The ultimate bad guys in both movies are religious fanatics. The assistant to the hero/heroine gets done away with in a less than flattering manner (the Indian was killed by the religous group in Brotherhood, as was the lady cop in Hill, though the bad acting from the woman just had me wanting her silenced). The hero/heroine must employ supernatural abilities to interrupt a ritual of the religous fanatics in the final act.

The movie's interpretation of the town is, overall, closest to Silent Hill 2. That is, the town is purgatory, a place where people go while they await judgement. The "darkness" is, obviously, hell. What's interesting is that in the games, the monsters are different for everyone because they're the physical manifestations of someone's fears, or guilt. In the movie, everyone is stuck in Alessa's purgatory, but it isn't the only one that exists.

And... that's pretty much it. Silent Hill is purgatory, and each game is, more or less, how the characters deal with being stuck in it. Sometimes they get out, sometimes they don't, but at its best the town is just a physical manifestation of the worst aspects of a character's psyche. There doesn't need to be much in the way of plot because the draw is the nightmarish, borderline incoherent presentation of someone's emotions in a physical form.

The movie often got this right. The set and creature design all do a damn good job of making physical the dark side of Alessa's mind, and once this is understood, a lot of the movie falls into place. The problem is with the fact that the cult is played up far too much, when absolutely nobody gives a damn. It goes from being a very good "nightmare on film" kind of movie, like the classic Italian horror of the 70s, to a ker-razy cult flick. The last thing this movie needed was a story that attempts to make things literal.

Hopefully now that the literal backstory is established, Gans will be able to make a sequel that focuses more on the judgement aspect, like the second game did.

Also, the ending of course was similar to the ending of Hellraiser, and not just because of the barbed wire ripping people open, but also because in both movies the protagonist actually leads the dark forces to it's prey.

By the way, has anyone noticed that Alice Krige only ever plays villains?

First of all, the thing that bugged me the most were the monster designs. Don't get me wrong, I loved them in the movie, but the part that I don't like is that the designs of the monsters in the game always have so much purpose. They represent specific psychological manifestations in the games... however in the movie they copied the monsters straight from the game, and therefore, I think they lose that aspect to them. I suppose Pyramid Head could probably be in anyone's Silent Hill, but the things like the nurses (the ones in the movie were James' version specifically), the patient zombie (also James')... I could probably give the child zombies to the movie since those were from Alessa's nightmare in the first one... I really wanted to see the lizard in the courtyard, though.

Lisa's character would have been much more dramatic if presented the way she was in the game. Where she didn't know she was dead until close to the end. I didn't see why she needed to be in this movie, except to make fans giggle a bit.

I'm not sure I liked the transitions between foggy and dark Silent Hill. In the games there was always a black out or a transitional room. I did LOVE the sirens they used, though.

I didn't like the huge emphasis on the cult, and by including all that, they perverted the storyline in the worst way. Dahlia was a villain, but in the movie she was a good guy? That's a crime, man. The whole point of the cult was twisted into something new entirely. The cult worshipped Samael, which they said was birthed from pain or whatever, so the submitted Alessa to all kinds of torture. To me that makes a lot more sense than what was in the movie. Because they awoke Samael finally, and he took everything over. I didn't like all the cultists being there.

The music was great, and I loved how they brought in the same guy from the games to do it. This added so much to the movie.

All in all I have to say I loved it. As a Silent Hill super-fan, I enjoyed every second. I would have redone a lot of aspects. I probably would have either based it on the first game, verbatim, maybe the second game, or made my own story completely, without trying to intrude on the storyline that the first game setup.

If I had to say my least favorite part of the movie, it would have to be those damn cultist. Just because it didn't fit, to me, and they altered the storyline more than anything else.

Dhalia has a daughter Alessa out of wedlock, and because she refuses to give up the name of the father (in Silent Hill the game, it was assumed to be Dr. Kaufmann, but since he's not in the movie, that's irrelevent) she's harrassed by the town elders and her daughter is tormented by the local children, who's parents tell them she's a witch.

Finally, the town elders decide that it's time to cleanse their town of this sin by burning Alessa alive. They take her to Room 111 of the hotel, which is apparently where they do their dirty deeds that they believe have to be done, and begin burning her. However, before the job is finished, the some of the chains suspending Alessa over the fire break, the fire gets knocked over, and the hotel catches on fire. Firefighters arrive and find a badly burned, but still alive Alessa. They weren't able to put out the fire though before it spread to an underground coal vein, and once it hit that smoke and ashes would belch up through the ground for years to come. So the town was mostly evacuated, but the cult stayed. The circumstances that caused the fire to begin with where swept under a rug.

Alessa never recovered from her burns and became a permanent resident of the local hospital. Her mind started becoming increasingly twisted and warped, and at some point she was visted by a demon, the devil, or some dark god of Silent Hill. It's identity was never fully explained, but it's not really important. Whatever this being was, it offered Alessa the chance to take revenge on all those who had tormented her and put her in this state. The demon needed some outside help too though, so it created "Sharon", a little girl possessing all the goodness left in Alessa soul. The demon also created and took on the form of, we'll call her Evil Sharon that had all of Alessa's anger and rage and desire for revenge.

It was also probably around this time that the demon began "opening and closing the door to Silent Hill". That is, he trapped all the remaining inhabitants in a nightmarish otherworld version of the town (foggy Silent Hill), and used his power to prevent people from leaving it or entering it unless he wished for them to.

Dahlia still loved her daughter and wanted to help make up for what had happened, so she agreed to take Sharon out of Silent Hill to a local orphanage. Sharon was eventually adopted by Rose and Chris and in most respects she was a normal little girl and she knew nothing about her past. The dark forces of Silent Hill still had a strong grip on her though, and they would try to draw her back to the town along with her mother, which of course they did.

When Rose and Sharon entered Silent Hill, the demon allowed them to enter the otherworld Silent Hill. It also let Cybil in for some reason, I suppose to aid Rose on her quest. Chris and the police offers where not let in later, because the demon didn't want them meddling. Sharon was immediately drawn away from her mother on entering the town and so now Rose goes looking for her. Her path is laid out in such a way that in looking for her daughter, she'll also find clues about the life of another little girl named Alessa. Her path leads her to the school where Alessa was tormented, to the hotel where Alessa was burned, and finally to the hospital where Alessa is forced to live out the remainder of her days.

Along the way, Rose also meets up with the fanatical Silent Hill Cult who do their best to convince her that they are totally evil and insane. Well, they may be fanatical and they may be insane, but they also have a point. There are dark forces that roam Silent Hill and they may be to the only things that can hold it back. As we see, when the darkness hits, everyone returns to the church to pray, and after the prayer the darkness is lifted again. However, their fantaticism is also what led to the evil gaining a foothold in there town in the first place with the burning of Alessa.

The cultist agree to take Rose and Cybil to meet the demon and ask it where Sharon is, but they don't expect either of them to come back. More than likely, they only agreed to take them in the hopes that they would be killed off quickly and then they'd be rid of them. However, when Christobella sees Rose's locket with the picture of Sharon/Alessa, she knows that they've been been suckered somehow and tries to stop them from going, but Cybil holds them off while Rose goes down.

In the basement of the hospital, Rose finds Alessa's room and Evil Sharon. Evil Sharon explains to her how Alessa was tormented and tortured in order to build up sympathy for Alessa's case. Rose's maturnal instincts lead her to take the bait; hook, line, and sinker. Evil Sharon tells her that Alessa wishes to take her revenge on the crazy cultists and that Rose needs to help, which she agrees to. The demon enters Rose's body temporarily because the cultists faith prevent it from entering the church without help. This is the whole reason Rose was brought to Silent Hill in first place. Even the adoptation of Sharon was all just a ploy to lead her to this moment.

Rose goes back to the church and enters it with demon in tow. She curses Christobella and the other members for what they'd done, so Christobella stabs her. It's not blood that exits the wound though, but the demon that was inside her. Now that it has finally entered the last safe haven, Alessa is free to reap her revenge. Rose recues Sharon and hides in a corner until it's all over. Or at least until she thinks it's all over. During the grue filed finale, Evil Sharon merged with Sharon bringing the two parts together again.

But guess who else came along for the ride? Oh of course it was the demon. Now without the cult to check his power, he's free to spread his influence. Before, the otherworld only extended to the edge of Silent Hill where there was a deep chasm. But now the chasm is gone. Rose remains trapped in the otherworld with Sharon/Demon, who is now free continue it's reign of terror outside the confines of Silent Hill.

The End.