What Really Happened to Rose and Her Daughter in Silent Hill? Silent Hill (2006): Plot Analysis, Meaning, Ending & Its Explanation
Country: Canada, France, Japan, USA
Genre: horror, detective
Year of production: 2006
Director: Christoph Hans
Cast: Radha Mitchell, Jodelle Ferland, Laurie Holden, Sean Bean, Deborah Kara Unger
The movie Silent Hill (originally titled Silent Hill) is based on the popular Japanese computer game. The world premiere took place in April 2006, and the picture received mixed reviews from film critics. Perhaps this happened because the meaning of the film “Silent Hill” remained misunderstood by critics.
They noted the absurdity and banality of the plot, but positively characterized the visual component. By the way, it took only three months to shoot this picture, and most of the monsters here were played by real people – professional dancers. Let’s try to figure out what the hidden meaning of the Silent Hill movie is.
What is the movie about
We are talking about the film adaptation of the horror game “Silent Hill” from Konami. In the computer version, the passage of the storyline is based on the search for clues that will help you find a way out of the next location. This concept was completely incorporated into the plot of the film, the director only supplemented it with new images, making the idea more understandable and complete.
Silent Hill game from Konami.
Let’s start our review with a review of the content of the movie “Silent Hill”. The story begins with a woman named Rose Dasilva, along with her husband, looking for her adopted daughter Sharon. The girl suffers from sleepwalking, and during the next attack she got out of the house. Rose finds her daughter on the edge of a cliff, and at the last moment manages to prevent a step into the abyss.
Sharon constantly draws scary drawings and repeats the word “Silent Hill”. This is a ghost town, standing on the coal mines. 30 years ago, there was a strong fire that claimed the lives of many people. Now the town is abandoned. There is constant smog in it: coal in the collapse continues to smolder.
Rose sincerely wants to help her daughter cope with her pathology. On the sly from her husband, she and Sharon go to Silent Hill. Not far from the city, Rose attracts the attention of police officer Cybill Bennet. The patrol believes that Rose can harm the girl. Just recently, she took out a child from the Silent Hill mine, which was thrown there by a man.
Cybill catches up with Rose’s car at the entrance to the abandoned city, but she gives on the gas, and turns onto the road leading to the final destination of the trip. Suddenly, a child figure appears on the track, the woman turns the steering wheel to avoid a collision, and crashes into a guardrail. When Rose wakes up, Sharon is no longer in the car.
From this point on, the content of the film takes the viewer to the vastness of the horror game Silent Hill from Konami. The city greets Rose with empty streets and ash falling from the sky. A woman runs through the streets and calls her daughter. In the distance, she sees a child’s figurine, runs after it. A siren sounds, and the world is shrouded in darkness. The woman is attacked by monsters – Ash Children, who stretch their arms towards her. She tries to save herself, falls and loses consciousness. When Rose wakes up, it is already light around, the monsters have disappeared, but Cybill has appeared, snapping handcuffs on the woman’s wrists.
Laurie Holden as Policewoman Sybil and Rose, played by actress Radha Mitchell. Frame from the film.
Rose notices that the police officer has blood on her face, and she reports that she fell off her motorcycle. The officer is going to take the detainee to the nearest police station, but it is impossible to leave the city: there is a bottomless cliff where the road used to be. Suddenly, a monster appears, spitting acid. While Cybill shoots the monster, Rose, with her hands chained, runs off to look for her daughter.
She is sure that the girl is in the elementary school building. A woman wanders through the empty corridors, where unknown people in strange protective suits begin to pursue her. Rose locks herself in the closet when the siren sounds again. Unknown people hurriedly run away, and the surrounding space begins to change. Monsters and small parasites appear right from the walls. The Executioner moves along the corridor with a huge sword. Cybill finds Rose, and together they try to escape from this nightmare. When the darkness recedes, the women go in search of the girl, and suddenly discover that there are people in the city.
These are local residents who hide in the church, and are sure that only here you can escape from the Demon that has occupied the city. Together with one of the townspeople, Rose and Cybill get to the church and discover a small religious community here. The creatures of darkness cannot get inside, which creates the illusion of security.
Christabella is in charge here. She informs Rose that the Demon can bring her daughter back to her and tells her how to find him. As the escorts escort the women to the elevator, Christabella hands Rose a medallion that was dropped to her with a photograph of her daughter. In the picture, the leader of the community recognizes Alessa, a girl who was previously accused of witchcraft. Now for the community, Rose becomes a witch. Officer Bennet pushes Rose into the elevator, she herself engages in a fight with the cultists.
Rose’s daughter, Sharon. This role was played by Jodille Ferland. Frame from the film.
Rose gets to the Demon’s home, and learns the real history of the city. There was no fire in the mines. At school, Alessa was ridiculed by her classmates, and under pressure from Christabell, the girl’s mother, Dahlia, agreed to the rite of purification. During the exorcism of the demon, the girl receives terrible burns and ends up in the hospital. Her fear transforms into hatred, and awakens magical power within her. It is she who gives birth to monsters, and wants to infiltrate the church in order to punish everyone who once treated her unfairly. Alessa’s consciousness was divided into Light and Dark sides. She sent the first one to an orphanage, and so the girl ended up in Rose’s house. The second stayed with her, and is trying to get into the church to commit revenge.
While the truth is revealed to Rose, Christabelle manages to find Sharon. Dahlia hides the girl, mistaking her for her daughter. Sharon finds herself in a church and sees Cybill being burned alive by religious zealots. She is next in line, but a foster mother appears on the threshold. Rose rebukes Christabelle for the delusions that led to the city’s demise. She, in response to the accusations, beats the woman with a knife, and together with the blood, the Dark essence of Alessa penetrates inside the temple. Justice is being administered. After that, Rose and her daughter leave the city.
The description will be incomplete if we do not note the fact that in parallel with the adventures of Rose, the Silent Hill film also shows the second storyline. Here the woman’s husband, Christophe, is trying to find his wife and daughter. He also visited Silent Hill with Police Inspector Thomas Gucci, but found nothing strange.
It is in this bifurcation of the plot that the explanation of the film “Silent Hill” lies.
Plot transcript
Let’s start with the interpretation and explanation of the plot. The clue lies in the fact that the real events with Rose occur only up to the moment of the accident. The meaning is that Rose and her daughter died, and ended up in Alessa’s personal purgatory, which she arranged in the city. All events that are accompanied by falling ash are Rose’s afterlife.
Here she is looking for her daughter, because during her lifetime she had no children of her own. However, the girl’s soul belongs to Alessa. Therefore, in order to free her, you need to help her commit revenge. All further events are built precisely to achieve this goal.
Christoph’s story takes place in real life. Here he lost his wife and daughter. The movie “Silent Hill” does not give an explanation of what exactly happened to them, but the fact that they died is beyond doubt.
The story of Officer Bennet also happens to her after death. Cybill died in a motorcycle crash. Rose sees her transport as it leaves the cursed city. However, even after death, Cybill tries to help and find the child even in the afterlife.
The meaning of the ending
In short, the ending unequivocally indicates that the souls of Rose and Sharon have returned home. This is the only explanation of the ending that every viewer can understand. Christoph feels them, but does not see them. However, the hidden meaning of the film “Silent Hill” requires a more detailed analysis. At the end, we are told the real history of the city.
Witches were burned in Silent Hill, which led to the birth of a religious cult. These are real fanatics who chose a girl born out of wedlock as their victim. It is likely that one of the ancestors of Alessa possessed magical abilities that manifested themselves after the rite of purification.
Frame from the film.
In fact, this girl burned the city with her hatred, but she could not get to her offenders. Then she flooded the city with nightmares, turning it into her crazy toy. The point here is that evil done always begets evil. Alessa only wanted to deal with the people who hurt her, but she couldn’t do it on her own. Sharon was always drawn to the city, but she did not understand why.
At the end of the film, the dark side of Alessa remained in Purgatory, and she herself completely became her Light Half and left the cursed city forever to find peace in the ghostly world. By the way, this is not the end of the story, because there is a second part of Silent Hill. The meaning of the continuation is by reference.
