The Cassandra Complex

On Saturday, after Capital_Mum and Cthulu organised as babysitter for their little girl, they, myself and M. went to see the horror movie Silent Hill.

Based on the scariest series of computer games I have ever played, it’s the story of the mother of an adopted girl called Sharon who sleepwalks and has seizures where she screams out the name of the ghost town "Silent Hill"; her father wants her to be hospitalised, so her mother, Rose, flees with her to take her to Silent Hill, thinking that whatever Sharon’s trauma is, it can be resolved there.

Worst. Mistake. Ever.

Silent Hill is an abandoned town where everything is covered in a still-falling ash from underground coal fires that started 30 years ago, and where radios don’t work … except when things draw close. Best not to ask what sort of things.

I liked the movie adaptations of the game Resident Evil, and liked (with qualifications) the Tomb Raider movies too, but I LOVED this movie! It captured the creepy atmospherics of the game perfectly, and didn’t need to resort to things jumping out at you to scare you. Instead, it uses extremely vivid (and gory) details and juxtapositions of the most disturbing kind – the sort of thing you could expect to find in your most twisted be-tentacled Japanese anime. Psychological horror, I guess you could call it.

This is not a movie for anyone under 16. I’d almost go 18.

The only time I wasn’t able to suspend my disbelief during the whole thing was when the child actor who plays Sharon is in a scene where she has to do a bit of exposition – I sometimes find it hard to give child actors the credit that they probably deserve. But, mostly, she was very good too. Creepy little thing.

If you’re the sort who has nightmares after seeing a scary movie, don’t see this. Otherwise, it’s a must-see.