When I was about eight or nine years old, my mom rented a movie from the video store for me. She informed me that it was a great movie that she hadn’t seen in a very long time. My doting mother also said that even though it was a “serious” movie, I had seen things much worse and that I was really going to like it. The movie she rented was “The Exorcist.” I didn’t sleep for two weeks straight, and seriously considered becoming fanatically religious.

I’ve since stopped dousing myself in holy water and keeping a new and old priest by my bed when I went to sleep, but I’ve also never been a huge fan of horror movies. Besides, they usually seem cheap, with senseless scare tactics and gore just to fulfill a genre. “Silent Hill,” the recently released movie based on the four-part video game series, is not one of those pointless movies.

“Silent Hill” concerns Sharon, a young girl troubled by nightmares, strange visions and peculiarly dangerous sleepwalks, and Rose, her concerned mother. Since Sharon repeats the words “Silent Hill” during her nightmares, Rose decides to take Sharon on a trip there, instead of committing her to a mental hospital, as Rose’s husband would prefer. Needless to say, madness, creepiness and all around weirdness ensues.

This almost sounds like the beginning to any horror movie, but what follows is actually very interesting, and, very unlike other films in the genre, is not cut and dry. “Silent Hill” really surprised me for this reason more than any other: the film leaves a lot to your imagination, and it’s the kind of thing you’ll be talking about with your friends the entire car ride home, and probably most of the next day. It deals with some very heavy themes, and the story can be interpreted in any number of ways.

Since it is a horror movie, it would be remiss to not talk about the scare factor. If you’re looking for jumping-out-from-around-the-corner kind of frightening, look elsewhere. There are a few moments of it here and there, yes, but for the most part, it is an eerie kind of scary with several extremely gory scenes.

“Silent Hill” really was kind of inspirational for me. In a way, it was the first horror movie I’ve seen (not that I’ve seen many) that wasn’t about the horror. It had an actual story behind it, and not just a situation (i.e. teenagers go on a camping trip/sexcapade and run into axe-wielding maniac). It was certainly worth the price of admission, and I’d recommend it to anyone interested.