reviews (Andrea Chase)
ShowBIZ Data (--)
Boxoffice Magazine (Shlomo Schwartzberg)
Absolutely atrocious, Silent Hill is probably the worst movie ever to be based on a video game. ...read the complete Silent Hill movie review at Boxoffice Magazine (Shlomo Schwartzberg)
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