The cult were dead and stuck in a purgatory/hell/limbo, denying the fact that they were damned, believing that their faith in (their version of) God protects them - I believe this is well-stressed. Rose and Sybil both died in their crashes, and The Demon automatically brings their souls into Foggy Silent Hill. They do not know that they died and therefore are in the same state as the cultists.

Where do their bodies go? I don't know. I assume that The Demon can manifest flesh and even make it vanish; after all, where does baby Sharon come from?

Considering the strong religious overtones, I took it like a play on The Trinity; Allessa is God, The Demon ("I have many names") is the (un)Holy Spirit and Sharon is Jesus, sent to our world as a "savior".

However, I tend to agree with DonnachaOne's interpretation over Joe Molotovs. First, I'm a huge fan of the games, played through several times, got the alien endings. So that agreement means the movie really strays from the games even moreso, but there's one big reason that I don't think they are alive. First, I don't think the ending was implying that the demon has now spread outside of Silent Hill. The demon was simply based on Alessa's vengeance, and her vengeance is now done. They've rejoined her to Sharon and Alessa is basically getting a second chance.

I think this was all a part of the master plan. Why make a good Sharon? To get the kind of mother Alessa should have had from the beginning. There is no other reason. Just making a random baby that has all of Alessa's "good" parts, long since lost, is illogical. The demon/Alessa had to have an endgame for it, and we watched it. They sent her out into the world, where she would get the good mother she wanted. Clearly the two form of a bond, and I think the reason the husband gets left out is because Alessa never had a father. So Alessa and the demon send out the good Sharon. They put a seed in her head, and when she reaches the same age as when Alessa died, it goes off and is simply a trap to lure the ideal mother to Silent Hill. They orchestrate things knowing that through this outsider they finally have a way to finish their vengeance that the cult's faith has stayed for so long. And boom, that's what happens.

After that happens, well, clearly Sharon isn't just Sharon anymore. The opening of the eyes to look at the demon and then the look of almost pity that she gave Dahlia, Sharon wouldn't have done that. But in the backseat we saw her sucking her thumb, implying the good is still there. I think the demons job is done, and I think it merely recreated Alyssa. Now the ending having Sharon & Rose still in Silent Hill's dimension while in their home could mean two things. Well, three including Joe Molotov's interpretation. That the demon is now inside Sharon, and it's evil has spread to the entire world. That for some bizarre reason Alessa just wants a mother, and thus the "Mother is God" that was emphasized. She has no use for a father, doesn't want one, etc. She just wants her God. Therefore, the final deal with the demon Alessa made was to keep Rose and her in a seperate dimension, such that they could be able to do "normal" things, but that it would just be the two of them. Really kind of ripped from the Ring 2 if you accept that view of things.

And the final one is the one I think most likely. I'll point out the main clues to that before I go into the details: First, we are told that a lot of people died in the fire that was started. The detective's father for one. This doesn't add up with Alessa in the hospital though. How could half the town have died and yet she's taken to the town's hospital and stays there for years? Well, if anyone has insight on that, I'd love to hear it. But I'm going to accept that the cultists are dead. Rose tells them that when she seeks to dispel their misguided faith, I'm positive she said "You all are dead!" The other clue, the cop said they found Rose's SUV. They wouldn't have left it there, they obviously towed it. And yet it exists in Silent Hill.

I agree, I think in the movie they died. The cop skidded off the road on a motorcycle, and Rose hit her head with enough force to kill someone on the steering wheel. Sharon didn't die, and didn't need to. She was a manifestation of the town in the real world, and simply came home. But I agree, I think it was purgatory, that Alessa had died long ago along with everybody else. And for Alessa to have another shot at a "normal" life, the mother she needed had to die to join her. What else explains the demon popping out on the street and forcing a wreck? The chances of doing that and having both Rose and the cop survive but lose conciousness are weak. It makes no sense that they have to lose conciousness to enter the evil Silent Hill. They either should have just driven in and entered the other-world once they crossed the bridge or they did in fact die.

She did it to kill them both so they could join Alessa in Purgatory. Now they live forever more, not alive but not dead. Rose doesn't know she's dead, so she lingers. I think that's what the fog inside their house means. Rose doesn't even notice it, she goes on like she's home at last. I think that instead of that fog implying that the demon is now a world-wide corporation, it means that we're in a purgatory/ghostly dimension. And thus the husband smelling her perfume when their paths crossed, something that one might expect from a ghost. The movie had mega quotes that were zoomed in on for several seconds at a time, all of those quotes had to do with judgement. While I don't know much about Purgatory since it's a Catholic thing, I am pretty sure it's where some people believe you go to be judged. And to get there you have to die. Thus, if Silent Hill, in the movie's interpretation, is Purgatory, Rose and company are all dead. While that definitely takes a major detour from the game, it's the best I've come up with to have the ending make sense.

Seeing this movie made me want to re-read some of the lore... This guide on GameFAQ's is just insane in it's level of analysis, if you have any interest in the lore and played the games or want spoilers... And if you have about ten hours to read: http://db.gamefaqs.com/console/ps2/f...l_4_plot_a.txt A direct quote that supports the Rose is dead idea: "Worthy of note is the occult magazine from SH3, which says that people, who died a sudden death, can still exist (as psychic energy), not realizing their death."

The most memorable thing about him in the game is easily his penchant for raping things. I don't know if the world is ready for Pyramid Head screwing a couple zombie-like things on the big screen.

i thought silent hill was an "alternate world" from the real world and the demon could let in who they wanted. the real alessa got so angry she formed a seperate person, her entire evil side. they also created her entire good side which we know as sharon. once rose helps alessa, the evil alessa joins back with sharon, so now sharon is good/evil. also, she doesn't want rose to leave silent hill. she also has the power to keep rose not only in silent hill, but "the dark world" as well which extends far beyond silent hill.

who knows what he did to that girl's body after he ripped off both her clothes and skin?

After seeing The Sixth Sense, The Others, and about a million Lost threads, I'd just rather not believe that they were all dead and this was some kind of purgatory. I'll accept that they were in a purgatory of sorts, that they were trapped in some kind of limbo between this world and something else. That could explain why time doesn't seem to pass the same way there, and none of the people were as old as they probably should be. And I'll also accept that Alessa/Sharon brought Rose there because she wanted a mother figure, and that's why she kept Rose there after the final battle. But I just don't like the idea that they were all really dead. For one thing, Dhalia left the town at one point to take Sharon to the orphanage. Also, the people there don't appear to be spirits. They still eat, they still bleed, they can still die.

I'll admit though, it does seem a bit suspicious that they both have a wreck and then wake up in this strange place, but that is the way it happened in the game and Harry was still alive there (unless you got the Bad- ending). I hate to have to fall back on the game for reference since so much has been changed from that to this, but in all four games the protagonist was still alive inside Silent Hill, despite what it may have seemed.

The only CGI gore sequence that I remember was the end. The rest of the violent bits were all makeup and practical effects. The creatures looked vaguely CGI-ish because the makeup team were instructed to make everything look fake, plasticy and slimy, but that was an intentional design choice. Either way, the ending was the only gore sequence that was CGI.

the second film could almost be a verbatim adaptation of the second game with Sean Bean playing the role of the man looking for his family in Silent Hill. It could also bring in some more of Pyramid Head as he is apparently a focal point of the second game.

Pyramid Head represents basic, aggressive male sexuality.

loses his wife

Rose realizes she's been duped(if she hadn't figured it out by the end of the first) and attempts to go on the run with Sharon (not knowing she's got a lot of evil in her) to find anywhere that may not be secluded. This leads her to nearby metropolitan area Washington, D.C. Imagine Silent Hill in a big urban setting?