Silent Hill: Plot analysis

By Shamus Posted Tuesday Oct 24, 2006

Filed under: Movies 274 comments

Reading the reviews of Silent Hill on Netflix, it seems that a very large portion of the viewers couldn’t make any sense of the movie at all. The movie didn’t require the viewer to really know or understand any specific backstory (the characters in the movie are all new) but it does help to have a sense for how these stories work and how Silent Hill (the town) operates.

The movie leaves things very open, but below is my own take on it. Massive spoilers follow.


Sometime in the mid 70’s, the town of Silent Hill was a depressed mining community in West Virgina. The town had a major cult / sect / congregation of believers and zealots that were quite strict and fairly harsh. The story is not explicit, but it seems like a large part of the town must have been part of the cult.

Alessa Gilesspe was a young girl (10-ish) who attended the apparently all-girl parochial school. She seemed to be illegitimate. Dahlia, her mother, was raising Alyessa on her own, and refused to identify the father to the increasingly overbearing church elders. It is unclear why they wanted to know this. Perhaps they suspected that the father was a member of their congregation, and they wanted to identify him so they could punish him for adultery / fornication / or general hitting it without the blessing of the elders.

Eventually they concluded that Alessa must be a witch. (I can’t recall what set this off. If anyone remembers please refresh my memory.) The elders decided to “purify” her. The mother wasn’t even sure what this involved, but she didn’t seem to have much choice. Maybe she hoped they would perform some sort of exorcism and leave it at that, and the elders would leave her alone. Dahlia and Alessa were taken to the hotel, Alessa was taken in, and Dahlia was sent away.

It turned out that “purification” had nothing to do with holy water and praying. It was a gool old-fashioned witch burning. Worse, it wasn’t a quick burning, but a slow roasting over hot coals. It was not clear why the cult favored the slower burning, other than the fact they were evil bastards. Alessa was suspended over a fire and roasted alive.

Part way through the ordeal, one of the chains holding her burning contraption in place failed, and hot coals were scattered all over the floor. A fire was started and a lot of the building was burned. The paramedics rescued Alessa in the mayhem (I guess at least some people in the town were not fully loyal to the cult) and she was taken to the hospital.

She was horribly disfigured and in intense pain as she languished in the intensive care unit. Eventually The Devil (or A devil) showed up, and the story gets even more vague. Apparently the devil made a deal with Alessa: “Let me in, and I’ll give you the power to get revenge.” Perhaps it was her youth and innocence that made the deal possible. Perhaps it was something to do with the cult. Whatever it was, she agreed to it and let the devil in.

Shortly after, there was a fire in the coal mine. Poisonous gas erupted and the town had to be evacuated. Many people died. From the outside, it looked like an empty ghost town.

Inside of Silent Hill, Alessa had dragged her enemies into some alternate hell-world copy of Silent Hill. The cult members thought that the Apocalypse had come and the whole world was covered in darkness. For them, it was. They hid in the Church, where their faith would “keep them safe”.

And as it turns out, it did. Alessa could transform the town of Silent Hill into a world of nightmares and darkness which would kill anyone she wished. The problem was that her darkness could not penetrate the church. Their faith really did keep her out.

Thus began a decades long game of cat-and-mouse, where the people would come out of the church in search of food, and Alessa would try to bring the darkness and catch them before they could return. The town would shift between dark Silent Hill (a place of strange fog and the occasional monster) to evil Silent Hill. (A place of pure torment, evil, and darkness.) Birds seemed to sense that the evil was coming a good 30 seconds before the effects were visible to humans, so they took a page from their mining heritage and carried a canary in a cage. When the bird panicked, they would make a run for it.

Meanwhile, in the real world Silent Hill was just a big empty town. There were no people and the fumes from the coal fires made the place too dangerous to live. It is unclear if time passed at the same rate for the cult members trapped in Alessa’s nightmare town, although the story is a bit easier to understand if we think of the nightmare world as more or less timeless. (Otherwise, most cult members should have died of old age, or at the very least be frail and old by now, since most were middle-aged in the mid 70’s.

Back in the real world:

In the mid 90’s a baby was left of the steps of an orphanage. That baby was eventually adopted by Rose and Christopher Da Silva. The girl had nightmares about the town of Silent Hill, although she had never been there. Desperate for a cure (and in order to get the plot going) Rose took their daughter Sharon to Silent Hill in hopes that she could figure out what made the kid so nuts. Rose, Sharon, and a police officer ended up in some sort of crash just outside of Silent Hill in the real world. When they woke up, they were in dark Silent Hill, and there was fog everywhere. Thus begins the movie.

Let’s switch over to Q & A style here:

Q. What was the connection between Alessa and Sharon? Why did they look the same?
A. The movie hinted that Sharon was what was left of the little girl Alessa. Like, the devil sort of displaced the little girl… so she, like appeared as a baby? Or something.

This is the big mystery of the movie, and it doesn’t really make sense to me. Alessa got reincarnated, or recreated, and got another chance at life as a new baby. She was adopted by the De Silvas who named her Sharon. But her connection to Alessa made her a very sick kid. As she drew near the age that Alessa was when she was roasted, she began to have nightmares of Silent Hill.

Q. How did Rose, Sharon, and the police officer manage to cross into dark Silent Hill? Other people came into SH from time to time and were never dragged into Alessa’s version of the town.
A. Several answers are possible:

Perhaps dark SH is a realm of the dead, and the characters all died in the crash. The only problem with this is that Christopher should have found the SUV with their bodies in it if this was the case. The vehicle was sitting idle in the middle of the only road into town, so it doesn’t seem likely that people in the real world would miss it.

They were all knocked out during the crash. Perhaps it was breathing the poisoned fumes of the mines for a long time that pulled them in. Perhaps sleeping in SH is like sleeping in the snow. You can walk around the town for a short period with no ill effects, but going to sleep will pull you in for good.

My guess is that it was simply being in Sharon’s presence that caused them to cross over. Sharon was connected to Alessa, so being with her at night, in Silent Hill, while she was asleep, was what triggered their crossing over.

Q. At the end, why didn’t Rose and Sharon return to the real world? They left Silent Hill, but the darkness was everywhere once they left town.
A. Remember that during the final moments when Alessa was slaughtering all the cultists with her barbed wire tendrils, Rose told Sharon to close her eyes. Sharon peeked, and when she opened her eye the devil (Alessa) was smiling at her. It seems this let the devil in. This seems like a bit of a cheat on the part of the devil, but works if you accept that her deal with Alessa extended to Sharon. With everyone dead, there was nobody left to torment here. Time to move on and cause trouble elsewhere. When they left town, it wasn’t that the darkness was everywhere, it was that it was following them. It was centered on Sharon now. However, Sharon hadn’t been tormented. She wasn’t full of anger and a desire for revenge. There wasn’t anyone she really wanted to hurt. It is unclear what would happen next. Sharon and Rose were trapped in darkness, but it seems like there would be nothing to trigger the evil that they witnessed in Silent Hill.

Also, remember that Rose let the devil into herself before going to the church. She came back out later, but still: That can’t be good for you. It is also possible that they got stuck in darkness because of this.

Q: What happened in the end when Alessa was able to enter the church?
A: In the outside world, 30 years passed between the time the town was emptied and the start of the movie. It’s difficult to know how long it was for the people in the town, since they seemed to be on a different timeline. In any case, Alessa and the cultists played cat-and-mouse for a long time. She wanted to kill them all, but was only able to nab the slow ones.

She needed a way to get into the church. The devil entered Rose (sort of without her consent, although it seemed sort of harmless) and waited. Rose entered the church and was stabbed. It wasn’t until her tainted blood hit the floor that Alessa had a way in. Now we see their policy of burning witches – while evil and sadistic – was actually useful for fending off evil. If they had burned Rose they may well have remained safe.

Seems like a bit of a gamble on the part of the devil, to count on the cultists breaking tradition and spilling blood. Not that it would have cared about Rose, but chances to get into the church must have been few and far between. It could have improved those odds quite a bit by instructing Rose to bleed a bit once inside.

OR:

Perhaps it wasn’t the spilling of blood, but Rose’s own will. Remember that this devil seems to feed off of people’s lust for revenge. It didn’t just show up and start killing people at random. It had to make a deal with an angry child who wanted revenge, and then use her will for revenge. It couldn’t hurt people she didn’t want to hurt, or it couldn’t hurt people unless she had a real grievance against them. It entered Rose, but it didn’t have any power until Rose wanted to kill those cultists herself.

This doesn’t answer all of the questions, but this is how I managed to map the thing out on my own. Other explanations are possible. Your mileage may vary.

 


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274 thoughts on “Silent Hill: Plot analysis

  1. Roy says:

    A few notes: it wasn’t just that Alessa was fatherless that was a problem (although that was clearly a big no-no in Silent Hill), but that she was sexually molested by the janitor. They decide to cleanse her with fire to purge her of the sins of being fatherless and of her sexual experience (yes. That’s screwed up).

    About the end: Rose made a deal with a demon, but, as I recall (and I could be wrong), that deal was for them to be able to leave Silent Hill- not necessarily for them to get back to the “real” world. I also there are sort of three realities at play- the Real Silent Hill, grey/purgatory Silent Hill, and black/Evil Silent Hill. They’re trapped in the grey Silent Hill, which is sort of the least you’d expect if you’re willing to make a deal with a devil. ;)

  2. Shamus says:

    The Janitor, right. I knew there was another catalyst that I was forgetting.

    I have to admit, she really was creative in getting revenge on that guy.

    1. Joseph Ortiz says:

      Yes she was molested by the janitor….but what i got from this is that because he molested her she had become pregnant. Remember she survived the burning and “the devil/dark side of Alessa” left her baby aka Sharon at the orphanage.

      The scene where Rose finally reaches the real Alessa.

      Rose asks
      “where my child?”
      The Devil responds with
      “Shes not your child”
      The Devil points to the real Alessa and says
      “Shes hers”.

      Thats why i believe that Sharon is actually the child of the janitor and Alessa.

      1. Kittykatwolf says:

        But it said that the burning happened over 30 years ago, and Sharon is only 9

  3. Chrome says:

    “The girl had nightmares about the town of Silent Hill, although she had never been there.”

    I think she was concieved in Silent Hill, however she was born and adopted from an orphanage in a nearby town. See below for more info.

    “…Otherwise, most cult members should have died of old age…”

    I believe the cultists are already dead, either victims of the “Purification” fire or the following mine fire. Rose says as much when she enters the church while possesed by the demon. In this way, time or their apperent age is not a factor as they are ghosts that haunt the town and are unlikey to age.

    This suggests that the police officer, Rose and Sharon died in the crash to allow them to enter the realm of the dead. It is mentioned by the police to the father that many of the bodies from the mine fire were never found so I assume that anyone pulled into Alessa’s limbo physically disapears from the real world. This would explain why the bodies of Rose and Sharon were not found at the crash site.

    Which brings me to the point that Alessa must have died of her wounds after making a deal with the demon, trapping Alessa and the dead cultists in limbo so that she could seek her revenge. This would explain Alessa’s ability to manifest the darkness as a ghost aided by the powers of a demon.

    I also believe that Sharon was the result of the janitors rape and was saved from the womb of Alessa before she died of her burns. So, Sharon is the baby that was saved from the dying Alessa and then adopted out. The demon takes on the form of Alessa before the “Purification” burns which is why she looks so similar to Sharon…her surviving daughter. The problem with this is though it fits, there is no suggestion of a baby being removed from the dying Alessa.

    The only thing that confuses me is why Rose and Sharon remain in limbo at the end of the movie unless returning to thier home, is there version of heaven.

    1. verhold says:

      Well, Sharon can’t really be Alissa and the Janitor’s child, since she was born about 20 years after the events in the past (mid-70s, as we are led to believe). There must be something else….

      1. Jessica says:

        Correct. Sharon is not the daughter of Alessa. Alessa was assaulted in 1974, and Sharon was created somewhere around 1995. Sharon is the manifestation of the good side of Alessa’s soul, just as the evil little girl (Dark Alessa) is the manifestation of Alessa’s dark side.

        1. Chelsea says:

          However near the end when Rose meets the burned Alessa she asks the bad Alessa, “where’s my daughter” In which she replies, “she’s not your daughter! She’s hers” and point to the bed where the burned Alessa is.

          1. Jessica says:

            Dark Alessa is being metaphorical when she says that (the exact line is “She’s not your child. She’s hers. The little girl is what’s left of her goodness”). Sharon does come from Alessa (as does Dark Alessa), but not by being her daughter. Sharon is just a manifestation containing Alessa’s good side, hence why the director says on the French official site for the film that he hired the actress to play “multiple incarnations of a same character”.

        2. Joseph Ortiz says:

          Remember lol with the power of “the devil” anything is possible. This is basically what makes silent hill…..well SILENT HILL!!!!! lol

      2. SuperiorRobyn says:

        Not only that but most 9-10 year olds can’t get pregnant and besides as someone else stated, It says outright in the movie the Sharon is the good that was left in Alessa.

        1. Alexandria says:

          Actually, you can get pregnant at almost any age, unless you’ve gone through the menopause. Though it is very rare to get your menstrual cycle at the age of 9, it does occur. So, Alessa could have gotten pregnant at 9.

    2. Just_an_inquirer says:

      While your argument is valid and seems to be what could possibly be going on here, I do have a few questions about your statements. If Sharon was Alessa and the janitor’s physical offspring, then how come she is an exact copy of Alessa and doesn’t have any qualities of the janitor? Also if they are all dead then how come Alessa can kill people in the Silent Hill hell realm? I don’t want to disagree or tell you that you’re wrong. I’m just trying to hear what your thought process on this is.

  4. Chrome says:

    *Corrections

    Sharon was born in Silent Hill before being moved to an orphanage in a nearby town, as her mother Alessa was hospitalized there!

    Alessa may not have died, but then she would only be kept alive by the demons power. But this would leave you wondering why she was never found by the initial search parties so I think this is unlikley.

    There is no reason to believe the demon entered Sharon at the end of the movie, or motive.

    I still have no proof that Sharon was born of Alessa as a result of the janitors rape, but damn it fits into the story well…doesn’t it?

    1. Diane Shleibak says:

      It says outright in the movie that Sharon was the goodness still left in Alyssa. Side note: the movie completely messed up the original storyline from the game. Dahlia burned Alyssa alive in the house because Alyssa didn’t want to give birth to the cult’s god, which she was pregnant with at the time. That is why she didn’t die from her wounds and why they kept her in the hospital basement. She was to be kept there until the time came for her to give birth to this demon god of theirs. Some of the hospital staff were a part of the cult, and did what they were told on threats that they would be cut off from the drugs the cult had all it’s members hopelessly addicted to.

    2. Rockndudette says:

      Look, she is not her daughter. It is the magic power of the devil. Like the devil needed space to fit in, so she got rid of the good in her and abracadabra a bay is outside an orphanage, outside SH.

      1. Jessica says:

        That makes no sense. Sharon wasn’t created until 21 years after Dark Alessa came into being. Plus, Dark Alessa isn’t the devil. She’s the incarnation of the dark side of Alessa’s soul.

        1. Eff EL says:

          You mean manifestation, and not true. She was actually Satan, himself. She states that she has many names and forms. She was assisting in Alessa’s hatred and anger.

          1. Jessica says:

            Nope, Dark Alessa is not Satan, or any form of Christian being. The idea has been debunked by the director in his commentary on the French Blu-Ray, and the actress has also debunked it in various interviews. She is the incarnation of the dark side of Alessa’s soul, nothing more, nothing less.

        2. rockndudette says:

          i think she might of been waiting (maybe for 20 yrs) in the hostpital her will slowly leaving her untill she was weak enough for the devil to take her soul and push out the good in her soul, bang there is a baby* out side the orphanage.

          1. Jessica says:

            Alessa was only in the hospital for a few hours before Dark Alessa came to her. The town was abandoned the same night she was burned because of the fire, so there would be no one to tend to her if she had still been there years later. What happened was that her pain was so intense that she split into “several Alessas” (director’s words), and was approached by “her evil side”.

      2. Why does everyone here say she isn’t her daughter just because the time passed from Alessa taking the devil in to the time when Sharon is born is 20 years in OUR WORLD. From what I understand, the Evil Silent Hill is a limbo version of the normal Silent Hill, and that time is either 1. not present in the Evil version of Silent Hill, 2. time is actually slower in the Evil SH and the normal SH moves at a faster rate (we interpret it to move at a faster rate, kind of like how 1 year to the christian God is 1000 years to humans) so that the birth of Sharon happens after 20 years go by (in the normal world, while only a few hours or days could have passed in the Evil SH). Although this doesn’t explain how the child would be born from Alessa outside of the Evil version, unless the Dark Alessa has the power to send people from the Evil SH to the normal SH at will, but maybe it’s harder to specify who transitions into the Evil SH from the normal SH, meaning that Dark Alessa can’t only let Sharon in Evil SH without letting Rose and the cop in, which would explain why Rose and the cop crossed over with her, this would also mean that none of the cultists have technically aged in Evil SH, so they could be the same cultists from the very beginning. Dark Alessa also probably could have made it so that Sharon (the good part of Alessa) was born 20 years after the creation of Dark Alessa. Don’t mean to hate on anyone for having an opinion, it just doesn’t make since to me why people have to say that there is no possible way that Sharon is Alessa’s child because to us 20 years have passed in the normal SH but no one can comprehend the possibility of Evil SH not being bound to the laws of time, I mean, there is literally a DEVIL inside of Alessa, devils are literally evil versions of gods, and gods in almost all faiths are not bound to the laws of physics or any laws of our world, so yeah, think whatever you want but I’m just poppin’ some spicy ideas out there that could very well be true.

        Sincerely, Pimp Slickweener

        1. Also I don’t think they all died and moved to Evil SH because it never states that they are dead in the movie and also why would Dark Alessa let Sharon die when she wanted her so desperately that she makes her have nightmares and visions of SH and makes her want to go there. It just makes no sense that she would kill them.

          1. Noni says:

            I think it’s bull crap because they made a whole silent hill 2 revelation and Chris the father same guy is in it Sharon is too but she grown up to be a older teenager. So Sharon never died. And Rose apparently didn’t either because it was said that she sent Sharon back home told Chris to take care of her but some how Sharon is still stuck in SILENT HILL the writers got lazy n left out clear parts to me it does seem possibly Alessa is Sharon mom due to the rape I guess the cleansing means she was not pure a virgin any more and they wanted to kill her Cleanse her. I’m left with confusion because they made a part two of this movie and the ending turns into Sharon living and the dad living and the friend that was made during the movie the fog goes back everything is clear the dad makes the decision to go back into the silent hill Looking for rose so I guess willingly looking to get in you’ll get in and certain circumstances u can get out. I’m just confused it’s not quite clear.

  5. Shamus says:

    I thought the same thing: That Sharon is Alessa’s daughter with the janitor. The only problem is that Alessa became pregnant before the fire (more than 30 years ago) and Sharon is only ten. This really bothers me about the timeline. If they had just made the disaster 10 years ago the movie would make a lot more sense.

    The only problem with them dying in the crash is that you would think their SUV would stay in the real world. Although, if you’re willing to accept the SUV entering the nighmare world then you are right: It makes sense that they all died in the crash.

  6. Chrome says:

    Your right, didn’t even realise and it blows my theory out of the water. So what is the origin of Sharon? A physical being materializing from a ghost world years after the ‘cultist vs Alessa’ limbo was created. Now I’m just confused. :)

  7. jerk-o-matic says:

    The grey, ash-covered Silent Hill is purgatory. The zealots, who are dead but don’t know it, set events into motion when the burned Alessa, an innocent, which is why the chains broke on her grill(?); as the movie states “their weapons were used against them.”
    Now some plot holes are exposed here: 1.) Alessa is first tormented by her schoolmates because she is an illegitimate child. Fleeing her tormentors, she isolates herself, and is molested by the janitor, Collin. It’s implied that she becomes pregnant, and when questioned, Dahlia, Alesssa’s mother, cannot name the father. The zealots then assume the unborn is a demon spawn and decide to “purify” her. Dahlia does not realize that they intend to burn her, but does little to stop whatever action they intend to take (which is why Dahlia is trapped in purgatory SH with the others, but not punished to the same extreme, she must live out the existence she ‘condemned’ Alessa to). 2.) The fire that starts during the Alessa burning seems to be the fire that split SH into real and purgatory, but that cannot be, since what’s left of Alessa is rescued and suffers in a hospital. So it is to be assumed that when the demon girl manifests itself from Alessa’s pain and hatred, this transformation (the part where the demon-incarnate touches the curtain and all turns to ash) is the real fire that destroyed the town. 3.) So now, the question is, where exactly does Sharon come from? This hole seems to be from just laziness by the screenwriters. If Sharon is Alessa’s baby, then why is she only ten 30 years later? And if she is not Alessa’s baby, then where did she come from? 4.) It’s hinted that Cybil (the hot cop) was killed when she wrecked her bike. But they never implied that with Rose and Sharon. But obviously, in order to enter purgatory, they all must have died.
    Now it does make sense that at the end, when Rose agreed to take the demon with her to the church, she was deceived, since the devil does a good job of screwing and double crossing everyone i.e; “Bedazzled”. So she agrees to let them out of SH, but doesn’t tell them that they are already dead. So I would guess that it isn’t that the evilness of the town following them, but that the puzzle has been solved and now they can go ‘home’.
    A few other questions: Why do the creatures suddenly appear, attack Rose and Cybil, but then suddenly retreat? My guess is that the darkness lies in wait for the zealots to leave the Church, then creeps in when it feels someone’s presence. If it catches one of the zealots, it kills them, put it seems to retreat once it touches Rose or Cybil (where is Sharon this whole time? Only shown once, when she’s captured) I guess because it recognizes that they are ‘good’ and must survive in order to carry out the intents of revenge. But then there’s the nurses. But whatever. Hope this tangent helps!

    1. Seth says:

      Okay what about the cop who saved alessa he looks like the cop that Chris dude Was talkin to throughout the movie

      1. Jessica says:

        The cop who saved Alessa and the one who helped Chris are the same person. That’s why he has burns on his hands.

        Also, the post you’re replying to is wrong about basically everything. The Fog World is not Purgatory, Alessa was never pregnant, Sharon is not Alessa’s daughter, Dark Alessa is not a demon, the coal fire was not caused by Alessa making the deal with Dark Alessa, the cultists did not die to enter the alternate reality, Rose, Sharon, and Cybil did not die to enter the alternate reality, and Rose and Sharon/Alessa are not trapped in the Fog World because they’re dead (seeing as they’re both very much alive at the end of the movie).

        1. James says:

          Why do you think they’re alive at the end of the movie? I think the idea of them being in purgatory fits well since they go home and its still all ashy/fog world like, and they keep cutting to scenes of the living/real world where the dad is and its all in color and not ashy/fog like.. if rose and sharon are alive, why do they (the dad, and rose/sharon) just happen to not see eachother even though they’re all “home”?

          1. Jessica says:

            Everyone in the alternate reality is alive until Alessa kills them (or, in the case of Cybil, until the cult kills them). This is proven by director quotes, the aging of the characters, Alessa’s police reports, and Officer Gucci twice mentioning there is a difference betwween those who get dragged into the alternate reality, and those who die. The alternate reality is also not literally Purgatory, it’s just an alternate world created by an angry child gifted with psionic powers. Because she controls the world, she decides who can come and go, and she doesn’t want Rose to leave.

          2. Sue says:

            I agree. I think they are in purgatory and that’s why they don’t see the dad/husband. The movie states that what is left of Alessa is the good. Sharon. So NO Alessa was not pregnant.

        2. Lynette says:

          I think they are dead at the end. There’s the part where her husband is looking for her in SH and they show him in color walking past some buildings, then they show her, foggy, running past him and he smells or senses her. They are in the same place at the same time, but in different levels?…spheres. So the mother and daughter return home and will live (as ghosts?) in their home along side the husband/father without any of the 3 knowing of the other.

        3. Rockndudette says:

          Yes they are dead… and yet the fog follows and they are the only two left in the world. they go back to their home and don’t see the father even tho he is sitting there. They can’t see each other because they are in different worlds. Life and Death… what I wrote seemed a bit poetic.

        4. Noni says:

          I think it’s bull crap because they made a whole silent hill 2 revelation and Chris the father same guy is in it Sharon is too but she grown up to be a older teenager. So Sharon never died. And Rose apparently didn’t either because it was said that she sent Sharon back home told Chris to take care of her but some how Sharon is still stuck in SILENT HILL the writers got lazy n left out clear parts to me it does seem possibly Alessa is Sharon mom due to the rape I guess the cleansing means she was not pure a virgin any more and they wanted to kill her Cleanse her. I’m left with confusion because they made a part two of this movie and the ending turns into Sharon living and the dad living and the friend that was made during the movie the fog goes back everything is clear the dad makes the decision to go back into the silent hill Looking for rose so I guess willingly looking to get in you’ll get in and certain circumstances u can get out. I’m just confused it’s not quite clear.

    2. Winter Fawn says:

      It says in the movie Dalia had hidden Sharon.

  8. Kevin says:

    The plot draws heavily from the game. Although I’ll admit I’d never considered Sharon being Alessa’s baby, having played the game I assumed that Sharon was a physical manifestation of Alessa’s goodnesss. Regardless, I can’t say how 30 years passed. Alessa is clearly young, but not as young as she was when she was burned. This is also inferred from the game, where Alessa is currenly around 14. One can assume she survived her burning but eventually died, perhaps in the same fire that killed the townsfolk (I can’t remember if the movie clarifies what happened to her after she was burned). I do not think that Sharon is Alessa’s literal daughter; I think that Sharon is a regressed version of Alessa herself, manifested either by the demon or by Alessa’s psyche (trauma induced split personality anyone?). In the game Alessa was a powerful psychic as a result of her conception and birth (which is a different backstory I won’t go into). Therefore, being Alessa the time tables can be abstracted. It is possible that Sharon wasn’t created until 10ish years ago, or perhaps the timeflow in Alessa’s world is much faster than in the real world, so that only a year passed while 20 did elsewhere. The problem with that is that it would seem time is passing the same for Rose and Chris throught the movie. I dunno, maybe the sequel will clarify.

  9. Kevin says:

    edit to the above, I think Sharon is the regressed version of Alessa, created by Alessa’s psyche and given form by the power of the demon residing in Alessa. There is still a problem of why it would take so long for Sharon to appear. Perhaps it took quite a long time for Alessa’s mental condition to deteriorate badly enough to awaken the demon, but the cult seems to have been in the same position since the beginning so that doesn’t make much sense either. I agree with an above poster I think, that the netherworld of Silent Hill is a timeless place that can but doesn’t necessarily parallel real time… it’s the only explanation I can think of. I also think it’s unlikely that the crash killed Rose and Sharon – they didn’t really even crash they just came to a stop and Rose hit her head relatively lightly on the steering wheel. It is possible they died just because of Sharon and Alessa however, who knows. Dark Silent Hill is explicitly stated to be a nightmare world, so I think they were probably knocked unconcious and Sharon’s presence pulled them in. Maybe anyone who goes to sleep in Silent Hill enters it.

  10. Kevin says:

    One last post, I don’t think they’re necessarily dead at the end…I think maybe that Dark Alessa and Good Alessa “fused” at the end, it seems to they intended us to think that with Sharons’s odd behavior and the demon crawling toward her. The reason Sharon kept dreaming about Silent Hill is because that’s where the other part of her was, she was an incomplete person. Therefore, Sharon/Alessa could be controlling the fog world at the end without realizing it (being centered on her and traveling with her). Or, she could be conscious of it and doing on purpose as per the dark part of her, but this time it’s motivated not by revenge (therefore no nightmare, just pergatory) but by a selfish attachment to Rose and their home, where she experienced love and warmth. Notice that despite the similar aesthetics to foggy Silent Hill, the foggy version of their home at the end seems a little warmer. What stumps me the most is how and why Rose is apparently either ignorant or dismissive of the situation.

  11. OMFG!!!! she’s only nine years old! HER BODY ISN’T MATURE ENOUGH TO BECOME PREGNANT!!!! Dark Alessa says, QUOTE: ” the little girl whats left of her goodness.” this means the demon took all the pure goodnessout of Alessa to make her 100% evil. Colin the janitor did rape Alessa on the encounter of the bathroom but he didn’t get her pregnant. the principle, Christabella knew what had happaned to Alessa (and was probably sickly glad[bitch]) then she persuaded the mother, Dahlia to ‘purify’ her daughter. i think they both (alessa & dahlia) were confused of what that meant.

    1. Chase says:

      ok the poster befor me is confused girls can get pregnet at nine my friends were able to

      1. Jessica says:

        It is possible for a 9-year-old to become pregnant if she’s gone through puberty, but this is not what happened with Alessa. Sharon is the manifestation of the good side of her soul, not her daughter.

    2. Angel Jackson says:

      As long as u can have your menstrual cycle at nine or any age at that u can get pregnant

  12. Shamus says:

    I wasn’t ready to believe your position until you employed the capital letters. The OMFG!!! Really drove home your point. Well played.

  13. Nightward says:

    The demon and Sharon were identical. At the end there, where Rose passes out, I got the impression that the demon used the time to kill (or displace) Sharon and take her place.

  14. Bizmark Ribeye says:

    When I watched the movie, I was given the impression that Alessa was fathered by a demon (or demonic entity, or even the Devil that makes the deal with Alessa later) Dahlia seemed to be a little “off” and susceptible to strong persuasion, so it just made sense to me that perhaps a demon in disguise could have easily won her over. I realize there wasn’t any evidence to support this theory, but for some reason that was the impression that I got and it made some sense to me.

    As for the timeline and Sharon’s age not matching up, perhaps after 20 years of hunting the cultists, the Devil decided that it needed to “purify” itself and Alessa of what “good” remained so they banished the Sharon part out of themselves and their realm to become more powerful…

    OR!…

    …It was all part of this Devil’s plan. Sending Sharon out into the world was like baiting a hook. The Devil knew from the get-go how it could enter the church, so it set everything up for Sharon to find this dedicated and caring mother who would give her life and soul just to protect this child. Rose was just a pawn. The Devil reeled them in (maybe even brought Cybil in as insurance that Rose and Sharon would make it?) and put Sharon in danger and made sure to lead Rose on just the right path to see what the Devil wanted her to see to prepare her.

    And as for the ending, perhaps it was the Devil twisting their wish? Rose just wanted to protect Sharon and be with her any way she could, so even after the massacre the Devil let them stay in pergutory/”grey” Silent Hill. I mean there was nothing in pergutory/GSH left to hurt Sharon so now she’ll be safe and protected right by Rose’s side…for all eternity. What mother wouldn’t want that? ;)

    OR!…

    …After making their deals with the Devil both Rose and Sharon/Alessa had become ‘tainted’ by the darkness so they had no place in the world of Light. Kind of like “You’re one of us now, there’s no going back!” Perhaps in making their deals, they had sold their souls which left them as mere ‘shadows’ or husks so that again, they had no place in the world of Light. vengeance will always leave you empty and hollow.

    So do my theories have any merit, you think? I enjoy thinking up justifications for holes or oddities in movies and stories.

  15. Joe says:

    Let me clear this up for everyone.

    Now, in the beginning there was the Cult and Silent Hill. The Cult basically ran Silent Hill. It was a large enough entity that could control the town. Dahlia had been a part of the Cult and for unknown reasons began to deviate. Her daughter, Alessa, now part of the Cult had been a victim of her mother’s circumstance. She was a bastard child, born out of wedlock. It explains this within the movie, “she didn’t have a father like they did”. The scenario of Colin and Alessa is irrelevant and is simply just a way to explain Colin’s demise.

    Now, to explain Sharon. Sharon is a manifestation of Alessa’s innocence, so says “the Reaper”. She was manifested at the right time in order for Rose to be summoned to Silent Hill. After all, Rose is the catalyst of Alessa’s hate and anger. This is why the time line doesn’t seem to fit, however, it does. This part of the movies falls in place with the game. Cheryl, from the original game, was manifested at a later time in order for Harry to be summoned to Silent Hill to stop Dahlia.

    With all of that in mind, and to answer the biggest question, yes Sharon and Rose are both dead. Sharon never truly existing was just bait used by Alessa. Rose needed to cross over in order to bring “justice” to the Cult. Now, some of you may wonder why Cybil had also crossed over. This is simple: to protect Rose. Alessa could conjure the Dark Silent Hill, but only control certain aspects. The monsters are something Alessa had no power over. You may ask, why do the monsters back off after a while? Well, Alessa could only control the Dark Silent Hill for a period of time.

    In the movie, Rose realizes her own death. It is not clearly presented, but she does make it known. She does so by telling the Cultists that they have burned in the fire they created to “cleanse” an innocent child. She goes on to tell them that they are already damned. This was was made apparent to her by the demon, otherwise know as “the Reaper”. I would even venture to say that she is the dark force Samael, however this is never confirmed.

    Also, remember that Rose is the key player in this whole story. It stands to reason why she is stuck in “limbo” as some may call it. They present the reason several times in the movie. Rose often repeats, “mother is god in the eyes of a child”. At the end of the movie, Alessa is reunited with the rest of herself, so to speak, and she wants nothing more than to be with her mother and thus is the reason they never leave the foggy world.

    As for the bodies, well they are never found for two reasons. One is for the audience to ponder the conclusion of what became of them. Honestly, how fun would it have been if the bodies had been presented? The second reason is that both Rose and Cybil had been pulled into foggy Silent Hill. Detective Gucci mentions that most of the bodies were never found, if you haven’t realized it by now he is referring to the Cultists. Of course he doesn’t mean that deliberately, but it is the truth. As for Gucci, he’s the only thing I can’t quite explain. As time went on, he never aged. Perhaps it was left this way for cinematic value. Who knows.

    Remember with Silent Hill everything has to be scrutinized. There are layers that have to be examined closely. The movie makes sense, it just takes some time to understand it all, which is what makes Silent Hill so fucking incredible.

    I apologize for this abridged explanation. It’s late, and I’m tired. I hope that this clears up a lot of your questions, or at least allows you to draw your own conclusions. Now, if you think that was a difficult story to make sense of, go and enjoy Silent Hill 2 (video game). The writing is just as amazing and much more constructed as a feasible story.

    1. Karen baker says:

      Silent hill…cop with scars same age. Does the Alisa in the bed at the end looks a lot older than 9”’she looks like an older woman with developed breasts and a larger body .?

  16. Vicky says:

    Two lil questions – why would Alessa want to kill the dead Cultists? It is more of a service to them since they would leave this damned Silent Hill.

    Does Rose really realize she is dead? She calls her husband on the way home.. I don’t remember her face when she enters the house and sits on the sofa, but she prolly feels deceived..

    1. Tuan says:

      You do have to realize that she is a Ghost and from what I believe about Supernatural, they can open doors and manipulate electronics

      1. Jessica says:

        Rose is not dead. The door opens because Alessa’s alternate reality is so closely based on the real world that parts of each reality affect the other.

  17. Shay says:

    I agree, that Rose, sharon, and the cop are dead. Evidence that supports this, is when Rose asked the cop why she was bleading, the cop replying, that it may have been from the wreck

    Towards the end of the movie, when Rose and Sharon are leaving Silent Hill, they see the cops bike, rammed against fencing on the side of the road, evidently looking as thought it was a possible fatal wreck.

    Also, the whole theory upon Rose comprehending that she is dead, doesnt really fly well with me, being, that she calls her husband while heading home from Post reality (a.k.a. Grey Silent Hill). However, when she sits on the sofa, it may appear as though she is staring in space, yet when the scene switches from reality to post-reality, we see the husband is lying on the opposing couch, feeling the presence of his family. It then switches back into the gray world, where it seems as though Rose isn’t staring in space, but at her husband, maybe feeling his spirit too.

  18. Mastroianni says:

    But wait wait hold up on something. You mean for over 20 or 40 years the remaining survivers from Silent Hill never attempted to cross or do whatever to get out of there? I know its an illusion of the bridge being broken off and them thinking their stuck there. But they never tried to push a car over or do anything? Because Christanella says “don’t believe your eyes, your eyes will deceive you.” Personally eventhough the “limbo” was happening I would have tried to see if there was another end across the broken bridge. And I personally didn’t understand the movie on some points but now I get it. But what’s cool is that they only went through CERTAIN pieces of the WHOLE Silent Hill, they never went over to the lake or beyond of where they were. I like the whole “Limbo switching” scene where everyone is running towards the church, but I saw that Dahlia was outside during the “Limbo”…and u guys said that Alessa cannot control the creatures, so do they hurt Dahlia or what??? PLEASE answer me back.

    1. J says:

      No, They Don’t Hurt Dahlia, I Personally Believe That Alessa Does Have Control Over Them. At Some Point She Realized Her Mother Was A Pawn, And Was Just As Confused As Alessa About The Ritual And What Have You. Why Else Would Everything Walk Right Past Dahlia?. The Red Pyramid Didn’t Kill Her. And Alessa Herself Didn’t Kill Her In The End, When She Damn Well Could Have. Everyone In The Room Gets Killed, Accept Sharon, Rose, And Dahlia. To Me That Means Shes In Complete Control, And Just Let The People She Felt Weren’t Responsible Live. Thats My Opinion anyway.

      1. hannah says:

        As far as the monsters not hurting Dahlia goes, in the games the alternate realities and monsters are manifestations of Alessa’s tortured mind and subconscious. They’re not necessarily controlled by her – the subconscious is not something we can consciously control – but tend to have the same wishes and abide by the same desires for others’ harm/safety as she does.

    2. Kim says:

      In the film they talk about the apocalypse that occured, so they probably assume the rest of the world is gone, save for them and their religion.

      No questions can truely be answered, for it is only a movie and there is no full reality to be hidden, only what you can infer. If you really want to understand where the writers came up with alot of this, I strongly urge you to play the original series! It leaves your head spinning a hundred times worse.

    3. hannah says:

      Simple, and mentioned in earlier comments. Rose did a deal with the “evil Alessa”/”Demon” to leave Silent Hill. She didn’t specify that she wanted to be in her reality, rather than the dark/grey/foggy/ash one, though, so the demon let them cross the bridge out of silent hill but in the wrong reality.

      1. Lena says:

        I actually really like this idea. I liked the movie a lot, but as a fan of the games I was a bit annoyed at how they changed certain things. Like Alessa getting raped, Idk why thy had to throw that in there, other than to confuse people. Also, to the OP, I don’t know why you said all of the characters are new. They’re NOT-Christabella is in the games, so is Cybil, and Dahlia…and Sharon is Cheryl, but they’re def the same character. It’s the mom looking for her daughter instead of the father, so she’s new bc in the game she’s dead (of cancer), but apparently the person who made the role thought Harry’s (Christopher in the movie) role was that of a woman; a mother (bc apparently when a couple’s child goes missing, the father isn’t as interested in finding him/her as the mother is.). So not all the characters were new, in fact almost all of the mmain characters were from the game. I was never really sure of what happened at the end of the movie, I’ve had a few ideas about it, but I’d pretty much decided that the producers or writers or whoever just wanted an eerie ending, and it kind of seemed like they couldn’t make up their minds. Cybil’s bike was crashed at the end, like she’d died…but the car seems to be okay. Idk. It does kind of seem like they died in the movie, but in the game that’s absolutely not what happened, so I HOPE they wouldn’t stray so far from the original. (But then again, they threw in the witchcraft bit, Idk why they did that, and the rape, which really was unnecessary. I know they were trying to make Alessa’s pain understandable, but if they had just followed the story of the game-Dahlia set fire to her home with Alessa inside as a sacrifice, and they were using her body as a vessel to birth the demon Samael-their God. It wouldn’t have been hard to do that rather than say the cult thought she was evil and a witch. Idk why they changed it., that annoyed me. Maybe they thought cults killing witches was more believable than a cult trying to bring their demon god to the world. Ok I’m rambling now, I just don’t understand why movies feel the need to stray so far from their original sources. I guess it’s worse when it’s a source I’ve loved for YEARS.)
        Back to my point that at the end of the movie Rose and Sharon are NOT dead- now there’s proof. A sequel. Now we have Silent Hill: Revelations. If you’ve seen it, you know that Sharon (now using the name Heather) is NOT dead, and she and her father have moved around a lot to make sure the order didn’t find them. The mom is dead, however. I have to watch it again bc I don’t really remember if they explain that, but I’m almost positive that she died of cancer. So in the sequel, Sharon is alive, therefore she didn’t die at the end of the first movie. I don’t know. I kind of get the feeling that the prooducers didn’t know what exactly they wanted to do with it, and they just threw the ending in like “we need to make sure people are discussing it after the movie is over,” which worked ovbiously bc its almost 7 years later now and I’, posting on a forum about it. If you haven’t seen Revelations, def see it, ,bc it’s much more true to the game mythos, and it’s very similar to SH3. I loved it.
        Anyway I read through this whole post (getting aggravated a few times bc I know a lot of people haven’t played the games and they’re arguing things like “Sharon is Alessa’s daughter from the rape..” I know that actually kind of would make sense if you ONLY saw the movie, but they’re arguing against people who are familiar with the entire story…Idk. I get annoyed too easily I guess. I just want everyone to know how AWESOME silent hill is and even tho I loved the movie, it doesn’t do the game justice. ) So anyway I liked your explanation, yours was the first that actually seems plausible to me and doesn’t go against the mythos. Thanks.

        1. Jessica says:

          Actually, Christabella was not in the games – her role was created to fill Dahlia’s role in the game, because Gans wanted to compare/contrast Dahlia’s motherhood with Rose’s. Also, Gans wanted a theme of maternity in the film, which is hard to do with a male lead character. Idk, I don’t think the gender should matter since the character’s role and personality are identical to that in the game. I don’t think SHR can be used to prove anything in the first film, since it retconned the mass of the first movie’s story. For that matter, SHR itself doesn’t say Rose died either. Regardless, Rose and Sharon did not die in the first film, but were simply trapped in Alessa’s world. The ending was Alessa recombining with Sharon and then trapping her new mother in the world where she feels the safest.

          On a side note, I perfectly understand why the first movie made changes. Just look at SHR, it went out of its way to translate the story as exactly as possible, and had no atmosphere, a ton of exposition, and people who hadn’t played the games had no clue what was going on (which is why IMDb has threads like “Why did god want to rape Heather?”). Gans made the backstory simpler because it would only make for a bad film if such a massive story is stuffed into 2 hours. As it is, people were still somewhat confused, but that was because of the massive amounts of symbolism, and not because he tried to force too large a story into too small a timeframe.

    4. Tuan says:

      Well, the reason as to why they don’t want to leave Silent Hill is because of the fact that Christabella has gotten everyone to believe that the world is in an apocalyptic time, and so, they don’t try to leave because whats the use of leaving the place? And why leave when the devil is out to get you every 30 minutes and you only know of one place that can 100% protect you? Well, until the devil can enter.

  19. Big McLargehuge says:

    I wanted to answer a bit of Mastroianni’s post about the cultists escaping: the Church seems to be the only place they know of where Alessa can’t get to them. Since this cult seems to be fairly unknown to the rest of the world, where else would they go? And who’s to say there aren’t worse things outside the city limits?
    On another matter, I ran with the idea that Sharon is not only bait to lure an “innocent” into Silent Hill, but that it’s happened once or twice before (which may account for the time gap); twice before Sharon’s ages into proper bait between nine and ten, or once if Sharon is fourteen (as a previous post indicated). My guess is that the initial effort(s) ended in failure, and only this time around did Alessa acheive her revenge.

  20. Poohbear says:

    Mastroianni’s Question: I like the whole “Limbo switching” scene where everyone is running towards the church, but I saw that Dahlia was outside during the “Limbo”…and u guys said that Alessa cannot control the creatures, so do they hurt Dahlia or what??? PLEASE answer me back.

    My response: I think Alessa does have control of the creatures. I do not think the creatures hurt Dahlia…just like they really did not hurt Sharon and that cop. Sharon and the cop just got caught up during that shift of darkness but were never hurt by those creatures. Plus, in the movie, they said “a mother is like God in the eyes of a child.” Dahlia was Alessa’s mother, so she wasn’t going to hurt her mother. And Dahlia didn’t go inside of the church because she didn’t want to be inside with all those cultish people who betrayed her and Alessa.

    1. Tuan says:

      I wouldn’t say that Alessa had any control over the monsters, Pyramid Head isn’t manifested by Alessa, it was instead manifested by James Sunderland, because of his unfulfilled desire for punishment for what happened to his beloved Mary, although I don’t know why he rapes things. And since Alessa CAN control the amount of time the “Darkness” can be, she just shortened the time in order for Pyramid Head to stop harassing Cybil and Rose.

      1. Jessica says:

        This is the movie we’re talking about, not the games. In the movie, Alessa has complete control over all the monsters, as she was the one who created them. James and Mary do not exist in the movie’s canon.

        1. SamuelWolve says:

          Not to fully disagree with you, but while I totally agree that this has nothing to do with James Sunderland, in many of the Silent Hill products, Silent Hill has a collected conscious. Firstly, (in reference to the second game) Jame might have been the reason Pyramid Head was manifested, but while its psychological form is representing his own guilt and frustrations, its physical form is very very reminiscent of the right hand of God, Xuchilbara, or “The Red Pyramid”. The problem with this is that James did not know about The Order or their deities, so how could his alone manifest his subconscious self in THAT image? Sensible answer would be Silent Hill possesses a collective conscious. Meaning that while Allessa is the source of (literal) nightmare fuel, the town or Samael, are the beings putting it into motion.

          That might not seem like an actual conclusion, except for the fact that The Order will be making a debut in the second movie. According to Order mythos, Xuchilbara is judgment. Which makes perfect sense as to why he doesn’t attack Dahlia. She is not guilty/has no guilt, while the cults members do.

          Remember the scene where Dahlia was getting stones thrown at her outside of the church?
          “Let he who is without sin cast the first stone.”
          “A man will be judged in accordance to how he judges.”
          Not saying these are 100% relevant, but since The Orders beliefs came from a mix between native American and Christianity, it seems to hold some truth to The Red Pyramids methods of judgement.
          Why does he look taller and more bestial in the movie? Easy. Because of the collective conscious thing.
          He is created by Allessa, and The Order, out of the janitor, and and Xuchilbara, in such a way where Pyramid head is a combination of a judge and a rapist. (Movie pays homage to this by relieving that the actor who played Pyramid Head was the same actor who played the janitor.)

          So while The Order didn’t show up at all in the first movie, their influence, or probably more so the influence of Samael, whom they do/will unknowingly worship, are seen in the first movie.

          1. Jessica says:

            Movie PH doesn’t attack Dahlia because Alessa tells him not to.

  21. Poohbear says:

    Correction in my post above….I meant ROSE, not SHARON.

  22. Kibben says:

    I’d just like to put my spin on things. Several people have expressed confusion over the fact that the baby Sharon that was brought to the real world was done so about 20 years after the destruction of the real Silent Hill and the creation of the grey and black Silent Hills. No one seems to have drawn the connection that since no one else aged inside the grey and black Silent Hills, that obviously the baby wouldn’t either. So, it is entirely possible that this baby is Alessa’s actual child. Also, “Hannah THE TRUTH!! Says:

    January 16th, 2007 at 10:29 pm
    OMFG!!!! she's only nine years old! HER BODY ISN'T MATURE ENOUGH TO BECOME PREGNANT!!!!

    Sorry to tell you, but preteens get pregnant everyday. Young girls are fully capable (without going into too much detail) of starting their cycles at that age. And if the cycle has started, the can get pregnant. I believe that she did get pregnant by the janitor Colin when he raped her in the bathroom.

    I also disagree with everyone being “dead” in the grey and black Silent Hills. Dead people do not need food! The creepy fanatical daughter of one of the churchfolk was gathering food for her mother in the hotel when Rose and Cybil were trying to find Room 111. I think that the real-life fire in Silent Hill was a diversion to take the people who hurt Alessa into the grey and black Silent Hills. Since most people’s bodies weren’t found anyway, the fire was the perfect distraction. Also, ghosts don’t bleed or rain chunks of flesh and bone if they are ripped apart. I believe that all of the people, including Rose, Sharon and Cybil were taken full-bodied into Silent Hill, thus explaining why their bodies were never found. It’s because they were still using them!

    As far as the ending goes, I’m as confused as anyone. Sharon was acting funny…staring at the camera weirdly. Rose was acting funny as well, stupidly staring off into space with a smile on her face. I realize she was staring into the direction of Christopher, her husband, but she obviously couldn’t see him. The only thing I can think of is that the Dark Alessa (demon, devil, whatever the hell it was) joined with Sharon as she was creeping toward her during Alessa’s revenge. As Dahlia mentioned at the beginning of the movie, only the “dark one” controls who goes in and out of Silent Hill. So, maybe the Dark Alessa expanded the boundaries of the grey Silent Hill. Whatever she did to expand it, the world was brighter, I would assume because the Dark Alessa was mixed with Sharon, but not as bright as real life. Maybe there will be a sequel and we’ll find that Rose discovers she’s still stuck in the Silent Hill dimension.

    1. J says:

      Like My Good Man Kibben Said, I Don’t Think Anyone Is Dead Either. Its Purgatory. Also, I Think The Point Of Silent Hill Is, Once You Enter It, You Never Really Leave. No Matter Where You Are, It’s Just Limbo…

    2. Lena says:

      You’re right, it technically “could” be Alessa’s child, but it’s not. Alessa explains herself what the baby is, it’s the good part of Alessa’s soul. (In the game the movie is based on, Alessa splitting her soul also makes it impossible for her to give birth to the Oder’s demon god-but I know they say nothing about that in the movie and I’m not trying to confuse anyone. My point in saying this is that if Alessa had simply given birth to a baby, the demon god would have been born. The movie is trying to stay true to the game.) Honestly I have no idea why anyone is arguing this since Alessa explains in the game, and no one ever says she’s Alessa’s baby. I think eeveryone is trying to make too much sense of this. It doesn’t have to make sense to our reality. In silent hill, monsters exist, a cult worships a demon god, people can split their souls…. at the end of the game (and they really do try to be true to the game, they even have a MAP that Rose tries to memorize which I thought was kind of a cool shout out to gamers) Alessa and Sharon (in the game her name is Cheryl) refuse, their souls become one, and she is reborn as a baby. I realize the movie is diff than the game, but bc in the game Cheryl is the result of Alessa splitting her soul, and in the movie Alessa (or the demon that looks like her, bc Alessa is there on the bed, burnt) SAYS Sharon is the good part of Alessa’s soul. NOT HER DAUGHTER. Anyway now there is a sequel, and they explain it more, and they explain that again, now named Heather, the girl who was Sharon is the soul of Alessa, not the daughter. (Also, I know at the end of the movie they seem dead, but I beileve they’re in an alternate reality still…and obvioulsy Sharon finds her way back, because she’s in the sequel. The mom in the sequel is dead, but I think she died of cancer. I think the end of the first film was just the producers wanting to make people think, and talk about it after the movie ended, and watch it again. And it worked, bc…well this whole thread, and some of the posts are from 2006, and some are 2012, and I’m writing in 2013. Anyway I think people are trying to make too much rational sense out of the film, as if it takes place in the world we live in, and the silent hill universe is completely full of magic and the supernatural.

    3. Eric Lee says:

      I notice many people saying that Sharon is Alessa’s daughter. But this isn’t true. I searched up multiple Silent Hill characters in silent hill wiki, and I have found out that Sharon is the good side of Alessa, and that the dark Alessa is the bad side of Alessa. (J) June 12, 2010 at 10:58 pm, have said that: “Also, I Think The Point Of Silent Hill Is, Once You Enter It, You Never Really Leave. No Matter Where You Are, It's Just Limbo…”. However, this isn’t true, since in Silent Hill: Revelation, Heather(Sharon) was able to leave Silent Hill. The young Sharon was able to come out from Silent Hill and later when she is older, she was forced into Silent Hill, as in Silent Hill: Revelation movie. Sharon finds Dark Alessa there, and Dark Alessa tries to absorb Sharon, but Sharon fights back with her power, and she was finally able to absorb Dark Alessa. So I think that Alessa doesn’t exist anymore in Silent hill. That’s it~ I am not sure if all of my knowledge is correct, please tell me if I made some mistakes :) Thank you!

  23. Tim says:

    All of this is very enlightening as I did not understand half of this crap.

    My question is: What was up with the body in the bathroom?

    1. hannah says:

      The one with his feet wired to his head so his genitals scrape along the ground, with a darting black tongue? That’s Colin, the janitor that molested Alessa.

    2. hannah says:

      The one with his feet wired to his head so his genitals scrape along the ground, with a darting black tongue? That’s the janitor that molested Alessa.

  24. Tim says:

    Also, What are the bodies supposed to be?
    What about the one with the big ass knife?
    Are they people previously “killed” by Alessa?
    Were they just materialized by Alessa?

    1. J says:

      The Pyramid Head Just..Is, There Is Speculation That He Is Incarnate Of Negative Thought And Action. The Strange Thing Is He Is One Of The Only “Male Monsters” Accept Colin. In The Game, Pyramid Head Is A Symbol Of Persecution And Grim Justice, An Executioner If You Will..=D

      1. Kim says:

        Pyramid head is a monster that manifests in Silent Hill two, as James’ punisher, a reimagining of the executioner he saw in a painting exhibited in the Silent Hill Historical Society during the game. James later realizes that he created his own monster, pyramid head, to persecute himself for his guilt. He was only in the movie as fan service!

        In future games there are more monsters that are more male than androgenous or female.

  25. Sungazer says:

    Well, I always thought that the body in the bathroom was the janitor who raped her. Intrestingly enough, the janitor, “Colin,” is played by the same actor as pyramid head. Because of this, and pyramid head’s phallic imagery, I think the janitor was reanimated and transformed by the demon/girl.

  26. Rune says:

    all the creatures are like in the game brought to life thru the nightmareish silent hill, it displays your inner most fears and in some cases your own sinths haunting you. Pyramid head was James sunderlands representation of sinths he had commited in the past, in this case killing his wife for respective reasons. In the movie hes in the act of tormentor of the cultists I believe… commanded by the demon/alessa blablabal

  27. rom says:

    who was the woman the pyramid head man rip the skin off of and whY

  28. AtomikHippie says:

    Rom,
    The woman was a cultist, and therefore a sinner. Pyramid Head basically kills anyone and everyone who is outside the sanctuary of the church, as he is apparently under Alessa’s control. Or is he? What I don’t understand is why he pursues Rose and Cybil throughout the first part of the movie. Alessa WANTS Rose to find her, so that Alessa can enter the church and punish all the sinners at once, rather than one or two at a time outside the church. So is Alessa really in control of PH? Is he a manifestation of Alessa, Rose, or Cybill? One might say that he is simply the punisher and indiscriminately kills anyone who is outside the church walls, but then why does PH not pursue Dahlia (Alessa’s Mother)? It is mentioned (or eluded to) that Dahlia is safe because Alessa would not allow her own mother to die….Then why wouldn’t she also prevent Pyramid head, (and the other demons for that matter) from attacking Rose? Get back to me.

    –AH

    1. Anonymous person says:

      I think that it could have been a kind of test for Rose and Cybill. What good would Rose be if she couldn’t get past everything to get to the devil herself?
      Also, infront of the church, it could have been a misleading act for him. He didn’t actually go to kill Rose and Cybill, but rather the girl from the cult, then flung her skin towards the two women in order to decieve the rest of the cult into thinking that the two were there to help, but like others have said, Rose is just a pawn in the demons game.

    2. Lena says:

      I think that even though Alessa created this nightmare world, she can’t completely control it. At least that’s how it is in the games. In the games she didn’t do it so much on purpose, but her pain and her hate manifested itself and took revenge on the people who hurt her, but they basically just take on lives of their own. They just attack whoever is close to them. I know that Dahlia and Rose are left safe at the end, but I think that’s because Alessa is physically there WITH them, the darkness inside her is controlling what happens 100%. The rest of the time the monsters just do what they will.

  29. Lysander says:

    I just wished there were UFOs flitting about from time to time. It wouldn’t need to be in the completed movie, just in a bonus deleted scene in the special features on the DVD. But it would be an interesting addition, possibly adding to the dream-like quality of the realm. Were the UFOs part of Aylssa’s creation, or something else entirely? Plus, inside jokes are always fun in video-game movies.

  30. dreck says:

    I think that Alyssa may have died at the age she appeared when Rose entered the room with the nurse toward the end possibly after giving birth to Sharon.

    It makes sense that Sharon and Rose would be stuck in the grey Silent Hill after Rose made the unclear deal with the devil Alyssa.

    Knowing that the devil Alyssa must have enterd Sharon at the end due to the fact that the phone was all staticy when Rose called her husband, I am, however, curious as to how Rose does not know that she is still in the limbo world when she arrives home. Almost as if having her child back is all that Rose could care about. So that must come back to the deal made with the devil or “most evil part of Alyssa”

    1. J says:

      The Deal Rose Made With Alessa Is Shallow And Open To Speculation, But The Obvious Reason Is That The Church Is The One Place Alessa Can’t Enter, Therefore She Uses Roses Body As A Host, To Make It Into The Church And Exact Revenge On The Cult

  31. dreck says:

    Another thing,

    What’s the deal with showing the plants at the very end of the movie?

    If it has no importance, what an odd way to end a movie.

    1. J says:

      A symbol Of Naturalism And Harmony Sharon And Rose Were Ripped Away From =D

    2. JasmineWOW says:

      you probably didnt notice, and you probably won’t see thiscomment as it is 5 years after the fact.
      THey showed you the flowers at the end because in Rose and Sharon’s reality, when they pull into the drive-way, the flowers/plants aren’t as plently. Implying that there is more life in the real, reality than theirs

      1. neia says:

        i’m here.. lol..
        its 2012 now!!
        time for the silent hill revelation 3D… hahaha

      2. Stuboo says:

        Who are you saying haha too

  32. Remolar says:

    Sharon is a manifestation of Alessa’s pact with the devil. Sharon is just used as a bait for Alessa’s plans.

    Remember that in the beginning when Rose is stopped Cybil referred to another person who brought a little child into silent hill not too long ago? Maybe this other person was one of Alessa’s pawns. The child that this unmentioned person was with is probably another manifestation of Alessa. As the story progressed, the investigator(the one that arrested Rose’s husband) states that if Sharon and Rose are with Cybil, they are in good hands. To support this fact, the investigator further adds that Cybil had rescued the child that was taken into silent hill not too long ago. However, the person who brought the child there was not found. Perhaps that person failed to help Alessa and was discarded. This would support the reason why Cybil was dragged into the Grey Silent Hill.

    This is probably significant because it is referred to in the movie enough times to make it important.

    1. J says:

      Cybil Entered Silent Hill Of Her Own Free Will, She Didn’t Serve A Purpose To Alessas Agenda. She Rescued The First Kid. And Was Afraid The Same Shit Was Going To Happen. So She Pursued Rose Into Silent Hill.

    2. Lena says:

      Sharon is Alessa’s soul. The good part of her soul. She isn’t bait. Here…I know this is for the game and not the movie, but the game is where everything in the movie comes from. It explains a LOT- I played the games and I still learned stuff from reading this (I LOVE the games). The movie follows the first game, and the new one, Silent Hil Revelations, follows SH3. If u check out this web page it will def make u understand the movies much more.

      1. Jessica says:

        Sharon is both bait AND Alessa’s good side. Alessa appears to create her specifically to lure Rose to Silent Hill. The kid who was dropped down a vent was a boy though, so he has nothing to do with Alessa or Sharon.

  33. Sacco says:

    I think the point of the 30 year time lapse is more of a horror device then a plot device: something that happened a generation ago can affect the lives of people today and in the future. Makes it spookier to people watching it 20 years from now…though I would imagine that 20 years from now movies will make Silent Hill seem like Attack of the Killer Tomatoes

  34. carla says:

    hey guyz remember the scene when rose husband said he knew rose was there coz he smell her perfume? rose her husband and gucci was in the same location but diff. phase, Rose was in dark silent hill and 2 guyz are in real abandoned silent hill. That’s why i believed rose 2gether with sharon and cybil died of the crashed. And alessa let them inside silent hill (by using rose n sharon/alessa’s good side) to start alessa’s revenge to cristabella’s group.I don’t believed in limbo but maybe rose and shron’s spirits remains with alesa since , alessa obviously made a deal with the devil.

  35. jacmq4 says:

    Remember that in the beginning when Rose is stopped Cybil referred to another person who brought a little child into silent hill not too long ago? Maybe this other person was one of Alessa's pawns. The child that this unmentioned person was with is probably another manifestation of Alessa. As the story progressed, the investigator(the one that arrested Rose's husband) states that if Sharon and Rose are with Cybil, they are in good hands. To support this fact, the investigator further adds that Cybil had rescued the child that was taken into silent hill not too long ago. However, the person who brought the child there was not found. Perhaps that person failed to help Alessa and was discarded. This would support the reason why Cybil was dragged into the Grey Silent Hill.

    I know there was some confusion as to what/who Pyramid Head was. When i was reading the quote above for some reason it struck me that maybe the other person who took the child to SH is Pyramid Head. Maybe failing to help Alessa get her revenge brought the punishment of being pyramid head upon him. Just a thought.

  36. Kimera says:

    We know that Sharon is Alyssa’s daughter
    We know that Sharon was concieved via rape

    We dont know if the Janitor is the father… Re Kill Bill and any other drama involving helpless female patients, it is possible an Adult Alyssa was raped while comatose in some long term care facility.

    Alyssa’s deal with the devil as it were
    was to trap her tormentors in a hell of her own making. She dosent have to be dead to do this… comatose works just as well.

    Sharon and her adoptive mother died in the crash, and were caught in the spirit trap that is silent hill. Unable to cross over to heaven, and not realizing that they are even dead (part of why silent hill as hell is so interesting no one knows they are dead), they returned home after everything, to always be with the Husband/Father and yet be forever apart

    1. Lena says:

      Sharon was not born from rape. Dark Alessa tells you how Sharon came into being. She took what was left of the good part of her soul and separated it from herself, creating Sharon. http://translatedmemories.com/bookpgs/Pg08-09AlessasHistory.jpg

  37. mps247 says:

    Just wanted to comment about Pyramid Head, and why he/she/it attacks Cybil and Rose. I think Alyssa must be in control of him. This would explain why he never attacks Dahlia.

    Now, why does he attack Cybil and Rose, even though Alyssa requires them to help her? This is probably in order to convince both of them that they are in danger, and force them to seek refuge with the cult. This is an important requirement for Alyssa’s plan of revenge to work. She seems to call off Pyramid Head’s attack at the last minute – he has done enough to scare them. Also, the best way for them to gain the cult’s trust is for them to both believe that they are in danger – they would not be lying.

    1. J says:

      Excellent Point Of View, She Is In Complete Control Of Him. Seems To Me She Used Him As A Tool To Push Cybil And Rose Into Alessas Desired Direction =D

    2. Akram says:

      silent hill is much more better than the silly promoted messed up Avatar.
      silent hill is the best and the most impressive movie I’ve ever seen in my entire life. I always say”wash your mouth before speaking about silent hill film”

  38. bella says:

    everyone is talking about how sharon is the result of the janitors rape.
    but it says in the movie that sharon is the only good left in alessa
    this means when she made the deal with the devil that sharon was created
    and the devil took her to the orphanage so that she could be brought up in a better world
    so sharon was a good reincarnation of alessa in a way
    and the devil was alessa’s evil.

    1. Emily says:

      I agree. Suggesting that Colin and Alessa’s union created Sharon is really grasping at thin air. There is absolutely no evidence in the film to support this theory. Personally, I think the scene featuring the Janitor’s rape is only a tool used to indicate how very alone and misused Alessa was in her early years in Silent Hill. Plus, while it is possible that Alessa would have been able to become pregnant at the age of nine, it is not exactly probable. If Alessa had mothered Sharon, the film woudl have had to address the issue, which it did not…and so…I believe it to be highly unlikely that Colin and Alessa created Sharon.

  39. Some Dude says:

    Well…….
    i dont think there dead – theres no way to be sure. As forementioned rose only hit her head “lightly” on the steering wheel. She couldnt of died from that.

    However the real reason i think there still alive, as well as my thinking the cultists are still alive – WHERE would they go once killed in the alternate dimension/ purgatory??
    I dont see why Alyssa would try 2 kill the cultists all at once – doesnt she want to make them suffer, slowly?
    And once there all dead, apparently they’d no longer suffer……

    I think that they are trapped in another dimension as thier corpses were not found. This is sort of a punishment for all the evil committed.

    You CANT ‘die’ when you’re already dead!!! The cultists must’ve been alive in one way or another, otherwise they’dve been invulnerable mere shells of human beings!
    Also why are there some corpses – supposed ‘janitor’ in bathroom
    and zombies in gray world – ‘tarp dude’? Why didnt they come along with the other cultists (since everyone in town is assumed to be a part of the cult) and suffer eternally? could this be another way of suffering for them? or could they have simply died in the fire and merely used as elements to magnify the terror felt by the people of alternate Silent Hill?
    Silent hill achieved something almost indescribable, and almost unconceivable in any other movie – it felt like a real nightmare. Real nightmares have odd elements (like pyramid head) are unexplained and are somehow much creepier and terrifying than actual scary events (for me, i can handle these events apparently very well, but nightmares, when i do have them rarely are much more freaky)
    This movie was kind of like a nightmare brought to film and explained somewhat. Somehow they picked the PERFECT theme for most of the film – it gave a kind of chill feeling of the spine that cannot be described in words, and i feel the movie would be much incomplete without it.
    i believe in the (unofficial) Silent Hill soundtrack it is called
    25 – Never forgive me, Never forget me. Upon reading all of these explanations of the story the name of this theme almost suits it perfectly. To describe this theme the only two things i could say would be 1) (upon first hearing it early in movie) probably a nuclear crisis of sorts, with the entire town being destroyed, trapped in this evil or something and a world unknown to all – a world of monsters, horror 2) (afterwards, years later now) purgatory/ eternal suffering, a world created to trap sinners but foremostly > an eternal nightmare.

  40. Matt says:

    Monsters are to test Rose’s Devotion, Strength, Love traits that Alessa wants

    im writing my own version from the beginning. Rose really wanted to help cure Sharon. so she thought she would loss the cop on the trail to SH. now we are at her accident. she wanders off and finds those monsters, they don’t hurt her because the effects are over. Rose goes to her S.U.V and calls hubby for help and afterwords the cop comes.Monster attack, Rose escapes. so Rose runs to the School to find Sharon. she meets the janitor fuck and finds the hotel piece. the janitor fuck chases her. Rose sees the bug monster kill the 3 cult members. anyways skipping to more important part where Dark Alessa talks. “Now The dreams of this life must end and so too must the dreamers within it. (imples to me they are already dead eternal rest? dreaming?) now its the end of days and i am the reaper.” now here is a strange twist. remember before Christabella say “beward the darkness hides in the face of innocent”. The cult is guilty of murdering an innocent child, but they were right about this evil(only after the purifiying) get what i mean? so when she gets revenge Rose tells Sharon to close her eyes of course she opens Reunites the Good with the bad = rebirth of Alessa. its hard to imagine 3 people so think of it this way. You, Your Angel, Your devil, steal your moms money or no to buy Xbox360? Sharon is pure good, Dark Alessa pure evil. Now Alessa has her ying-yang back. she still remember her past, and remembers how good Rose is of a mother. on the way to her car she tells Dahlia “Mother is god in the eyes of a child” and discovers the cop bike had a “fatal” accident. this is when Rose realizes she died. Rose wanted to make peace with her husband so she called. remember earlier how husband notice her scent? or her spirit? well same thing again. you know that supposedly connection between 2 lovers? and the end also helps me futher conclude its the real Alessa and they are dead. the way her eyes are, the camera so focused on that, and her deep breathing.

    the human theory of spirits is they live forever so its basically timeless
    you can view silent hill by thinking of the (greek) river styx. your stuck from enternal paradise because you dont have 2 coins.
    people saying she was pregenat maybe in the game, but not the movie. its obvious Alessa is Illegitmate Child, and the cult wants to know the father of Alessa but Dahlia refuses. so they view her as the devil, but they are the creators of their of demons.

  41. Usman says:

    Hi there shamus, I recently started reading your gaming blogs and must say, I love it :D you actually do bring out good points on why you dislike or like any of your topics (be it games or movies) Anyways, i know this topic is quite old, but i’d like to say a couple of things about the movie Silent Hill.

    1) You may not have noticed this, but the entire first scene when Rose first enters Silent Hill after the crash is completely taken from the first silent hill game, uptill the point when she finds the demon kids (which in the game happened in an alleway).
    2) Sharon, is one half of Alessa (in the movie they describe her as being the daugther) in the game, its actually the good and human/innocent part of Alessa which was seperated so she could be sent elsewhere to be kept safe.
    3) In the game, they needed to burn Alessa because the god that they believed in would only come into the world if the vessel it was brought from would be kept in constant pain and torture, and the best way they could would be to burn her.
    4) In the game i believe pyramid head was described as being the school headmaster/or the prisons head (both of who i belive were really sadistic)
    5) I agree with your theory of how they entered silent hill because of Rose’s close proximity to Sharon.
    6) In the game (the first one) they needed sharon to come back so she could be put into Alessa and made as one so that the demon god would be able to come into there world and cause everywhere to become like Dark/Nightmarish Silent hill (and the last portion of the game silent hill 1 has the entire town transformed into the dark and nightmare world.)
    Well, i think these points might be completely useless but hope they help you understand the movie better.

  42. DenmiSama says:

    Okay, I took the time to read EVERY SINGLE POST here, and here’s my “2 cents” about everything that’s been said.

    1. CYBIL IS A SH CHARACTER!!! She’s the cop from SH1!!
    2. In the game, “Cheyrl” is Alessa’s daughter (if im not mistaken… haven’t played SH1 since like a year or two ago), but then we get this “Sharon” kid. I do believe that Sharon’s Alessa’s “other half”, and not necessarily her “daughter”.
    3. I do believe that Alessa was sexually abused/raped, but I don’t think she got pregnant. Not saying that it was impossible, but I don’t think the cult would allow Alessa to keep the baby in the first place.
    4. Saying that, mostly everyone is assuming that Christabella (whatever her name was) was directing “Name the father” statement at Alessa, but she was questioning Dahlia! She was asking Dahlia who the birthfather was. So again, this alludes to the thought that Alessa was not pregnant.
    5. The biggest statement: It’s hard to conclude whether they’re alive or not. I WANT TO believe that they’re alive throughout the movie, and I’m going to support this theory. Think about the other SH games. The main character from SH1 *forgot his name… Harold? Chris? lol* Cybil (lol depending on the end you got), from SH3, Heather, etc. they all SURVIVED from the SH universe, and there’s no denying it. At first, I would have thought that Cybil and Rose would have died from the poisonous fumes, but then, so would the other SH characters from the game. And I agree, the ending is CONFUSING!!!!!!!!!!!! *arrrrrrgh* I wish I knew the real answer, but perhaps it’s left up to us how we interpret it. Sharon simply runs to her room, while Rose sits “opposite” of her husband’s spirit. If she was a ghost/spirit, then why was the door open? (And don’t give me that crap about ghost opening doors and shit…)
    6. I LOVED THE SH3 THEME SONG “YOU’RE NOT HERE”!!!! Mary Elizabeth McGlynn IS AWESOME!!!! =]

    So um yeah… and here’s a few more pointers

    – In the SH series (speaking only based on SH1 & 3), the realms are supposed to be a battle between Alessa and that psycho bitch that says *and quote* “You will birth a god, and build an enternal paradise” – crazy blonde bitch. But we don’t see that in the SH movie.
    – I saw the movie on Starz, and after they had a mini-interview” with the cast/crew of the SH universe. And they said that the creatures, no matter how insignificantsuch as the cockroaches, were HUMAN!!!! So perhaps, the reason why the people missing were never found was because they were changed to those creatures by Alessa’s nightmareish world. (This coud be backed up because the creature from the beginning of the movie burn up and disappear, which could symbolize the fate of the detizens of the town.)
    – I like Apple Pie ;)
    – blegh I don’t know anymore…

  43. Taku says:

    Few points I want to bring up. Maria died MULTIPLE times in Silent Hill 2. What I see from that is that there is a big picture for Silent Hill and everyone in it is a pawn. The monsters are there to scare people along into doing what needs to be done. Pyramid Head in the games chases and even knocks James off the roof of the Hospital to get him to where he needs to go.

    As for them not leaving Silent Hill? Her husband is being called there. She even called him up on the phone. She can’t really talk to him, but the static on the phone and her scent will lead him back someday.

    Now I think being damned and being dead are two different things. Silent Hill has this way of leading people to it. Why were they allowed to go back home but it was a foggy version? To lure the husband.

    1. J says:

      Maria Never Existed, That Was Just James’ Guilt And Suppressed Memories That Created Her, One Thing You Have To Remember About Silent Hill, It Itself Is Alive, And Is Completely Determined By The Protagonists Thoughts And Feelings.

  44. Oracle says:

    Regarding the Dark alessa character. When director Christophe Gans was asked about her being a demon or possibly the ‘devil’ Gans reply to the interogative was ‘no!’ With Silent Hill your dealing with dopplegangers (a ghostly counterpart to a living person’. Alessa had experianced such abundant torment in her life and out of fear of reprisal decided to keep a majority of her negative emotions internalized. The purification was what finally catylized the Dark Alessa character into existance. Alessa had so much fear, hate, anger, sadness, and rage that built up inside her that a good analogy would be that of a 500 megaton hydrogen bomb (and most people go off as only a stick of dynamite in comarison). When the Cult barbeque’d Alessa alive they inadvertantly compounded another 50 megatons and activated the ‘detonate’ switch. What happened? Alessa’s negative emotions anthromorphizised (personified) and became a seperate entity from Alessa herself and Dark Alessa is born. It’s simple psychological hydraulics!

  45. Escher says:

    For what it’s worth… I think that Sharon and Rose may or may not be dead (I vote for the former), and I think it’s possible that this ending was designed this way on purpose… After all, isn’t the catalyst that kicks off Silent Hill 2 (game) a letter from a “dead wife”?
    (then again, I haven’t played SH 1 or 2 yet…)

    1. J says:

      Sorry For The Spoiler, In Silent Hill 2, James Is Guided By A Note From His “Dead Wife” Over Time, The Note Becomes Blank, Loses The Writing On It, Then Disappears Completely, Meaning It Never Existed

    2. Kim says:

      In silent hill 1 Cheryl doesn’t live, no matter what. She always dies, sometimes to be replaced by another baby- namely heather mason.

      Yes, silent hill 2 is about a man trying to find his dead wife who apparently sent him a letter saying she was waiting in their special place, in silent hill.

  46. Chanty says:

    okie i have no comments about the movie itself (i’m reading this because the movie was on tv tonight and i wanted to find out more about the parts where i didn’t know what was going on and came across these postings). i just want to say how amazing it is that the posts have been continuous for 3 years now…quite amazing don’t you think?

  47. Alexis says:

    Seriously you need to do more research before trying to explain anything about Silent Hill. It is completely too complex to explain without gaming experience. I’ve been playing SH for years and the movie has almost no relation at all to the games other than Alessa and the fact that there is a cult.
    In the game Alessa’s dad is suspected to be Dr. Kaufman, not mentioned in the movie. In the game, Dahlia tried to kill Alessa to birth the God but it didn’t work, so Alessa was kept prisoner in a hospital room with only Lisa Garland (nurse with bloody eyesockets) to take care of her.
    The reason the Otherworld appeared was because Alessa suffered so much; there was only a demon in the movie to give Christians something to compare it to. Alessa had God in her and was unable to birth Her, so she was locked up alone and miserable. The God allowed the Otherworld to appear to help Alessa escape her private Hell.
    Sharon is not the real name..it’s Sheryl. Alessa is the mother of Cheryl and she is also reincarnated as Cheryl. Play SH3, you’ll get it.
    No one died and no one is just imagining this stuff. It’s Alessa’s subconscious projecting the Otherworld on the people who are physically or emotionally close to her. This also explains why they were experiencing the effects of SH at home at the end.

    1. J says:

      I Love Your Reference To Real Life Religion. Good Way To Explain It

  48. Dani says:

    It isn’t the devil that gets to Alessa it is the dark side of her that grew from, her hatred.

  49. Matt says:

    Let’s see, I agree with Alexis the most on this. It kind of goes back to Silent Hill 4, he is trapped in the room, and he can see the outside world but thats it, his room and the hole in the toliet are his reality.

    I think Sharon or Alessa made the Burned Silent Hill a reality.

    I guess the only argument i could give backing up the people saying they are dead is when the Dad takes his mask off and is urged to put it back on, so why didnt they need a mask?

    But anywho, i think they are alive and well, Cybil is just a little helper in the movie and happend to be around when Alessa made Silent Hill a reality, right place at the wrong time.

    I believe this is true because Cybil rescued somebody from Silent Hill previously and she escaped just fine, but this time its different, which also drives my point home, Alessa created the place.

    The scene when all the bodies are being beautiful shredded hints that everyone is still alive, just not in the same deminsion, remember i said Alessa lets people in her little world, well i think she took all the cult members to her little world.

    I don’t think Alessa is the devil, i think that is reading too much into it.

    It is said that Alessa chooses who can leave and who stays in the Burned Silent Hill. Alessa having being inside of Rose, put a part of her in Rose. Rose wanted to save her daughter no matter what, and letting a nine year old girl inside of her was what it was going to take i guess.

    Alessa let her leave the Burned Silent Hill but she didnt let them leave the Burned Reality.

    Just my thoughts

  50. chihime says:

    I think i know why they cant return to the real world in the end,if they died to get there then there dead for good so there is no way to get back.

    1. J says:

      There Not Dead, I Don’t Think Anyway, The Demeanor And Influence Of Silent Hill, Doesn’t Have A Boundary, If Your Involved. Your Involved No Matter Where You Are, Play Some Of The Games, Shit Will Make Somewhat More Sense

  51. Jessica says:

    There are three versions of Alessa seen in the film (and this has been confirmed by the director and the actress who plays the characters)
    Original Body- The burned woman in the hospital bed
    The dark side of the soul- The Reaper
    The good side of the soul- Sharon

    When Alessa’s rage grew out of control, she split her soul and created Dark Alessa, the manifestation of the dark side of her emotions. She then gave in to the dark side of her own soul and created the alternate dimensions.
    Twenty-one years later, she created Sharon, the manifestation of the good side of her soul.
    At the end of the film, the two sides of Alessa’s soul merge and Alessa is reborn into Sharon’s body with a new mom and a new home. She appears to be quite happy in her new home, suggesting that she is purposefully holding Rose in the Fog World to keep her to herself.
    As for the townspeople, they’re not dead. This has also been confirmed by the director. All the townspeople age thirty years and it’s largely implied that Anna was born in the alternate dimension.

    1. J says:

      Cheers, Exactly What I’m Trying To Say, NO ONE IS DEAD! LOL

    2. Angela says:

      Selfish huh?

  52. Kenneth says:

    Jessica above is absolutely correct. And yes, Rose does know that she is in the alternate dimension and would not go back to the real world to be with her husband (she says this to Christabella – “You’re alone in this limbo, and God is not here”.) That’s the reason why she stares in space after sitting on the sofa not being surprised by the fact that Christopher is not visible to her.

    Time has not been frozen in the alternate dimension. People can be born and can die in it. The only people who exist in it are the members of the cult who have been sucked into the alternate dimension by Dark Alessa for the sake of her revenge. The alternate dimension was created by Dark Alessa (“They would all fall into her darkest dreams”). The fire that burns Silent Hill started at the exact moment when the alternate dimension was created which is when burnt Alessa touches Dark Alessa in the hospital. Only Dark Alessa controls who enters and exits the alternate dimension. Dark Alessa wanted her revenge but couldn’t get it cos the cult members took refuge in the sanctuary where she couldn’t enter. She needed someone who could enter the sanctuary. Thus comes Sharon, the good manifestation of Alessa, who is planted in the orphanage by Dark Alessa. So whoever chooses to adopt Sharon would be the one who would help Dark Alessa to take her revenge (“You chose, you chose Sharon.”) When Rose and Christopher adopts Sharon it was destined that Rose would be the one who would help Alessa take her revenge. When Sharon grows older Dark Alessa comes in Sharon’s dreams which ultimately leads Rose to Silent Hill and then into the alternate dimension.

    I’m surprised by the fact that this blog has been running for the last 3 years. As far as the movie Silent Hill is concerned, its a different kind of a horror movie. Its a bit difficult to get the story the first time you watch it. Well, the second time u watch it, its pretty simple to understand….

  53. Kenneth says:

    And you don’t need any gaming experience to understand the movie…. by the way!!!

  54. Tuna says:

    So…I just rewatched Silent Hill with some friends. Trying to explain the storyline to them, they asked some questions I really couldn’t answer myself. Curious, I checked this site out and ended up reading this entire page. Hot damn, great ideas. I’ve kind of put together my thoughts here, take them as you will.

    I’ve played and finished Silent Hill 1. Though generally I don’t think I will be comparing the movie to the games at all. While the movie is (obviously) inspired by the games, you can’t fairly draw any conclusions from the games as there are very large differences in the two versions of Silent Hill.

    -So first things first, the three versions of Alessa. Alessa was pushed to the point of hating this cult in Silent Hill. Being ridiculed by it’s members for being a bastard child, to a very violent extent. Alessa’s mother, Daliah, wouldn’t tell who the father was. Perhaps to protect someone, or because she was threatened, though it was never clear why. The cultists decide that Alessa’s father must be a devil, and decide to burn her. Daliah is unaware Alessa is going to be burnt but when she is turned away from the ceremony she goes to retrieve the police. Alessa is burned alive, though there is a malfunction and the coals are spread all across the floor, setting the hotel on fire. Alessa is rescued by Gucci. Alessa now experiences constant pain, and feels unparalleled hate towards the cult members. A few years have passed and Alessa’s hate grows more and more every day. It finally gets to a point where her hate manifests. Either born with the assistance of a demon (which would explain why Dark Alessa cannot enter the church), or with simply or own will. Either way, Dark Alessa is born. She starts the fire in the town. Most likely to rid it of all the people she did not want to kill (Gucci, who saved her life). Everyone else was sucked into Dark Alessa’s alternate reality. She attempted to kill everyone who made her life miserable, but the cultists found refuge in the church. Dark Alessa tried for years to kill them but realizing that she simply couldn’t–she came up with the plan to separate whatever was left of Alessa’s innocence and kindness, and manifest it into a child that will one day come back with someone who CAN enter the church. Sharon was born.

    -I don’t believe Dark Alessa has control over her dimension. When she created it, she created the monsters to kill everyone who she brought into her world. However when she created it she also gave the monsters the condition to not kill Daliah. As her plan to create Sharon had not yet come to fruition, this seemed ideal to her. Realizing her own creations would be hazardous to Rose when she brought her into her world, she decided it would most likely be best to bring Cybil as well, to help ensure Rose’s safety.

    -I believe at the end of the movie Dark Alessa and Sharon joined together. At this point, Dark Alessa/Sharon still controlled the ability to harness this other dimension–though I have a few theories on her intentions.

    –#1: My first theory is that for her own reasons, Dark Alessa may want to bring Christopher back to Silent Hill, and that she would use Rose to do so. The theory, though, has little evidence to support it.

    –#2: Still retaining Sharon’s love for her mom, she goes into a selfish state and wishes only to be with her. Alone in the world.

    –#3: I’m not sure if she ever says so, but as far as I know, she has never let anybody out of her special dimension. Perhaps she can’t? Maybe she can only bring them in, not move things out.

    Finally I have a question myself:
    -Do the monsters have any sort of significance to the characters? I know one person made a comment stating the the creatures at the beginning were all completely burnt the same way she was. It could be a manifestation of her pain and suffering as a child (would give evidence as to why the creatures are so small).

    -The acid spraying guy I thought may have been Alessa’s manifestation of her hate of constriction. When she was burnt she was completely unable to move, and stuck in a hospital for (4 years?). As far as the acid goes…no idea.

    -Perhaps the nurses are all part of Alessa’s jealousy. While Alessa was in the hospital over the years she likely realized that her burnt body would never be attractive to anyone, though she was constantly exposed to these gorgeous nurses. That is perhaps why their faces are smeared and non-existent because she didn’t care about who they were. She only hated them because they had something she could never have.

    As for Pyramid Head and the bugs…no idea there.

    Anyway, thanks for the read guys. I hope I may have shed some sort of light on the movie from my own perspective.

    1. J says:

      #3 The Detective That Tried To Rescue Alessa, Comes And Goes As He Pleases.

      1. Angela says:

        Hey, that’s strange….. How come then?…

  55. LIDZ says:

    Wow i watched this movie last nite and i was truely baffled but this blog has really clarified a few things for me.
    One thing i notice hasnt been mentioned. Perhaps Rose did not die in the car crash. How about she died when she was stabbed and her body healed because she was dead. Plus alessa -the evil personification was unable to survive in a dead body. I also believe that all other members of the cult were dead -refer to the scene where alessa was being burned and the cult members caught fire. It is possible that Alessa was the only one who survived – although severly maimed. This can also be the reason why alessa -evil one could not posess any bodies from the cult only alessa and rose.
    As to whether or not sharon exsists or not i am unsure.
    But i think this is a fantastic film as it hasnt spelt e=verything out for us. In fact it has allowed one to use their imagination which is rarely done in film.

  56. Jessica says:

    @ Tuna-
    Alessa was not in the hospital for more than a few hours before she manifested Dark Alessa (and it’s been confirmed that there was no outside entity involved). The newspapers at the beginning of the film state that the fire started in ‘late 1974’. Alessa was burned in November of 1974, meaning the fire and the burning are connected. Dark Alessa claimed Alessa was in the hospital for ‘so long’ because she was in so much pain, she probably thought it was a longer time period than it was.

    All of the monsters represent either Alessa herself or something she saw or her attackers. The Grey Children represent her burning and isolation, the Armless Man represents her hospitalization, the Janitor represents her thoughts on the man who assaulted her, Pyramid Head is her memory of a painting she saw in the hotel the night she was burned (the scene with the painting was cut, but an official screenshot showing the painting can be found on the film’s website), the Creepers represent the way the cultists swarm over anyone they consider to be ‘different’ and devour them, and the nurses represent Alessa’s memories of the woman who cared for her.
    Alessa has no reason to bring Chris into the alternate dimension, as she specifically kept him out and she has fairly high standards for a parent. Since Chris was shown to not care very much for Sharon, there’s every reason for Alessa to keep him away and no reason for her to want him anywhere near her or her new mother.

    @ LIDZ-
    The police report states that the cultists escaped the fire, so none of them are dead. Plus, Anna was born in the alternate dimension, and all the cultists age.

    Dark Alessa cannot possess anyone but Rose because she has to have a willing body to carry her into the church. None of the cultists would have accepted her, and Dahlia was clearly disgusted by her daughter’s actions, which only left Rose.

    I’m not sure what you mean by Sharon not existing. She’s a manifestation of Alessa that exists in a living, biological body. She is real and can be seen by anyone who wishes.

  57. maria says:

    gosh!! so many comments and the arcticle itself clear out so many thing in my mind regarding this mysterious movie. thanks folks!!

  58. Frank says:

    The Gray limbo of slightly less dangerous Silent Hill, and especially the gray limbo at the end of the movie, reminds me of any number of older conceptions of the afterlife. I believe that some versions of the Hebrew Sheol, the Christian Limbo, the Nordic helheim, And the Greek Asphodel fields are all basically a grey, washed out approximation of the real world. It fits nicely with the idea that the protagonists died. They were able to free Alessa, and by extension Sharon, from hell, but that doesn’t mean they necessarily get to go back to the world of the living.

    It’s also worth noting that no one is harmed by Alessa’s fiends except the cultists. the ash children don’t actually harm Rose, the nurses just hurt each other, and the Pyramid Head eventually gives up. Even the acid spittting mist thing doesn’t hurt Cybil.

    Birth, rape, pregnancy, and motherhood are all repeated themes. When the cult leader is killed Alessa’s tentacles enter through her vagina and explode out of her womb. It’s not exactly subtle. Likewise, the dark child disolves into Rose’s stomach, a pretty clear pregnancy metaphor.

    Also, Alessa’s personal nurse is interesting. She didn’t necessarily do anything wrong, but was still dragged into hell. This isn’t a happy ending kind of movie, and the supernatural agent is an insane psychic child instead of a just god, but there still seems to be limits and degrees of punishment. In this case, while most of the creatures in the town are truly horrific perversions of human form, the nurse is preserved in her youth and health, her only deformity the loss of her eyes.

    I’m guessing that for this specific film the pyramid thing could stand in for the absent father. Dahlia almost seems to call it up on the steps of the cathedral.

    The movie also provides an interesting contrast between Dahlia, who does not act to save her daughter, and Rose, who literally braves hell to bring her daughter out. Dahlia is ineffective, but not punished as harshly as the cultists. She’s stuck in sheol, but isn’t harassed by the monsters.

    Cybill is also interesting. If I was writing these characters then Cybill would be a lesbian. Dahlia is the mother who couldn’t protect her child, Rose is the adoptive mother who loves her child despite the childs hidden origins, Alessa’s experience of family and sexuality is corrupted by the world around her, the cult leader is the traditional ‘nuclear family’ taken to some nightmarish level, and Cybill is a lesbian. Each of the female characters is some aspect of motherhood and womanhood, Cybill’s being an aspect that society would not allow children. If the cult was a little miffed that Alessa had no father, imagine the fuss they’d raise about a lesbian having kids.

    Eitherway, that’s just my read into it, your mileage may very. This is definitely an interesting flick to look at through a feminist lens, given the topics it deals with.

    1. J says:

      The Funny Thing Is Most Of Silent Hill Games / Movie, Are Themed To Female Circumstances, Accept The Pyramid, Thats Def A Dude LOL

  59. Mariah says:

    OMFG! I read ALL of this! It was worth it that I did anyway because I was so fucking confused! It’s halloween and 130 in the morning! I don’t want to go to bed and have a nightmare!

  60. Kazu says:

    Okay, feel free to kick me if this has been said, but I’ve been reading through comments and I wanna address a few things that annoy me, especially after reading interview’s with the creators and such:

    1.] Rose and Sharon DID NOT DIE AT THE START. They were brought into the Fog World by Alessa because she needed them. Why do you think Dark Alessa was the one who walked in front of the car? The whole crashing/hitting head thing is exactly what happened in SH1 to take Harry into the Fog World.

    2.] Dark Alessa is NOT A DEMON/THE DEVIL. She is DARK part of ALESSA. A doppelganger, as stated in an interview with director or whoever. She is the darkness Alessa’s soul manifested when her hate grew too strong. Thus, Alessa made no deal with the devil but gave into the dark part of her soul to have her revenge. She always had psychic powers, so it makes sense that she could manifest her own darkness.

    3.] Alessa was not impregnated by Colin. This is stated by Word of God. She was molested/raped, yes, but what Christabella meant by “Why you won’t just name the father…” is about ALESSA’S FATHER. Not the father of Sharon. Sharon is not born until 20-something years later because she just wasn’t. And she was called back to Silent Hill when she was because she was now the age Alessa had been at the time the Cult hurt her, and Alessa felt it was time to get her revenge. Simple as that. And Rose was used because, as Dark Alessa said, she had CHOSEN Sharon.

    4.] About the creatures attacking Rose even though Alessa needed her: It was to test Rose. To see what lengths she would go to save her daughter. And, obviously, she went to some damn good lengths.

    5.] Sharon and Rose are not dead at the end of the movie either. They are merely still trapped in the fog world. Why? I have no clue. But they are alive and well the entire time. Dark Alessa did, however, rejoin with Sharon and possibly take her over, which would explain the odd behavior. Perhaps they’re still in the Fog World because the part of Sharon that is Alessa once again wants to stay with Rose forever, just the two of them. It would make sense. Alessa, in a way, got the loving mother she wanted. Why give her up?

    ..This is surpsingly coherant for almost 2 A.M. Hm.

  61. Kenneth says:

    I guess this blog will never end….. This is the longest blog i’ve ever seen….. More than 3 years and 61 comments now…. Way to go people!!!

  62. IamGamble says:

    To ROY AND CHROME at the top of this blog..

    Your theory is right, the only thing that is completely throwing everyone off is this;

    Your stuck on the 30 years , and the time line birth and appearance of Sharon. The 30 years doesnt indicate that is when the fire and all the things happened. The 30 years is mearly an idea of how long the poeple, or the cult existed, or the some bad people, as the cop stated, where doing there bad deeds, and purifing, plus the evil alessa states 30 years is just how long the people have not admitted to ther wrong doing… Thus explains why the about 30 year old cop saved alessa,” who would look 60ish now”, and is still close to the same age, when he makes his appearance at the crash scene. That, explaining, in its own, that the actual town burning and events, could have happened, (10ish) years before, the age of sharon. So, nothing confusing, just obvious bad plotting on the timeline, three things throw it off, the convesation in the suv between cop and father, states the fire was in ’74, the fact that they have cell phones, and the new jeep liberty she is driving makes the timeline not add up.

  63. Jessica says:

    According to the news reports Chris reads and Alessa’s police report, the fire started on November 1, 1974- so yes, it’s been 30 years since the fire started. The Brahams Herald also states this, and so does the official website. In fact, the Brahams Herald says that Rose and Sharon disappeared in Silent Hill exactly 2 days before the fire’s 30 year anniversary, meaning the film begins on the night of October 29th, 2004.

    1. J says:

      Damn, You Just Threw Me A Curve On That One LOL

  64. Nicholas says:

    After taking the time to read this entire web page head to toe, and just rewatching the movie to refresh my memory, I will share these observations:

    For the confusion of why they are trapped in the fog world in the end: Remember when Rose was entering the school, and as she walked up the stairs there was a quote saying, “The foes of the righteous will be condemned.” I’m assuming because Rose helped Alessa get her revenge, she is damned. But I also think the people deserved it for roasting Alessa. If it is true that they needed her to be in pain and in torture for their god to come, (forgive my ignorance, I never actually played the games. But I very much intend to!) then Rose was going against their God by aiding the vessel to kill all of the God’s followers. But this would suggest that her being trapped int the foggy world is a result of their god punishing her for killing his followers and helping an evil child.

    So many conclusions can be drawn.. Just what I like in a movie.

    1. J says:

      I Don’t Think Shes Damned, Think About It, Are You Going To Condemn The Person Who Helped You Make What You Want Possible? Alessa Keeps Her In Fog, All To Herself, Cus She Loves Her And Her Qualities, Shes Everything Alessa Never Had.

      1. J says:

        Think About When That Cultist Came After Rose, And Alessa Impaled The Cultist, Turned To Rose, And Smiled. Its Not A Case Of Damnation, Its A Case Of After 30 Years She Found Someone With All The Qualities She Desired, Shes Not Letting Her Go Because Of This

  65. Jessica says:

    Nicholas, you’re assuming the movie has elements of the game- which it does not. As Rose says ‘God is not here’. In other words, there is no god in the movie, so it’s impossible for Rose to be damned. The cultists were in the alternate realms because Alessa brought them there, and Rose is still in the alternate realms because Alessa is forcing her to stay there.

    1. J says:

      As Ive Seen Someone Else Say, Not Sure If It Was Jessica Or Someone else.
      Alessa Is Keeping Rose To Herself, The Love She Never Had, The Determination Of Facing Down Monsters And Danger All For Her Daughter, That All Shows The Qualities In People Alessa Aches To Feel.

  66. J says:

    Just Keep In Mind, Silent Hill, The Movie, And Game. Are A Perpetual Mind Fuck, There Is No Answers, Only Speculation And What Things, “Seem”
    To Be.

  67. Shino767 says:

    Some people said that (after a long time her rage manafests in to dark Alesia) but the cop talking to sharons dad said that after he pulled Alesia out if the fire the docters said that alesia did not make it passed the night so that means that dark alisia is not alisia it’s a devil in the form of Alisa not a manafestation of her dark side

    1. Jessica says:

      That is incorrect. Alessa never died, as seen by her clearly adult form at the end of the movie. She split her soul and created Dark Alessa, who then pulled her into a world of her own making (the Otherworld). Officer Gucci was *told* that she died, but we know this isn’t true because the woman in the hospital bed is played by an adult actress. Most likely, Alessa simply vanished (as did everyone pulled into her world), and the doctors assumed she had died and been moved in the chaos of evacuating the town due to the coal fire. Either way, we know for a fact Dark Alessa is Alessa’s dark side, and not the devil, because both the actress and director have explained it in interviews.

  68. Joe says:

    I thought that the inhabitants of silent hill died in the fire that they ironially used to kill alessa. Although some survived they fled. The grey silent hill is a metaphor for their purgatory as the people their do not know they are dead. This means that rose, sharon and the officer all died. All in crashes. This is why when we cut back to her husband and the detective the world is more colourful although they are in the same place.

    1. Jessica says:

      They did not die in the fire. Alessa’s police report states that they all escaped the church, and every person in the alternate realms is shown to have aged 30 years, including Alessa herself. Furthermore, Officer Gucci makes it clear that Cybil’s, Rose’s, and Sharon’s bodies were never found, but the car was found, which means either the writers made a huge continuity error, or the characters survived the crash but were pulled into an alternate reality. The newspapers Chris reads expand on the difference between those who died in the fire and those who were pulled into Alessa’s world further, saying that many of the town’s inhabitants simply vanished, to such an extent that it worried the police. It was theorized that these people may have gone into hiding in the cliffs around the town, but authorities felt this didn’t explain so many people disappearing in one night. Had these people died, their bodies all would have been found, and the newspaper articles would not have mentioned this discrepancy. Rather, the movie goes out of its way to drop hints suggesting that those who die and those who disappear are two different groups of people. To top it off, the director stated in an interview that one does not die in Silent Hill’s alternate realms. The metaphor in the greyness of the fog world seems to be that it represents Alessa’s days before she was burned (which is why the shift to the dark world represents what was done to her physical body), showing a very lonely, isolated place that suggests sadness.

  69. John Little says:

    Ok, so i have been a LONG time fan of silent hill, since i was abut 8 or 9, and i never understood, why the town was the way it is. it just simply “is” there was no explaining, witch always kinda ticked me. or there was but i missed it. like in the games i dont recall there being the devil or anything. All the games were different but the same at the same time. so, could some one explain why the town is all dark and crazy and stuff? plz email me ur answers.. thanks

    1. Jessica says:

      This site doesn’t publish your email, AFAIK. In the games, the fog world already existed, but Alessa created the Otherworld. The town was so twisted by her powers that it began to drag people into it and show them their darkness. The movie follows a similar concept, except there’s no evidence the fog world already existed. Alessa created the alternate realms after splitting her soul (she never made a deal with the devil, contrary to popular belief. that little girl is her dark side manifesting itself) and used them to take revenge on the cultists and anyone else she didn’t like.

  70. Angelique says:

    Okay, I saw Silent Hill yesterday for the first time ever.
    But I got confused, so I read every comment on this page.
    It helped me clear up some things, but not all of them.

    First of all;
    I live in belgium, so sorry for the errors,
    & here in belgium they dont know the game silent hill,
    so I dont know what the game is like, so I might be wrong, ALOT.

    Anyway;
    I might have 2 ways of thinking of;
    1) I do think Rose, Sharon & Cybill are dead.
    Cybill died on her cycle.
    Rose & Alessa died during the crash,
    some of you say she only hit her head ‘lightly’ but she was unconsious,
    I think instead of being unconsious, she died. “hitting her head lightly” is enough to get an inside bleeding.
    [Reminder that Sleep artery is there, & when that snaps your dead in a few.]
    Anyways, I think Sharon died during the crash too, being pulled out the car. Or Alessa killed her.
    [I’m not sure what would makes sense more…]
    Might explain, at the end, why they dont see Christoper, & he cant see them.

    Someone said;
    Dead people dont need food.
    Well, dead people cant drive cars either.

    Why I came up with another possible guess;
    Sharon has a connection to Alessa,
    Alessa needed Sharon, for some reason, right?
    Alessa let them in Silent Hill from 30 years ago.
    If Sharon & Rose arent dead, then theyre (in my opinion,) still stuck in the ‘grey’ Silent Hill demention.
    Since Alessa is dead, (or gone/ dissappeared with the others) & she controlled who came in & who went out, so she cant let them out because she aint there anymore.
    So Rose & Sharon are stuck in a timeline from 30 years ago.
    They didnt own the house yet, (perhaps) & so Christoper aint there.
    They might feel eachother, cuz their spirit is there, (just as when they’d be dead)

    For Cibyll, she died, obviously.
    Or she died during her bicycle crash,
    but that wouldnt explain why rose can see her. So thats when Rose died too.
    Or she died when they burned her.
    – wich makes more sense to me. At this part rose is still alive.

    For Sharon being Alessa’s child, I’m still not sure.
    The youngest mother is 5 years, [I have read] so I think its verry much possible Alessa gave birth to Sharon.
    While giving her good soul to her.
    Alessa [devil] kept only her bad side.
    When time was there, Alessa let Sharon in the ‘real world’
    There is not realy an explanation for not ageing, but Alessa didnt aged either, so its pretty possible.
    Sharon is a creation from Alessa, thats sure, but in what way?
    I’m still not sure.

    Oh, & other question;
    I saw someone mentioning Harry, Who’s he?

    Okay so far my way of thinking. (:

    1. Jessica says:

      Here’s what happened, as deduced from interviews with the cast and crew, as well as the movie itself.
      After Alessa was burned alive, she began to manifest unnatural powers, which she used to wilt the flowers next to her bed and to burn the nurse. She split her soul and created a double of herself containing the dark side of her soul (Dark Alessa). She was given the choice to do what the good side of her soul dictated (not give in to the hate or take revenge), or to do what her dark side wanted. She chose to take revenge and used her powers to create the fog world and the Otherworld. She then dragged all of the people responsible for her suffering into that world. Contrary to popular belief, no one in the fog world is dead until Alessa or one of her monsters kills them. That’s why they all age 30 years, why Alessa’s police report specifically says they didn’t die in the fire, why neither Cybil’s nor Rose’s bodies could be found, and why the newspaper articles Chris reads further the sharp distinction between those who died and those who got dragged into Alessa’s world. The director himself has stated they’re not dead, so we know they’re definitely not meant to have died.
      21 years after creating Dark Alessa and the alternate dimension, Alessa splits her soul a second time and creates Sharon, who contains the good side of her soul. According to the director, Sharon is meant to symbolically represent God (in that she’s an aspect of Alessa containing her good side) and Dark Alessa is meant to symbolically represent the devil (by virtue of being the dark part of Alessa). Alessa calls Sharon back into Silent Hill so that Rose can help her complete her revenge, among other things. Once she finishes killing the cultists, she recombines her complete soul into Sharon’s body, meaning that Sharon now has all the knowledge and memories of Alessa, as well as both sides of her soul. Since Alessa is the only one who can let people come and go from her world, we know she is purposely holding Rose there. Since it appears Rose is now Alessa’s chosen mother figure, it seems that Alessa wants to be alone with her new mother. That’s why Rose and Chris can’t see each other- because they’re in alternate realities. HTH

      1. Angelique says:

        See, about the last part I was right.

        Thanks,
        This makes sense to me :’)

        But I still dont know who harry is?

        1. Jessica says:

          Harry Mason is the protagonist of the first Silent Hill game, and is the character Rose is based off of. When they were writing the script, it was decided Harry was too feminine due to constant screaming and fainting, so they made him female. Some interviews also suggest he was made into Rose because the director (who also helped write the final script and who wrote the movie version of all characters except Chris and Gucci in the original treatment) wanted the movie to have a theme of motherhood, comparing all the different types there are (Rose to Sharon, Dahlia to Alessa, Christabella to her flock, etc).

      2. StarkRadio says:

        Wow, this is quite the thread. I’ve read thru most of the comments…. and like this one the best.

        Thanks!

      3. Angela says:

        Uhm… What happened to dahlia in the end? If alessa finally emerged with Sharon into one being and choose rose as her new ideal mother? Answer please….

        1. Jessica says:

          Dahlia was left alone in the Fog World to continue suffering for her sin of not loving Alessa enough to save her when she could have. It appears Alessa no longer cares whether her biological mother lives or dies, or what happens to her in between. Dahlia is in the sequel, so that may very well expand on what happened to her after the end of the first film.

  71. jomari says:

    i get it now thanks for the explanation above

  72. CHAMPos says:

    all very valid points, but there’s one issue no one seems to have noticed; the male policeman who freed alessa from her shackles at the “purifying” ceremony and burnt his hands. fast forward the 30-40 years to present day in the movie and he hasn’t aged a day!

    1. Jessica says:

      Officer Gucci *is* supposed to have aged, but the makeup department didn’t do a very good job on him. One of the digital companies states on their website that Gucci was digitally altered to look younger in the flashback scenes, so he’s definitely supposed to have aged.

      1. Champos says:

        true, but say he was 20 in the flashback, about as young as possible for a cop. that means he’d have to be at least 50 in present day. And we can all at least agree that was NOT the case.

        1. Jessica says:

          Kim Coates was 44 or 45 when they filmed the movie, so he was fairly close to the age they were aiming for. If you notice, Gucci has greying hair in the present scenes and pure black hair in the flashbacks. Christabella has the same problem, in that she’s supposed to be 37 in flashbacks and 67 at the current time. Other than a few wrinkles and a giant streak of white in her hair, she almost doesn’t change at all, but we know she’s supposed to because the actress states she’s seen at two ages thirty years apart. It seems makeup was too busy worrying about painting PH’s buttcheeks to care much about some of the characters. :P

          1. Angelique says:

            Thanks for the explanation btw.
            I thought he was stuck in silent hill [grey] too D:

  73. kidchamp says:

    I think that if you have ever read anything about hell, there are several levels and that the souls are in constant torment and constantly feeling pain and being ripped apart. Thus, the cultists, even if they were already dead, would be able to feel physical pain, as their souls were being ripped apart. Just a theory I have. I so love this movie because it is open to so much interpretation. Someone needs to make a sequel!

    1. Angelique says:

      They are going to make a sequel.
      Without Jodelle Ferland though.
      So I doubt its going to be as good :/

  74. anthony says:

    I have to make a point that them being dead would not explain that they could open the door to their house at the end and Chris had to close the door. Remember? And if everyone is dead, why would Alessa want to kill dead people? So she can do it again? Silent hill alters reality and alters them with it. And it stays with them which is why at the end they would stay in purgatory, they have presence in and can interact with the world but are not fully there. They are in both dimensions at once.

    1. Angelique says:

      I think she wants to be fully rid of them.
      Since their ‘spirits’ or whatever that is are still there.
      She wants to make them suffer for what they did to her.
      & then she & sharon become 1 again.

  75. Phish says:

    I’ve read every post tonight after watching Silent Hill today. My primary reason was because this movie is rather open-ended with the ending, but also very subjective to the viewer. I tend to agree with most comments that involve the statements made by cast and crew.

    Just to add my two cents on certain topics…The whole problem with the time differential should really be null and void, as it seems to be a parallel universe which would mean that it does not abide by the same rules and regulations that the “normal” world would.

    On another note, something that I would like to add to possibly get opinions and comments on would be this: What if Pyramid Man, the bugs, essentially all the evil that was lurking around…nurses to be included, were essentially a defense to keep the evil captive…it just seems odd that there were that many obsticles to overcome, and the idea that she was being kept beneath the surface with the elevator going down many levels….could they have been there to keep individuals from unleashing what was being captive?

    1. Jessica says:

      All of the monsters are manifestations of Alessa that are directly controlled by her, as the alternate realities are alos manifestations of her. No one controls the monsters except Alessa, so no, they’re not meant to keep her captive, but rather to stop the cultists from getting to her weak and vulnerable physical body. The reason why Rose has to go through the monsters is because Alessa is testing her, which is also why she makes her stand up to the cultists, willingly descend into the darkness, jump over a large hole, etc.

  76. Daniel says:

    This movie rawks my socks!

  77. A guy who watched the movie yesterday says:

    OK PEOPLE, did none of you notice that when the car crashec in the beginning it turned over, thus forth beign totaly wrecked yes? but when Rose wakes up in ghost silen thill the car is upright, in mitn condition, and the doors are open, whats up with that

    1. Jessica says:

      The car is never shown turning over. Rose crashes into the side of the cliff, causing her head to be thrown into the steering wheel. When she wakes up, the passenger door is open because Sharon was sleepwalking and left the car.

  78. MandyMoorbid says:

    I belive Sharon is Alessa’s daughter. Rose asks where is my Sharon and the Reaper (dark side of Alessa) says “She is not yours shes hers” “She whats left of her good side” And Alessa smiles. They darkened the Heart of a innocent child and into the dark she swollowed their hate.. Alessa was anrgy and felt so for everyone.. Because it was even mensioned she Harmed a nurse that was merely curious.. The nurse that still attended to Alessa in the underworld… So Sharon is the only exception to her hatred and anger. Because she is her daughter and reminds her of her innocence. The ending could be many things.. But I do think they are trapped in the underworld. The reaper (dark side of Aless) prob went with(in) Sharon, as Alessa still wanted her daughter and would not let her go, as shes the only reason they wond up in Silent hill to begin with. Alessa spared her mothers life and had to live in that purgatory/underworld with her, So maybe being as how Sharon is Alessa’s child she must remain as well, and being as how Rose still Chose Sharon she has to remain as well. Also maybe being as how the reaper was the dark side of Alessa, and Alessa couldnt travel herself, She had the dark side go back with Sharon to remind Alessa of Her goodness and to be near her daughter.. Or maybe she Wanted a “good mother” and went back with Rose, to create a realm where she has a good life.. Cause when she gos into Sharon, and they walk passed Alessa mother, she giver her a small smerk/yet wierd look.

    1. Jessica says:

      Sharon is not Alessa’s daughter. She is another doppelganger of Alessa, a manifestation containing the good side of Alessa’s soul. The director has stated that Alessa exists in 3 bodies: an adult (the burned woman and the original body), and two children who contain the bad (Dark Alessa) and good (Sharon) sides of her soul. At the end of the movie, Sharon and Dark Alessa recombined, creating a full rebirth of Alessa living in the body of Sharon. Both Dark Alessa and Alessa’s adult form disappear after that because they have both ceased to exist outside of Sharon’s body. Alessa gives Dahlia a glare because she’s taunting her for not being a good mother, and reminding her that she now has a better mom. Alessa tested Rose throughout the movie so she could determine if Rose would be a sufficient mother for when her soul recombined and she was put into only one body again. Alessa holds Rose in the alternate realms because that’s her world, and she doesn’t want to leave it. Whether it’s because she’s scared or just selfish isn’t ever stated, but we know she’s willfully holding herself and Rose there because she extends the fog world to Rose’s house and Dahlia specifically says that Alessa controls the door into Silent Hill.

  79. Arko says:

    They cant be dead…that would make little sense. How can a ghost bleed and be torn apart ? It cant. Also Roses car hadnt been found…so what it died too :PP ?
    The only logical explanation for me is that Rose, Sharon, Cybil, and cultists were moved WITH their bodies into Gray Silent Hill.
    That would explain why the bodies werent found…and it also means that they are all alive. If they were ghosts, their bodies would be found in the real world.

    1. johnsonvilleburgers says:

      ? the car was found.

      in the 1st third or so, when rose first gets into the school’s main office and gets her flashlight. the camera stops at a position facing a wall of “paintings” that she just looked at, god loyalty(?) home country. on the image to “god” it is of a woman. perhaps implying that clarabante.. effed that up badly, evil cult leader lady, is the god in this world. (get it?)

      and finally, the rest of the comments are awesome. 1UP kinda did not say if silent hill was good or terrible ont heir recent list of bad game-film adaptations, if anyone asks, this is the best way to prove that its a good movie. not just by 1 or 2 people thinking it over and hwo it translates to film, but by a mere hundred sharing their thoughts and figuring out the lil bugs in it to give it a concise feeling of the game, of horror/shock/terror.

      which it did, i was slightly scared the first time i watched it. its a great representation of a game’s true core philosphyas entertainment.

      also, does every dam video game hero in survival horror carry a siny silver zippo lighter? frack…

  80. sean says:

    I’ve read all the posts to date and Jessica’s explanation makes the most sense drawing from facts (what the director and cast say) and interpretation from what we were and weren’t shown in the movie.
    The quote “she is not yours shes hers” “She whats left of her good side” when Rose asks where is my Sharon in some way can be interpreted to mean Sharon is Alessa's daughter however not in the sense that she gave birth to Sharon biologically. Jessica said that Alessa split her soul and created Dark Alessa and Sharon and i agree so it can be said that Alessa is the mother of both Sharon and Dark Alessa in the sense that she created them.
    Anyhow the main reason i came here was to figure out what was the ending suppose to mean but the best one i’ve read is that complete Alessa/Sharon and Rose are trapped. I havent seen any reference on Alessa being able to send those she brought into the fog world back to the real world.

    1. Andy says:

      its actually implied that Dark Alessa can go to the real World when she dropped Sharon at the orphanage

  81. pixie says:

    what confused me in the story was the deal with the devil. the thing which goes unexplained is that the cult had ‘faith’. how can that ‘faith’ count or have any power at all if they were punishing an innocent child. giving any power to that ‘faith’ means validating the claims made by the cult. i think this is the only flaw in the plot of the story.

    and what intrigues me is the deal with the devil. to get a revenge a deal with the devil had to be made. that throws the general hate-revenge into a no-no category. according to the story one needs the devil to indulge in the hate-revenge. but since the hate-revenge was somehow justified the DARK(of the devil) mixed with the WHITE(of the justice) made a GREY. but then again that makes the story slightly warped.the devil is evil. the evil is the cult. so the cult should be the devil. you see, these are the flaws in the story, nevertheless, it made for a very interesting film and a story worth analysing.

    1. Jessica says:

      There is no devil in the movie. Alessa simply became so full of hate that she split into 3 people (the woman in the hospital bed, the evil little girl, and the protagonist’s daughter). It’s meant to show that the cultists’ hate for Alessa turned her into the very monster they had claimed she was all along, by releasing her pent-up psionic powers and giving her a good reason to create an alternate reality and two doubles of herself.

  82. StarkRadio says:

    I have to say I viewed the entire film as being an interpretation of the Tibetan Buddhist’s Bardo, or limbo: (from Wiki) “The Tibetan word Bardo means literally “intermediate state” – also translated as “transitional state” or “in-between state” or “liminal state”. In Sanskrit the concept has the name antarabhāva. It is a concept which arose soon after the Buddha’s passing, with a number of earlier Buddhist groups accepting the existence of such an intermediate state, while other schools rejected it.

    “Used loosely, the term “bardo” refers to the state of existence intermediate between two lives on earth. According to Tibetan tradition, after death and before one’s next birth, when one’s consciousness is not connected with a physical body, one experiences a variety of phenomena. These usually follow a particular sequence of degeneration from, just after death, the clearest experiences of reality of which one is spiritually capable to, and up to terrifying hallucinations arising from the impulses of one’s previous unskillful actions. For the prepared and appropriately trained individuals the bardo offers a state of great opportunity for liberation, since transcendental insight may arise with the direct experience of reality, while for others it can become a place of danger as the karmically created hallucinations can impel one into a less than desirable rebirth.”
    Also, the sirens before each manifestation seem to me to also express Tibetan music: horns, chants, bells, drones…..

    Anyway that’s my two cents worth.

    Incredible that this thread is still going after 3+ years! I really enjoyed reading all the comments and various analyses.

    1. starkradio says:

      sorry forgot to say, Tibetan Book of The Dead ie Bardo ie their interpretation of what Christians call Limbo.

      I read the Tibetan Book of the Dead years ago and it left a searing mark on my memory. Hence my interpretation.

      all in all, a very good movie made from a video game, which obviously had a helluva writer to begin with!

    2. Jessica says:

      But no one in that world is dead, they’re simply trapped. And given that Alessa is able to leave that world at will (we see her do it twice), there’s no requirement that anyone die to move in or out of that world. Other than that, Gans has said it represents Purgatory, with the Otherworld representing Hell and our world representing Heaven. So yeah, you’re mostly right.

  83. JC says:

    Okay… One question.. I’m watching the movie right now, in Denmark, where I Come from… And one thing I still don’t understand, is why the man named Gucci, can interact with Chris and others in the real world, outside silent hill? He never aged since the previews where you see that he is talking with some policemen right after the fire. If he never aged, then why is he still in the real world, and not in SH, like the others.?? He must have been there during the fire.. nevertheless.. maybe his presence is there, outside the dark SH, so he can prevent Chris from following Rose. He is not very helpful and seems like he dislikes Chris’ interfering
    . I think he is put in the outside world, to make sure that no one will interfere or mess up Alessas plans with rose and Sharon. Which I think is brought to SH from her ‘safe place’, to reunite with the dark part of Alessa. (So no, I don’t think she is the child of Alessa, even though it fits well in the story. However. We are specifically told that Sharon is the good side, that remains of Alessa. We are not told either much time went by, before Sharon was left by the doorstep. Do We? I think that Sharon is controlled by Alessa, and that Alessa, like in SH, can control the age of her “other side” Sharon. And at last but not least, I think that the gap of time is caused by Alessa, not wanting to bring Sharon to SH before the time was right.. everyone who was in the power of Alessa, didn’t age. Must be to keep them waiting for there own apocalypse, so they can’t die naturally, but must die in pain, like Alessa did, being “helped” and kept alive by the revenge-craving devil. And Yes, I think it is a devil. Why else would she say “I…. Have many names!”.)

    I hope to get a response. Thank you, and sorry for any spelling mistakes there might be there.. :)

    1. Jessica says:

      She’s not the devil, as confirmed by both the director and the actress. She says she has many names because she does. The cult calls her “demon”, “witch”, “sin incarnate”, “devil”. She does metaphorically represent the devil, just as Sharon is meant to represent God, but literally she’s just Alessa’s dark side manifesting itself.
      Officer Gucci does age, and both makeup and digital editing were used to give him more youth in the flashback. He knows nothing of what Alessa is doing, as confirmed by the actor, and is simply keeping Chris away from a dangerous place that could kill him if he goes into the wrong building and stays there too long. He and Sister Margaret don’t like talking about Alessa for the same reason: they’re ashamed. An entire town let a little girl be bullied and harassed for 9 years and did nothing to stop it until it was already too late. That’s some serious guilt right there.
      Sharon is 9 years old, just as she appears to be. It wouldn’t make sense for Alessa to have split her off and just let her linger anywhere before sending her to the Da Silvas, and I’m pretty sure Rose and Chris would have noticed if their kid wasn’t aging.
      I’m not sure what you mean by people under Alessa’s power not aging, since every person shown over a long span of time ages (Eleanor goes from having black hair and no wrinkles to white hair and wrinkles everywhere, Christabella gains wrinkles and a giant streak of white in her hair not present in the flashback, Dahlia goes from youthful and red-headed to old and grey-haired, Gucci goes from jet black hair to having wrinkles and a lighter shade of black to his hair, etc).

  84. JC says:

    Sorry. That was more than one question.. however.. the main one is, what is going on with Gucci.. am I right or totally lost? I’m certainly confused… :)

  85. apox says:

    only thing i dont get is if rose is in the grey silent hill how come christopher got rose’s voice mail

  86. Neil says:

    I just saw part of this movie and was confused. Your comments were helpful in understanding what I missed. Would someone explain why the female cop was burned? Was she slow roasted like the others? I did not read anything that explained why that happened.

    1. Jessica says:

      If you’re talking about why Cybil let herself be caught, there are a few theories on that. Unfortunately, the shooting script was never released, and the book is only written in Japanese, so there’s no quick answer to that question. Some of the theories are that she simply got tired, thought she was protecting Rose, or was being influenced by Alessa.
      As to why the cultists burned her, she was helping Rose, whose child was a doppelganger of Alessa. Once the cultists realized Alessa and Sharon were the same person, they assumed a conspiracy to aid Alessa in her revenge on him, and so declared both Rose and Cybil to be witches. They thought Cybil was helping Alessa to kill them faster, in other words.

      1. Jessica says:

        *to aid Alessa in her revenge on THEM*

  87. Matt says:

    Very confusing movie/game. I like it, though. The movie is suspenseful and leaves me longing for more. Be it information or resolution, I think that the movie was successful in creating a “prequal” to a real Silent Hill. Of course, that’s yet to be released.

  88. Louis Schuler says:

    damn, ppl are still talking about this movie in 2011, impressive, this movie was probably the scariest movie i ever saw

  89. sarah says:

    I personally agree with the fact that the monsters that attacked Rose and Cybil were there to test them, but here’s an interesting theory … No one knows who Alessa’s father is, right? And Dahlia seemed to call upon Pyramid Head on the steps of the church. What if Pyramid Head is the father/Dahlia’s husband, and she called upon him to punish Anna for hurting her with stones? Kinda a way-off theory and I don’t personally believe it, but at the same time, it could be. :)

    1. Jillian says:

      PH is a creation of Alessa, based off of Alessa’s memory of a painting in the hotel that depicts men in cone hats and tan skirts (a picture of the painting can be found on http://www.welcometosilenthill.com). Also, Dahlia did not summon PH. She merely made the sign of the witch at Anna, since she knew the Otherworld was coming and Anna was in deep shit because of it.

  90. Ryan says:

    Question( well 2 really): What is Pyramid head’s back story & what are the armless monsters that spit acid (The very 1st monster in the movie NOT counting the little girl (Alessa?) supposed to be? I know the ones in the mine are the miners that were killed in the fire. Plus Grey SH is probably suburgatory But if it is why was the SUV taken into SH… UNLESS IT IS THE CAR FROM ONE OF STEPHEN KINGS MOVIES!!!!!!!!! Hahaha jk jk. But really why would it be dragged in to? Email me answers at [email protected]

    1. Jillian says:

      PH is a monster thought up by Alessa after she saw a painting in the hotel depicting men in cone-shaped hats and tan skirts. The painting never made it into the final cut of the film, but it can be seen on the official site (www.Welcometosilenthill.com). The Armless Man is another manifestation of Alessa, probably representing her feeling of being trapped in her own body after the fire. Of course, these things apply to the movie only. The meanings of the same monsters in the game series are quite different.

      Rose’s car now exists in both the Real World and Alessa’s world because Alessa pulled Rose and a copy of her car into the alternate reality, while leaving the real car in the normal reality. Also, they’re not literally in purgatory. The alternate reality is a place created by Alessa that represents her suffering.

      1. Andy says:

        What concerns me about the armless men is why they appeared in the Grey SH? I guess it was for the writers convenience so they can make Cybil aware of the dangers and help Rose escape.

        1. Jessica says:

          It actually does make sense if you think of the Fog World being a representation of Alessa before the burning, while the Otherworld represents who she became afterwards. Since she was so abused, it makes sense that she had some bad emotions even before she was burned, but not anywhere near as many. Thus, there are only a few monsters in the Fog World, but a ton of them in the Otherworld.

          Also, thanks so much for the kind words! :)

          1. Andy says:

            Oh it makes sense that way. It also explains why there are animals in there. Thanks.

            And you’re welcome :D

  91. John Ju says:

    I think they were all freaking stupid because the freaking car didnt have any freaking airbags. Only a retard would let their “daughter” that they “love” sit in the front seat when she knew there were no freaking airbags. RETARD! I think if they are dead in the end that they deserved it. On the other hand these directors seriously need to rethink this movie because it did not make any sense at all. Have a nice life demons. or death… Who really knows…?

    1. Jessica says:

      They’re not dead. The sequel stars Sharon.

  92. Someone says:

    Just a side comment here:
    When Rose askes the demon where her daughter is when she reaches the final basement floor room with Alessa’s burned body, the demon says. “It’s not your daughter, it’s hers” and points at Alessa.
    So I believe the movie states that Sharon is the daughter of Alessa

    1. Jessica says:

      That’s incorrect. Sharon is not Alessa’s daughter, and the evil girl Rose speaks to is not a demon. Dark Alessa’s responses to Rose both work the same way: first she makes a metaphorical statement (“I have many names”, “She’s not your child, she’s hers”), and then she follows it up by being literal (“I’m the dark part of Alessa”, “The little girl is what’s left of her goodness”). What she’s saying is that she’s the manifestation of the dark side of Alessa’s soul, and Sharon is the manifestation of the good side. This has been confirmed in interviews with both the director and the actress.

  93. M says:

    what is the shit. my head it screwed up.

  94. Ronan LG says:

    Hey so I don’t know if anyone stumbled upon this post, but I found this on yahoo answers and thought it made a lot of sense!
    Here it is:

    There are three different dimensions in the movie**:

    – The real world: What we see up until the car crash outside of Silent Hill; the dimension that Chris and Officer Gucci are in

    – Foggy Silent Hill: A dimension created by Alessa resembling Purgatory; a place of imprisonment for the cultists and a place of refuge from the real world for Alessa

    – Dark Silent Hill, aka – The Otherworld: A dimension created by Alessa resembling Hell; a place of punishment for the cultists inhabited by monsters, a representation of Alessa’s revenge

    **Note – Foggy Silent Hill and Dark Silent Hill are not actually Purgatory and Hell. They’re only Alessa’s versions of them.

    Chris (the father) and Officer Gucci (the cop) don’t experience what Rose and the others do because they are in two different but parallel dimensions. Chris and Officer Gucci are in the real world and Rose, Cybil, Sharon and the cultists are in Alessa’s alternate dimension. That’s why they can be in the same place at the same time and not see each other (e.g. – When Rose runs past Chris and he smells her perfume, and in the end when Rose makes it “home” and Chris can’t see her).

    And contrary to popular belief, Rose and “Sharon” are not dead at the end. Rose and her husband can’t see each other because they’re still in Alessa’s alternate dimension, while Chris is in the real world. Here’s the deal…

    There are three parts of Alessa:

    – Alessa (the burned girl/scarred woman in the oxygen tent)
    – Sharon (Alessa’s good side)
    – Dark Alessa (Alessa’s evil side)

    Sharon and Dark Alessa are basically manifestations of the two sides of Alessa – the good side and the evil side. As for how Alessa created these manifestations and the alternate dimensions (foggy Silent Hill and dark Silent Hill), it can only be assumed that she possessed some kind of supernatural power (as evidenced by the wilted flowers in her hospital room and her hurting the nurse). This, in addition to the fact that she had no father, would obviously lead everyone associated with the cult to call her a witch. Alessa’s power was amplified by her growing hate as she suffered in the hospital after being nearly burned to death by the cult. That being the case, this is what happened:

    1) Dark Alessa does not, in fact, take over or possess Sharon at the church near the end. Dark Alessa (the evil side) simply recombines with Sharon (the good side), creating a new and complete “reincarnation” of Alessa.

    2) Alessa’s “pact” with her evil counterpart (Dark Alessa) that we saw in the flashback not only ensures that she will help her exact her revenge, but that Alessa, after making herself “whole” again, will also have a second chance at life with a new, and surely in her eyes, better, mother: Rose.

    3) And as for the ending:

    Alessa’s plan works – she gets her much deserved revenge on the cultists, Dark Alessa and Sharon recombine and create a newly “reborn” Alessa, and she ends up with Rose (who either isn’t aware or just doesn’t care that this little girl isn’t “her Sharon” anymore) as her new mother. Now with Sharon’s memories of the outside world to work with after reuniting her two halves, Alessa can extend her alternate dimension and create a world just like the one Sharon and Rose lived in, where they can stay forever. In other words, Alessa doesn’t want them to leave her alternate dimension and in her eyes, for good reason. The real world is where Alessa was hurt, abused and humiliated. In the real world, she felt unsafe, unloved and that the people are untrustworthy (especially men, considering that the absence of her father was the source of her torment, in addition to her horrific experience with the school janitor). Alessa wants to live out the rest of her new life with Rose as her new loving mommy in her alternate dimension, where she’s in control and she feels safe. Unfortunately for Rose, this means that she is essentially trapped in Alessa’s alternate dimension indefinitely.

    On a side note from my part, the fact that the producers named the male police officer (the one helping Chris) Thomas Gucci makes me laugh every time! (joking reference to Tamagochi, handheld pocket toys, don’t know why but that’s what it is!)

  95. Olford says:

    WOW.2012 and people still talking about this movie.SH is one of my favourite films and also one of the films i feel i now completely understand(like donnie darko),Except one thing.I read all the posts and couldnt believe no-one had mentioned this.Can someone please explain to me WHY dark/evil alessa cant go into the church????I remember its mentioned about thier faith but surely if god is even concidered in this film then he wouldnt be protecting the cult in the church,and if god isnt concidered in the film(like rose saying theres no god here or something like that)then why cant the evil enter the church.There is a part where alessa says about thier ‘blind faith’ so maybe its a case that the cult had blocked out and lied to themselves so much that they believed thier own lies and continued to while they lived in the dimension they were dragged into and could not be killed or could not die untill they had accepted their wrong doings.I think alessa could have entered but lied as its easy for the cult to deny the truth when its coming from the witch or demon.To the cult they must somehow think they are right,Think about it,they tried to burn the demon girl then the apocolypse came(so they thought)and the demon they tried to burn is trying to kill them but the evil cant get them in church.So to the cult they have done GOD’s work and are continuing to fight evil.whereas rose enters and puts presure on the leader showing her that they are the evil.which then causes the leader of the cult to stab rose that worked as the final strike.she could no longer deny being a sinner after stabbing an innocent infront of everybody which consiquently caused her to come face to face with her demons(and its hard to deny whats staring you in the face.Tell me what ya think.
    I also feel that silent hill isnt only reflecting alessas personal hell but also whoever is in it,I saw someone mention about the monsters with no arms,as in that scene its not just the monsters who have no use of thier arms and i am convinced this is not just coincidence.

    1. Jessica says:

      There are 2 possibilities for why Alessa can’t enter the church. It’s possible she was so indoctrinated by the cult’s beliefs while she was growing up that she herself believed God would only stop protecting them if they were truly shown to be sinners. Since the alternate reality is controlled and shaped by Alessa’s own thoughts, this belief would cause a physical barrier to manifest that would stop her from being able to enter the church until the cult exhibits its true evil on an innocent. Much more likely, Dark Alessa wasn’t entirely truthful to Rose, twisting “I don’t want to go in there until these requirements are met” into “I can’t get in there”. Given her knack for metaphorical statements that sound completely different from what she’s actually saying, this makes sense. Alessa may have wanted the cultists to see the monsters they really were before killing them, so that none of them would die thinking they were innocent martyrs. Once they realized they were committing sin on people who didn’t deserve it, then she could show them her body, and force them to understand that they tortured and twisted an innocent child. It’s also possible it was a combination of the 2 ideas working together to stop her.

  96. I know this is years old, but I think I have cracked a little piece of it. If you notice, back in 1970 when the fire first broke out, the lady in the purple dress looked exactly the same as she did in this hell world. I have reason to believe that Sharon and Alessa are the same person, Alessa being the dark side and being dead, stuck in a hell world she had helped create, and Sharon is the good side that is possibly also dead, however she was released by the devil to somehow draw others in to her trap. I don’t know if this is a load of crap but it just seems to make sense from that part. Let me know if anyone is still reading this!

    1. Jessica says:

      Christabella (the cult’s priestess) only looks the same due to poor makeup. If you look closely, the character has wrinkles where they weren’t in the flashback, and a giant streak of white in her hair. The actress has also confirmed in interviews that her character is supposed to have aged 30 years between when the fire occurred and the current day. Sharon and Alessa are indeed the same person, as is Dark Alessa (the evil little girl many people mistakenly believe is the devil). Alessa is the original body, Sharon is the manifestation of the good side of her soul, and Dark Alessa is the manifestation of her dark side. Contrary to popular belief, neither Alessa nor any of the people trapped in her world are dead. They all age 30 years, Alessa’s police report states they did not die in the fire, and the director has said in interviews that people don’t die to enter the alternate reality. The alternate world is a reality created by Alessa’s powers that represents who she was before she was burned (the Fog World), and who she became afterwards (the Darkness). Sharon is removed to the real world so that she can find someone to both aid Alessa in her revenge, as well as who can become the mother to Alessa’s full rebirth (when Sharon and Dark Alessa lock eyes, the soul reunites, creating a full “rebirth” of Alessa living in Sharon’s body). The reason she and Rose are still in the Fog World is because Alessa doesn’t want to leave. She has a new body, a new mother, and a new home, so she doesn’t want to jeopardize it by returning to a world that she believes hates her.

  97. Suicidal says:

    Lets just accept it makes no sense and call it a day. I’ve read every post and I’m just as confused as when I started. I’ve lost the will to live

    1. Jessica says:

      Lol It’s not that hard once you know what the cast and crew have said. It basically all boils down to: little girl with supernatural powers gets hurt, little girl creates an alternate reality and 2 doubles of herself containing her good and bad sides, little girl kills everyone who hurt her, end of movie.

  98. lan says:

    wow all these plot analysis are really interesting so i decided to give my opinion of what might of happen. I haven’t watch the movie in a while now but remembering as well as i can.
    sharon could have been used as a strategy to accomplish Alyssa’s revenge. yes sharon is the innocent side that was left of allyssa. What i think is that maybe the devils plan of reincarnating sharon later on could have helped with alyssa’s revenge because alyssa couldn’t accomplish the mission of her revenge. Since the cults had a strong faith in their belief of god and that their actions are right they were protected from alyssa’s darkness; if they remain in the church where there are many of them with their distorted faith they would be saved.
    As almost they are in forever denial of their wrong actions. Alyssa could have not been pregnant with the janitor because female reproductive system aren’t developed until twelve or more basically puberty. I think the role of the janitor was to put fuel on fire which tormented the poor innocent girls situation as the victim gone outraged.i still believed that sharon was used as a strategy because she had many scary dreams of the devil alyssa and screaming silent hill which would lead to rose ( a very concern mother who would do whatever it takes to cure her only adopted daughters illness.) bringing her to silent hill.
    I do believe that as mention above by some peoples analysis that sharon was a key to connecting to silent hill. when the unfortunate cop followed rose and sharon to silent hill they both crash because of the devil alyssa doing. ( which means that sharon and rose was needed since the devil alyssa had cause both their deaths.)rose woke up and lost sharon and did what a real loving mother would do; she search for her. The bridge was cut since the devil alyssa has a mission for rose and sharon. Thus rose out of fear tries to avoid getting consumed by the darkness wrath and torture. Luckily sharon met the cop along the bridge both not knowing that they are dead and are lost souls in silent hill; faces the challenge of finding sharon and unexpecting to uncover the truth. waking up in their vehicle made it appear that they had survive from the crash. However the cop cybil is just a bystander who was unfortunate to get caught up in this mystery mission. She later is useful only in helping rose get away to the hellish elevator. Cybil represents the good innocent bystanders that had once helped alyssa from her burning wounds, but would be engulf by the cause of the rage of alyssa’s revenge against the crazy town cults of silent hill. all this darkness and insanity was cause by wrong actions. leading to sadly cybils insignificant heroic death since heroes are engulf by the cults corrupted society. Rose as she descend deeper down the floor which just become more darker and errie because of the nurse and no light. she had found the truth of alyssa’s past. as almost in darkness you shall find the light which she did at the hospital bedroom door. the devil alyssa uses roses love for sharon and manipulates her to agree in helping her helping alyssa. As a more brave and enlightened rose return to the church she tries to reveal the cults shameful act that they had cause to alyssa and she tries to make them repent and accept for what they did. The cults who are in denial did not repent nor felt remorse were shock when their leader christabella had commited the act of murder by stabbing rose and not the usual ritual of burning at the stake had cause blood spill on the church floor which lead to their faiths shattered and alyssa entry way to accomplishing her revenge of a fulfilled blood bath. also dahlia alyssa’s mother was forgiven and not slain but would rather survive and remember how she had never saved her daughter from the corrupted society because she was a weak woman. Probably also the fact she did not love her daughter as much as rose had for sharon. In a way rose had save sharon from her death and darkness. they both return home since the mission is accomplished but they are only souls since the father lived in the real dimension and they were living in the other realm. Basically the ending proves that their dead since the father had close the open door in which mother and child soul had entered the home.
    than again this might just be the way i analyze the movie plot as i was watching the mystery unravel.
    sorry for some grammatical error hope to see more analysis..^_^

    1. Jessica says:

      The ending does not prove they’re dead, merely trapped in an alternate reality. The director has stated in interviews that the people in the alternate reality are not dead, and the film goes out of its way to prove that, showing all of the cultists aging, Alessa being played by an adult actress, Alessa’s police report stating the cultists did not die in the fire, Officer Gucci commenting on the lack of bodies, etc.
      Dark Alessa (the evil little girl Alessa makes the deal with) is not the devil, at least not literally. According to interviews with the director, she is meant to symbolically represent the devil, but literally she’s just the dark side of Alessa’s soul manifesting itself.
      The ending of the film involves Dark Alessa (Alessa’s dark side) recombining with Sharon (Alessa’s good side) to create a complete rebirth of Alessa living in one body. Alessa purposely holds Rose trapped in her world because she’s afraid of the real world and doesn’t want to return there. Alessa’s reincarnation will appear in the sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation, under the name Heather Mason.
      There’s really no reason to believe Cybil was accidentally trapped in Alessa’s world. Alessa has full power to let in anyone she wants, and to kick out anyone she wants, so she would not have allowed Cybil to stay if she hadn’t brought her there intentionally to protect Rose. Even if Alessa didn’t want to make the effort to throw out Cybil, she certainly wouldn’t have taken the time to protect her if she didn’t have a use for her (note that Cybil is unconcious through at least one entire Otherworld transformation, she would not have survived this without active intervention from Alessa to keep the monsters away from her).

      1. lan says:

        alyssa did not protect the main cast because the monsters were still after them like pyramid head in the factory door. Or the weird babies with their head burning. If they did not have the will to survive im sure they would have died. cybil might have enter the world through chasing sharon and rose; finally crashing at the same spot and time as them which lead to her passing over. since sharon was the key to enter. also i don’t know but your theory could be right if their dead or not. Just to my opinion i would considered them dead since the realm of the dead is just similar as another dimension. also they left silent hill over and invisible bridge over a dead end in which all this had taken place and return home but isn’t fully home. when they got home it was still foggy but the difference is that there wasn’t any hell in which alyssa had brought upon in silent hill. plus that ending where sharon and rose return home; the door was open doesn’t it give you a ghostly feel that they both return home to the father. since the father did not open the door but awaken to find the door open. also ur right about the no bodies theory but to make it less complicated for me to familiarize it to our real world i just related it to being similar to ghost. which the director could have put more emphasize on the body theory and ending. if you ever watch the others it has similar concept of it too. where the ghost don’t know that they are dead. since you just mention about the sequeal i will watch it and find out more. if you said that alyssa had a reincarnation in the sequeal than that would have meant that alyssa had to have die in order to be reincarnated. that is the only way to be reincarnated. there are some scene where rose is running in the parallel universe with chris her husband but both do not see each other. To my opinion your right about the different dimension but to my opinion i believe the dimension is similar to a ghostly realm. sharon,and rose were a strategy to finishing alyssa revenge. also alyssa did not return sharon or rose to their normal world rather she just let them escape silent hills realm where she had finally accomplish her revenge. sharon and rose returning home but still seeing fog could represent them not realizing that they are dead. Or maybe the dead realm is foggy because you don’t know that your dead and you can’t see things clearly like the living realm. Basically the fog distorts your realization of what had happen to you. watch the others it has a similar feel but there were bodies. Also why is the dead end on silent hill still a dead end but sharon and rose pass over it on an invisible bridge wouldn’t that just mean that silent hill is the realm of the dead also. the only thing i don’t get is the aging process of alyssa or maybe she is a demon and not a soul. the towns people were not aging but were dirtied/ filthy just to represent the situation that they have been through for the past several years.

        this is just my opinion there isn’t a right or wrong answer, sometimes movies aren’t always clear for the interpretation of the viewers. in general; believe what you want it to be. ^_^
        this is just to share my opinion i was just wondering if anyone might have similar interpretation or maybe a different interpretation of the movie.

        1. Jessica says:

          Alessa does indeed protect Rose and Cybil from the monsters at multiple points throughout the film. She is the only reason Cybil wouldn’t have been killed while she was passed out during the first Otherworld shift, she lifted the darkness as soon as the Grey Children began to overtake Rose, and she again changed to the Fog World when Pyramid Head got too close for comfort. She sent her monsters after Rose on purpose to test her love for Sharon and to harden her for the task of facing the only thing Alessa couldn’t control – the cultists. That’s why she specifically leads Rose right to the monsters, but makes sure to shift the worlds before any real harm can be done.
          Yes, it can be said that the alternate reality is similar to being a land of the dead since it’s so disconnected from the real world – but it’s also true that literally no one who lives in that world is dead, as proven by Alessa’s police report, the aging of the cultists, and interviews with the director who has specifically said “You do not die”. Either way, these are people who are trapped against their will in an entirely different world. The reason why the bridge reappears is because Alessa had been using her own memories to control the size and shape of the Fog World previously, but once she recombined with Sharon she gained her memories as well. There’s also the fact that she had no reason to expand it while she was still focusing solely on killing the cultists.
          When I said “reincarnation”, I was referring to the little girl that Rose takes home with her at the end of the first movie. Sharon can technically be seen as a reincarnation of Alessa because hers is a new physical form of Alessa, which initially only contains Alessa’s good side, but later comes to house the complete union of Sharon/Alessa/Dark Alessa. In the sequel, this new version of Alessa has somehow returned home to Chris after having repressed her memories of her life as Alessa. The pair go on the run, and change their names to Harry and Heather Mason. Why Sharon/Alessa fled her world and repressed her memories will be revealed when the film releases this October. So in answer to whether Alessa had to die to create a reincarnation, no, she did not. She simply cast aside her old body and took up residence in Sharon.
          The Fog World’s appearance is based on 2 things: A) that’s what it looks like in the game series the film is based on, and B) it represents who Alessa was before she was burned (confused, lost, abandoned). The Fog World is who she was, the shift between the worlds is the degrading of her body and soul caused by the fire, and the Otherworld is who she became.
          The townspeople do indeed age, as does Alessa. Alessa is not a demon and never has been, she’s simply a child who was gifted with tremendous psionic powers for unknown reasons (the witch in the church painting has been confirmed as an ancestor of Alessa, suggesting that these powers are hereditary). She did not die in the fire and aged accordingly in the following years. Similarly, Dahlia changes from a vibrant redhead to having grey hair and wrinkles, Christabella’s hair gains huge streaks of white, and Eleanor (Anna’s mother) goes from jet black hair to white hair. Alice Krige (Christabella’s actress) has stated in interviews that her character ages 30 years during the film.
          I would have to disagree about there being no right or wrong answer, but that is because I’m an ardent supporter of Word of God – the idea that whatever a creator says is true about their work is fact. So I base everything off of what can be proven by the people who made the film. :)

  99. Patrick Bertino says:

    I haven’t read all of these posts and don’t know if this issue I’m about to write has been covered, but please correct me if someone has already covered the topics I’m about to discuss. Responses to this post are encouraged.

    I’m taking a simpler outlook on the movie and it’s double/hidden meanings that Christopher Gans or the screenplay writer may have thrown in there to get these important messages across. I’m not sure if these ideas are presented in the games as I have only beaten Silent Hill 2 which didn’t touch on religion really.

    First of all, I love the Silent Hill movie and the games that I’ve played. The anchor points for the movie plot is the video game story lines, but there are new hidden meanings in the movie as well which is what makes the Silent Hill movie stand out as its own original movie. Quite frankly, it pisses me off a little that I haven’t seen any posts about what I’m going to write in many other forums I’ve looked at regarding the screenplay/synopsis of the Silent Hill film.

    Basically, the cult represents organized, fundamentalist religion and it’s control over the world (especially in America, as S.H. is in America). Rose played the role of the truth seeker or maybe the agnostic or questioner of their fundamentalist cult/religion. When Rose said,”your faith brings death,” she/the writer was saying that their controlling religion is a lie, hints “brings death.” The writer was also saying through her that organized fundamentalist religion (Catholicism in this case)is the cause of countless deaths through wars, most of which are fought b/c of religion. She was saying their faith brings death, meaning how they force their religion on everyone until it comes to death through wars)if goes that far. I don’t think they were necessarily pointing fingers at Catholics, but there had to be a religion to use to put there point across. Rose also said something to the head cult woman,”kill whoever gets in your way.” That’s not an exact quote but she is saying that they just shun and in this case kill (which the head cult lady tried to kill rose and was also behind burning Alessa and leaving her for dead)the person who questions their faith and way of life . This is a strong message in the movie and probably the most important one that I think gets overlooked by the Silent Hill fan base/community. S.H. fans need to ponder what I’m saying and watch the movie again to take notice of this if needed. There are also biblical versus which highlight this point like,”the foes of the righteous will be condemned.” Which is saying the corrupt religous leaders will be put in their place for their wrongdoings and so forth.

  100. Angela says:

    Silent Hill games really gives me the creep out of me. The Movie and games are sensational, it gives our minds something to think of whether what really happened in the end of the movie/ about the origin of Sharon/ Cheryl. I just hope the writers of the game itself can give us answers in our ” conclusions” since they are the ones who started this major/ epic game. I just wish that Cybil survived at least and Rose and Sharon came back to the real- world.

  101. Em says:

    Maybe the plot doesn’t wrap up nicely and fit in a neat little package because it IS supposed to be a nightmarish world? The only character left on screen in the end is Chris when he wakes up on his couch. Everything could’ve been his nightmare… characters included. Calling out for his “wife” or “daughter” could’ve been the leftover “foggy” feeling after awakening from a dream.

  102. Sumit Rawat says:

    when christopher goes to the church, why that nun says ” the story isnt of hers alone, but all of us’???

    1. Jessica says:

      She’s saying the entire town lived in fear of angering the cult.

  103. J. P.McFarlane says:

    It is a good example in this movie of where the good and evil are being pulled apart and one not knowing truly which at times is the good side or the opposite. Sometimes it has been appearing the good had to understand the evil and attack this evil as a mirror of itself.
    I think this movie has a good stage presenting this constant battle between the forces always at work.

  104. IcyFrozen says:

    Let me float a theory here.

    Alessa is dying in the hospital from severe burns. A demon visits her. Basically it says, it typical demon fashion, ‘lets make a deal’. It says ‘you’ll get your revenge and you’ll live long enough to see it’. Thats basically what the demon offers her in the movie, the problem with it being that it also could be understood to mean that once you’ve got your revenge, your done.

    Now I think its a demon and not simply a dark side of Alessa because it refers to itself as ‘having many names’ which is a traditional demon statement. Demons, in biblical theory, lack the singular identity and personality thereof, that we understand. This demon becomes the ‘Dark Alessa’ facilitating and guiding Alessa in her torment and revenge against the zealots. I think the Demon is meant to be the embodyment of divine justice, that if your evil then your fate is decided not by the merciful god and angels but by the demons. The Zealots however use their blind faith and conviction as a shield to the demon, who is still trumped by its own nature. Like how you can’t start a fire underwater, its nature simply cannot allow it to deal with the faith of the cult. So they play the forementioned cat and mouse game with Alessa trying to slowly extract vengeance. In truth the burned Alessa is the darkside of Alessa and Sharon the light side.

    The demon, after making the deal with Alessa starts the fire which ignites the coal mines, making the town uninhabitable. Now theres a curious bit that somehow the cult is left in Silent Hill and the innocent bystanders, rom Alessa’s point of view, escape and with the knowledge that Silent Hill must remain abandoned. They all seemed to be a little too aware that of the goings on in Silent Hill didn’t they? I suspect that somehow, possibly the demon itself, they were made aware that the cultists were getting their karmatic justice.

    The Demon, again being trumped by ‘goodliness’, has to get rid of the ‘good side’ of Alessa in order to work with her. Remember she is essentially an innoccent who has been corrupted by whats been done to her, but still an innocent. The demon therefore takes her good side, incarnates it as a seperate being and removes it from the equation by taking it out of the Hell, I suspect this is part of the demons plan in the long term.

    When the child gets to be about the age that Alessa was when the horrific events of her youth happened, the good side of her, now named Sharon, begins to have ‘flash backs’ of her youth in the previous life. Basically shadows begin to leak through. Rose and Sharon go to Silent Hill to investigate these dreams.

    Now when the good side returns to the hell, the Demon sees it as a possible means of ending the stalemate or perhaps its just inevitable that the two sides will seek each other out. Before the demon can use its powers to enter the church, Rose first causes the cultists to question their faith. There was no apocalpyse. Their being controlled through fear. They are wrong. As such their faith wavers momentarily and they begin to see the slightest possability of them being wrong. This slight bit of doubt allows the demon to use its power inside Rose to manifest inside the church, breaking or circumventing their protective barrier, which would logically then become increasingly easier as their fear shatters their remaining faith entirely.

    So at the end, Alessa rises up and kills her tormentors. The deal is complete and in theory her life ends. This can also explain why Dahlia is left alive, if the demon is simply balancing the equation the fact that she didn’t know or intentionally surrender her daughter to torture and death would prevent the demon from harming her. Now that would mean both Alessa and her good side Sharon both die or cease to exist or go to hell or whatever the demon’s endgame is. But that also leads to a problem, demon’s probally arent big on playing fair and the game ending. So it assumes the identity of Sharon, inhabitting the form now vacated.

    Theres a few reason to see this as a solution. The first being Sharons behaviour after Rose wakes up. Shes notable different. When Rose wakes up, Sharon is awake and staring. She shoots her ‘grandmother’ a very knowing glance that the real Sharon wouldnt know to do, as her parentage was never revealed to her. She runs from her mother to the SUV, which is pretty odd for a girl whose experienced what she has at this point. Finally this explains why they never leave the foggy half-life of Silent Hill, because thats the demons realm. It doesnt exist outside, in the real world. Remember the flowers in the hospital and the plants outside in Silent Hill? All withered and dead but the flora outside the house in the husbands moments was green and lush? Its close enough to the real world to allow minor, haunting, like effects like opening a door or being ‘sensed’ but still not in contact. Rose doesnt seem to react possibly for the same reason the cultists didn’t realize that they were trapped. Once you choose to believe something it becomes hard not to and Rose wants so badly to have her daughter home safe that she’s unable to realize the truth. Just as the cultists deluded themselves into the believe that there was an apocalypse which destroyed the world, she chooses to believe that everything is fine. Possable the demons own powers of deception or persuassion help with this.

    If you want to get biblical the demons sub-realm could be called Purgatory a place between life and death where the living wait to be judged or resolved. Which means the Dahlia, although not being ‘reaped’ by the demon, would still be left in the ghostly Silent Hill forever. Rose similarly is trapped possibly because of some of the things she did in Silent Hill (making a deal with a demon, getting possessed, killing a cultist etc)

    1. Jessica says:

      Both the director and the actress have specifically stated that Dark Alessa is the dark side of Alessa manifesting itself, with the director even going so far as to say that people who insist on thinking she’s a demon are forcing a Judeao-Christian interpretation onto her that is incorrect. The truth is that Alessa was a powerful telepath, and that the pain from the burning allowed her to manifest the dark side of her own soul and create her own version of hell. Everything supernatural that happens in the movie is caused by Alessa’s own powers. 21 years later, Alessa splits her soul again and creates Sharon using the good side of her soul (no, she did not give birth to her. Sharon is Dahlia’s daughter, not her granddaughter). She intentionally has her sent out into the real world so that Sharon can find a new mother. When the time is right, Dark Alessa begins to appear in Sharon’s dreams, making her sleepwalk into dangerous situations so that Rose will take Sharon back to Silent Hill. The sleepwalking is entirely an intentional move, because Alessa wants to test Rose’s commitment to Sharon and bring them to the town. Once they arrive, Alessa puts into motion a plan that continuously tests Rose’s love for Sharon, so that Rose will eventually be able to stand up to the cult. The reason why Alessa and Dark Alessa can’t enter the church is because they want a moral victory over Christabella and the cult, which they cannot have if the cultists die thinking they’re innocent martyrs.
      Once their plan is complete, the various parts of Alessa merge into Sharon’s body, so that Sharon becomes the complete Alessa (this was confirmed by the director in the Blu-Ray commentary). She keeps Rose trapped in the alternate reality because she wants her to keep her new mother to herself.

      1. Andy says:

        Alessa stated that she couldn’t enter the church because their faith actually protected them. I agree with IcyFrozen explanation in that. Rose made them doubtful of their faith so Alessa got the chance. It does make sense what you said, but for me it makes more sense what IcyFrozen said.

    2. Thepudking says:

      I just watched the movie again. I really like this theory even if it contradicts things from the director and cast. The whole “known by many names” made me think devil/evil/demon not necessarily a representation of her evil side. At the end when Sharon/Alessa ran to the car she clearly wanted out and wanted to move on to her new life with her now proven “real” mother.

      I really like and enjoyed figuring out the symbolism of the different monsters.
      The smoldering kids: could be the miners but I thought there were the girls that tormented young Alessa. They burned as she burned.
      The armless/acid dude: could be Colin, holding her down and raping her. The acid like sperm.
      The pyramid head: could also be Colin or her father, certainly the embodiment of masculinity. Phallic head and sword with his beetle/sperm minions. The scene where he attacks Rose and Cybil is clearly a sex or rape allegory.
      The nurses: stripped of their beauty, left to fumble in the dark, armed with needle type instruments they now kill instead of heal.
      Alessa’s nurse: her eyes are taken for her curiosity but allowed to keep her beauty for taking care of her.
      Colin: no subtext there. He gets to spend he days where he raped, dragging his genitals along the ground as punishment.

      Great movie with many layers to dissect.

  105. Nookleer says:

    Ok. I’ve read all the possible story ideas and frankly, I’m more than a little shocked.

    I’ve always had a fundamental understanding of Silent Hill that I thought was “the right answer” but no one here has mentioned it. I was pretty certain I had researched it, but maybe I’m just buggin.

    It goes something like this:

    Silent Hill is actually the site for a much older drama. Some sort of spirit or being composed of nightmares was sealed away long ago by having pieces of it cast around a wide area. Due to the long term activities of a cult in the area, this “being” wakes enough to use the real life pain of a nightmare life to fuel it’s call. To this end:

    “¢ All of the games and movies happen at about the same time.
    “¢ The instant the host in pain accepts the power, several things happen:
    a. Everyone involved in the “nightmare”, for weal or woe, in a certain radius immediately falls unconscious as their minds are torn into the nightmare “realm”. In the real world, their bodies are usually caught in fires, permanently trapping them in the realm with nowhere to escape.
    b. The “goodness” of each victim is cast away, possibly in order to prevent the host from repenting. These fragments bind to the missing pieces of the “being” and are given life, usually as foundlings.
    c. when this child becomes the age of the victim, it tries to return, a bridge between the nightmare and reality, dragging with them people that loved them.
    d. Anyone going to sleep or falling unconscious – or dying – in this radius is drawn into the nightmare. Because of the difference of speed between dreams and reality, much more time passes inside than out, allowing the body to survive a while, as in the case of one of the games.

    “¢ that said, the mother, daughter and subsequent police officer, possibly due to the influence of the “fragment” child, crash and are knocked unconscious (or more likely, in this case, died.) They were always trapped in the nightmare.
    “¢ now the nightmare realm is a place of pure willpower. This is why the church people, psychotic but totally unified, could resist being consumed by revenge. They believed they were still completely alive (which is why they ate, but notice they really never found enough food for that many people). For that same reason, the mother was able to not only interfere with the cultists, but keep her child distinct from the greater being. She isn’t defeating it, but she IS buying time during which it will not waken.

    Don’t know where I got this from but if I made it up, dayum I’m good.

    1. Jessica says:

      There is nothing in either the game or movie continuities that even suggests such an idea.

  106. ashli says:

    alright, my only question thats still unanswered, why does dahlia age but the cultist dont in the fog world???

    1. Jessica says:

      The cultists do age. Christabella gains wrinkles and a giant streak of white in her hair, her assistant’s hair doubles in length and his face grows more gaunt, and Eleanor goes from having black hair in the flashback to white hair when Rose meets her.

  107. Nookleer says:

    Also keep in mind that no one that was “already there” was actually alive in the most common sense.

    They had all been pulled into the Nowhere and were not subject to normal physics. They wouldn’t even really know if 30 years had passed.

  108. Rockndudette says:

    As far as I know they all died in the crash. So when they felt SH they were still in the after life, but left the hell SH. But they are making another movie and there is another teenage girl that has the nightmares of SH too. Soooooo I’m back to square one.

    1. Jessica says:

      Nope, they didn’t die in the crash. They were just pulled into an alternate reality. That’s one of the very few things the sequel actually gets right.

    2. Courteney says:

      The girl in Silent Hill Revelations is Sharon when she is older i think! I remember Rose managed to send Sharon back to sean/john was it? Anyways Rose”˜s husband got his daughter back and I think in the new film, older Sharon is getting these nightmares of SH again because she is being called back by Alessa :) hope i helped :)

      1. Jessica says:

        She gets the dreams in the sequel because Alessa wants her to stay away from Silent Hill. It’s another example of how little the writer of Revelation actually understood about the first movie.

  109. Courteney says:

    Rose, Sharon and Cybil(Policewoman) went to Silent Hill during the night and Rose”˜s husband and the police Man went during the day. Me and my friends have concluded that if you go to Silent Hill the night you are trapped there kinda but if you go during the day you are safe and can leave without getting hurt :) Hope i helped :)

    1. Jessica says:

      The hour has nothing at all to do with whether a person ends up trapped. Alessa is the only deciding factor, because only she can allow people to enter or leave her world. Chris and the cop aren’t allowed in because Alessa doesn’t want them in her world, whereas she needs Rose and Sharon to complete her revenge plot. Cybil gets pulled in to act as a protector to Rose. Alessa can bring anyone into her world at any time of the day or night, and can also release them whenever she wants.

  110. Patrick says:

    I must say i strongly disagree with you when it comes to how they passed into the “Gray SH” i’m watchinh the movie as i write, and for me it seems that the crash killed her. You mention that the only reason this couldn’t be the solution was because the dad of Sharon didn’t find the crashed car which should’ve been in the middle of the road. This is not entirely true. As he arrives at the bridge officers are already at the site telling him the car looks like it wasn’t in an accident. But as we find out later in the story, people of “real life SH” is hiding something. The truth is, in other words, never told. I believe the people i the church is already dead, their destiny is already decided. And in the end when sharon and the mom returns home they are still trapped in “the gray” – they are still dead
    I like the rest of the interpretation and i agree with most of it… But for me it strongly seems like this is what really happens :) peace

    1. Jessica says:

      The director has stated they’re not dead, all the townspeople and Alessa age, Gucci twice explains that there is a difference between those who die in the fire and those who disappear, the newspaper article Chris reads also mentions vast quantities of missing people, and Anna is young enough that she was likely born in the alternate reality. So yeah, there is WAY more evidence they’re not dead than just the lack of a car. Also, there is no logical reason to believe Gucci would cover up the disappearance of Rose and Sharon, and actor Kim Coates has stated that Gucci doesn’t know anything about what’s really happening in Silent Hill.

  111. Anthosnerf says:

    I think the cultists considered Alessa corrupted with sin because she was perhaps raped. It showed a scene in the movie where the janitor was looking at her very creepily and along with screams from Alessa,

    1. Jessica says:

      She was considered corrupted from long before the rape. The catalyst for her burning was that she was born out of wedlock, and was thus considered “sin incarnate”. That’s why Christabella calls Alessa “the sin” and Dahlia “the sinner”.

      1. Kenneth says:

        You’re one amazing person Jessica! I’ve been tracking this blog for the last 3 years now and I really admire the fact that you take the trouble of reading through every single post and replying to almost all of them trying to make people understand. Its nice! :)

      2. Kenneth says:

        You’re one amazing person Jessica! I’ve been tracking this blog for the last 3 years now and I really admire the fact that you take the trouble of reading through every single post and replying to almost all of them trying to make people understand. Its nice! :)

      3. Jessica says:

        Thanks! I’m a huge fan of the movie, and I love talking about it. :)

        1. Andy says:

          yes! I loved the movie at first. I came to this blog and HATED because I thought it was bad written but thanks to you, I almost completely understand the movie now. Thanks Jessica, you have a fan ;)

  112. maddiideakin says:

    Sharon is NOT a daughter from allesa and the janitor, Colin. She is simply a remake of allesa (the good part of her reborn)
    as for the janitor, he sexually abused her and is now made to suffer in the dark silent hill.
    As for rose being stuck in the in the fog, the foggy silent hill is a purgatory. she is stuck their simply because she died entering silent hill during the crash (same as cybil) which the dark side of Allesa planned as you can see her right before they crash.

    1. Jessica says:

      The Fog World does indeed symbolically represent Purgatory (just as the Otherworld represents Hell and the real world represents Heaven), however, it is not literally a realm related to Christianity. It is Alessa’s world, her vision of Purgatory, created by her to punish the cultists. Rose did not die when she entered the Fog World, nor is anybody else there dead. That’s why all of the cultists age 30 years and Alessa grows into an adult woman with healed burns. Rose can’t leave the Fog World because Alessa doesn’t want her to. From Alessa’s viewpoint, she now has a new body, a new home and a new mother, and she doesn’t want anyone to ruin it. It goes back to Dahlia’s statement at the start of the film: “Only the dark one opens and closes the door to Silent Hill”.

  113. Alexander says:

    Sharon is not the daughter of Alessa,she is the good side of Alessa. Rose and Sharon is not dead in the end,they are still trapped in the fog world.

    Watch Silent Hill:Revelation,the movie explains so many things… But there’s something i don’t understand.Sharon is only 9/10 years old,but the Dark Alessa took Sharon to the orphanage in mid’s 70… I’m kinda confuse here..

    1. Jessica says:

      Sharon wasn’t created until the mid-1990’s.

  114. Dragon says:

    I just stumbled on to this page by accident. WOW! 7+ YEARS this has been debated here. I’m a fan of the games and I must say to really get anything out of it you should play in the dark all alone and immerse yourself in the whole thing. I also love the movies but while they are based on the games they stand completely alone. I’v seen several good ideas but I think Jessica has the best grasp of things. My point to add is this, like any good nightmare it doesn’t have to make sense to our world of reality. Silent Hill simply IS. Accept it and enjoy the RUSH. You’re trapped here too! Unpleasant dreams!

  115. Lewy says:

    You are all confusing the story line of the game with the movie…

    The acutual LEGITIMENT story of Silent Hill is the story of the game, the movie although it takes allot of the original story into consideration is NOT the original story! Colin does not even exist in the Silent Hill series (the Game series)! He is a product of the movie, although I happen to like the idea this argunment does NOT MAKE SENCE.

    Silent Hill is emotionally controversial !
    Everyone has there own interpritation of different things and sometimes there is more than one right answer.

    Taking the GAME SERIES into consideration, NOT the MOVIE, the girl is NOT Colin’s child, she is the result of a split soul. Colin DOES NOT EXIST IN THE GAME SERIES.

    There is Alessa, Alessa is the normal Alessa, she is the same girl lying on the hospital bed, simply ALESSA

    There is dark Alessa, this Alessa is simply a representation of original Alessa’s hatred, she is ‘not’ satan or the devil.. You can see her as a dark being who is a willing vessel for Alessa’s hatred.

    Then there is good Alessa, who then becomes Heather Mason in Silent Hill; Retribution. Heather is the goodness that was left inside Alessa as the demon clearly states in the movie! “I am the dark part of Alessa” It can’t be any clearer! The demon also states that Heather is the goodness of Alessa, we don’t know wheather Heather is the result of Colin raping Alessa or if Alessa manipulated her supinatural powers to conjer the goodness into a new born baby, the movie does NOT SPECIFY THAT.

    So let me run this bu you all again.

    POSSIBILITIES –

    A) Alessa was raped by Collin, Alessa gave birth to Heather as a result and Heather was taken outside Silent Hill to an orphinage to live a life.

    or

    B) Heather is simply a new born that Alessa manipulated the good half of her soul into so it could be “free and have life”.

    None of you are right or wrong, the movies do not specify it.
    My god.

    The movies are all that matter in this argunment, Colin did NOT EXIST in the original games! -_-

    Those are the three Alessa’s…

    Jesus christ.

    1. Jessica says:

      I don’t think anyone should ever try to argue film canon using the game canon or vice versa. We do know for a fact what Sharon is because the director/co-writer has repeatedly and explicitly explained it. She is the manifestation of the good side of Alessa’s soul, willed into being by Alessa’s powers. She is not Alessa’s daughter.

  116. Ziusudra says:

    I have two major issues with this movie as a movie (as opposed to as a Silent Hill story with which I have other issues.)

    The first is: Rose, Cybil, Dahlia, Sharon, Alessa, and Christabella; an all female cast. So, the Sean Bean and Kim Coates characters are shoe-horned in. All because the director (inexplicably) thought having a man go through all this for his adopted daughter was less believable than a woman doing so.

    The other is: the movie starts out showing the viewer what is happening but then abruptly shifts to a long winded exposition. The last thing that should be in any movie, much less a Silent Hill movie, is long-winded exposition. Yet we get Alessa Explains It All.

    Personally, I just pretend that Dark Water is a Silent Hill movie.

  117. Jay says:

    I don’t know if I’m the only one who interpreted this scene this way, but the part where Cybil and Rose bar the door from Pyramid Head and all the roaches/insects looked like one big metaphor for sex to me.

    Two women take shelter in a warm, dark, safe place where they can catch their breath and relax for a moment, and suddenly and enormous, phallic object penetrates through the safe door {what I see as the hymen} over and over again, ruining their sense of safety and comfort. Then thousands of sperm-shaped creatures crawl in through the wound in the door, invading the “womb”. Pyramid Head, to me, is raw masculinity and sexual violence. He’s sort of known as a rapist in the game, doing some questionable things with struggling mannequins in Silent Hill 2. I think his sword was meant to be very phallic and represent sexual frustration. The fact that he has no face makes him like this physical embodiment of raging testosterone, with the bulging, veiny muscles and all that.

    I dunno, I’m probably crazy, but that’s what I got from it. Maybe it’s because I watched Behind The Mask: The Rise of Leslie Vernon too many times in which Leslie talks about sexual symbolism, especially taking shelter in a womb-like structure, in horror movies.

    1. Jessica says:

      You’re entirely correct. The director confirmed that the scene contained rape symbolism in the French commentary.

  118. MasterDiablo says:

    I’m just now jumping into this conversation, but I wanted to point out something. Read “The Divine Comedy”, then watch the relatively-recent “Dante’s Inferno” (the animated movie based on the game…or, just play the game and pay attention to the story). Apply the logic found there into SH.

  119. Noobivore says:

    Hey All,

    So, it’s 2015: let’s keep this going!

    First, I want to give huge props to this Plot Analysis of Silent Hills 1-4. If you’ve enjoyed this discussion, you’ll love this read.

    Anyway, I want to specifically address the ending (with Rose looking completely zonked out, and the world being all grey), which will also indirectly touch on whether everyone was dead. The ending was, far and away, my favorite part of this movie, since it’s So non-standard by Hollywood standards, and since there’s so much that can be read into it, especially if armed with knowledge of the SH Lore.

    In that plot analysis, the guy points to all the various notes you find around the world, as well as some of the settings you encounter. Basically, the idea put forth is that people DO get sucked into the Dark SH (which the author posits is basically an internal, mental world, given physical presence by the crazy town of Silent Hill), and they (may) remain alive. However, should someone die in that world, their “psychic” energy basically gets absorbed and strengthens the world. An upshot here is they also live “mementos” or a “mark” on the world (hence the notes you find).

    I mention this because it is my opinion that Rose actually dies in that Church, along with the cultists (and most likely also Sharon). By doing so, she basically leaves an “imprint” of herself, along with some of her memories. If so, her odd, basically non-responsive behavior could be because she’s literally just a construct…a shadow of the true Rose. Further, when they arrive at the house, all she does is sit on the couch and basically “turn off” while the ‘Sharon’ being (I won’t touch on her nature here) runs off to play…the Rose we see at the end is just a construct created (or possibly retained?) by Alessa/Sharon, for her own happiness. She has no other purpose in this world.

    Also, you’ll note that the camera shots of them leaving Silent Hill are very similar shots of them heading into SH, including heading up to the house. True, this is just good cinematography, but it could also be significant memories of Alessa/Sharon (perhaps she slept for most of the trip, and the shots we see are when she’s awake?). This also explains why they can interact with the house door at the end…the house has been recreated from the “energy” of Rose, absorbed when she died in the Church.

    To quickly address a couple other questions:
    – This would imply Cheryl and Rose are still alive after the crash, as are (most likely) the cultists.
    – In terms of Alessa’s not gaining access to the church, assuming the world is an extension of her ‘mental world’, it would likely make sense that she’s got some barriers to entry when it came to the church and its cult, considering the mystical/terrible hoodoo they threw her away.
    – Alternatively, running with the “psychic power” concept, and considering the whole “power of faith” concept, it’s entirely possible their combined faith (read: mental strength) was sufficient to hold her out.

    Obviously, I’m a huge fan of the SH continuity, loved the comments here, and just wanted to contribute to the convo!

    1. Noobivore says:

      EDIT: So, that article I linked has apparently been updated since I last read it! It actually contains an analysis of this very movie…I’ve no idea what it says, so that might be worth checking out specifically for this thread. Cheers!

  120. megan says:

    With there being “3 different worlds” as most of you say it still doesn’t make sense because if in the real world it’s 30 years later how can the police officer be alive and look the exact same. He was the one who took Alessa down from where she was burned. This is the part that confuses me. I also don’t understand why they woke up in another world. If all the people were dead after burning in the fire like the movie states. Then maybe as some of you stated the world was a world of the dead and Rose, Sharon, and the cop did actually die in the wreck. And that’s why they didn’t go back to the real world. However then how can the cop die again when she is burned. I guess she can die again because the demons or cult people themselves are still able to bring there hell on someone else. Or maybe it’s because she was innocent and when she died this time she went to heaven. Not the hell that they still live in with the demon “bad” version of Alessa in control. This might be why Rose doesn’t wake up. The demon still had control over Alessa and will forever but Alessa doesn’t mind now because her vengeance is complete but the good part of Alessa still needs love and care and that’s why rose and her are stuck in a non hell is but yet still not reality world. Feel free to fill me in on your thoughts.

    1. Jessica says:

      The alternate reality is not a land of the dead. Every single person in there is brought in alive by Alessa. No one can return to the real world because only Alessa can open and close the door into her world, and she doesn’t want them to leave. The cop does indeed age quite a bit, going from youthful with black hair to a wrinkled face with salt and pepper hair. All the cultists and Alessa also age. The “demon” *is* Alessa. When Sharon (the good side of Alessa) locked eyes with her own dark side, Alessa’s complete soul was reunited into Sharon’s physical body. She remains in the alternate reality with Rose because she doesn’t want to leave, since she now has a mother who truly loves her, in a place where no one can hurt her.

  121. Jan says:

    How come Sharon was able to leave the evil or purgatory silent hill and Rose was not ?
    On Silent hill 2, Sharon is with her adopted father while Rose is still missing

  122. Kenneth says:

    It’s 2016 and the blog is still alive! 10 years since the movie got released. And Jessica still seems to be around! This is amazing!

  123. Yania says:

    Lol I’m from 2017 I just love this discussion from 2006 to 2016 lol I’m in love with you guys and silent hill

  124. Joshua says:

    I know I am EXTREMELY late, but I think I have an answer. Sharon could be alessa daughter. It said in the movie that someone before rose tried to go to silent hill, and they killed their kid right? Maybe they was the first Sharon reincarnation and they failed. Then Sharon was born again they kept trying until rose completed the mission or whatever. But it was only a two year difference of rose going and the people before her so that might not be right… Idk

  125. Tyler says:

    I did not understand this movie at all at first. But I do believe they died in that crazy and were cast into purgatory or “dark silent hill”. When Rose crashes, she closes her eyes and wakes up in dark silent hill. The cop had been right behind her, yet does not show up until she herself crashes and must of died to of come to dark silent hill. Thus nobody has she’s, she can create an evil version of the town, and they cannot return to the real world because they are dead. Makes sense now!

    1. Tyler says:

      That was supposed to be crash not crazy

  126. Tyler says:

    And ages here not has she’s haha

  127. Robert says:

    Love the game, the movie, and the soundtrack. Neat to see this historic thread still going on. Does anybody know where the next two movies are available?

  128. Anthony Mendoza says:

    Very late here but I also agree with the Biblical interpretation of foggy SH being Purgatory. Foggy SH isn’t just limited to SH, but continues beyond the borders of the town at the end of the film. It is clear from the beginning that death appears to be a necessary element in entering into the foggy SH world. We see Sharon about to jump off a cliff to her death as she is lured by a mirage of the evil Alessa. She again appears as a mirage during the car chase scene in order to cause Rose to crash the car, so that she might have access to Sharon in Purgatory – where her presence appears to be far stronger than in the real world. Evil Alessa, whatever she might be (demon/manifestation/alternate personality) is trapped, along with the original Alessa, within dark SH (Hell) – I am unsure whether she came to Alessa in the hospital upon her death, independently, or was created by Alessa as a side effect of her anger and pain. (A Biblical interpretation would suggest that Alessa sold part of her soul to the devil at the hospital in order to exact revenge on the cultists, being cast to Hell as a result, with the other half of her soul being reincarnated as Sharon. It is this other half of Alessa’s soul that the devil desires.) Regardless, she seeks the soul of Sharon and it seems she may only obtain this if Sharon is already dead – the objective, presumably, being to possess Alessa/Sharon’s entire soul, and eventually leave Hell permanently – which she succeeds in I suppose. I guess Rose’s death was just collateral. In Purgatory, there are numerous occasions when Hell appears to ‘spill over’ into the dimension temporarily, perhaps in line with the waxing and waning of dark Alessa’s power. This power is unable to compromise the integrity of the church, however – the actions of the Cultists appear to be capable of generating some form of protective holy power – i.e. the blinding flash of light. This falters when the events are triggered that allow Alessa and dark Alessa both to emerge from Hell. In the end, the cultists are ‘killed’ (brought from Purgatory to Hell, presumably), Rose and Sharon (now the devil?) remain in Purgatory, and Christopher is still in the real world. We may only speculate what ‘Sharon’s’ intentions are beyond the point where the film finished. Does she/it intend to one day enter the real world? Possibly. Either way, SH: Revelation is a pathetic attempt at ‘revealing’ anything, and should be forgotten. It would have been way nicer to have seen the sequel centre around Christopher’s efforts to rescue them from Purgatory, and then realising that in doing so he will only succeed in bringing the devil into the real world.

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