***Silent Hill

Sony, 125 minutes, R

DVD $29.99

From the back cover: “Based on the best-selling horror action game, Silent Hill stars Radha Mitchell (Man on Fire) as Rose, a desperate mother who takes her adopted daughter, Sharon, to the town of Silent Hill in an attempt to cure her of her ailment. After a violent car crash, Sharon disappears and Rose begins her desperate search to get her back. She descends into a fog of smoking ash and into the center of the twisted reality of a town’s terrible secret. Pursued by grotesquely deformed creatures and a townspeople stuck in permanent purgatory, Rose begins to uncover the truth behind the apocalyptic disaster that burned the town 30 years back.”

This is a taut, chilling thriller. The atmosphere of the town is incredibly creepy, there are some genuine “gotcha” moments and the ending is both sad and haunting (not to mention leaving things ready for a sequel). Going into this, I was not aware that it was based on a game and can honestly say that you do not need to be familiar with the game Silent Hill in order to enjoy this film.

I have not yet checked out the special features on the DVD, the film alone was enough to convince me to add this one to our DVD Library. Recommended - Stephanie L Bannon