SILENT HILL — * — Radha Mitchell, Sean Bean, Alice Krige; rated R (violence, gore, profanity, brief partial nudity, brief drugs); Carmike 12 and Ritz 15 Theaters; Century Theatres 16 (Salt Lake City and Sandy); Cinemark 24 at Jordan Landing; Megaplex 12 at The Gateway; Megaplex 17 at Jordan Commons; Red Carpet 5-Star and Gateway 8 Cinemas; Redwood Drive-in; Westates Holladay Centre Cinemas 6.
The truly scary thing about "Silent Hill" is that it's 127 minutes long, which means it's a good 20 to 30 minutes longer than most of the other similarly awful films inspired by video games.
That might not be such a bad thing if this yawn-inducing fantasy-horror tale had enough plot to sustain such an unwieldy running time, but instead it strictly adheres to the game's plot. Characters run around in creepy buildings and occasionally encounter something threatening or bump into someone who's talking in riddles. And then their actions are repeated endlessly.
Watching the movie is akin to watching someone else play one of the "Silent Hill" games; you'll get itchy to control the action or enter a "cheat code" so you can just skip to the ending. Better yet, a power button to turn it off would be nice.
Radha Mitchell ("Finding Neverland") stars as Rose Da Silva, an Ohio mother whose adopted daughter, Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), has been suffering from dangerous bouts of sleepwalking. So Rose decides to take Sharon back to where she was originally found, a West Virginia mining town named Silent Hill. On the way, she apparently crashes her vehicle and awakens in a deserted, ashen ghost town. And Sharon goes missing.
Director Christophe Gans ("Brotherhood of the Wolf") and his fellow screenwriters have also concocted a dual story line in which Rose's husband (Sean Bean) tries to convince local police authorities to help him search for his missing wife and daughter. It's just padding for a film that's already far too long.
Large portions of the movie consist of scenes in which Mitchell runs around what appears to be a soggy haunted-house attraction, albeit with better production values than most.
The uninspiring material might explain why the normally reliable Mitchell gives such a robotic performances. And Alice Krige (who was scary in both "Ghost Story" and "Star Trek: First Contact") can't even muster enough energy to appear sinister here.
"Silent Hill" is rated R for strong scenes of horror violence (including creature attacks, vehicular violence, violence against women and children in peril), bloody gore and goo, as well as other disturbing imagery, occasional use of strong sexual profanity, brief glimpses of partial female nudity and some brief drug content (references). Running time: 127 minutes.
E-mail: jeff@desnews.com