"SHARON! Where are you?" We first hear Rose DaSilva (Radha Mitchell) shouting these words as she and her husband Chris (Sean Bean) search for their daughter Sharon in the middle of the night. Rose runs beneath a highway through some kind of river and finds herself standing over a gigantic waterfall. She sees Sharon (Jodelle Ferland) standing on the other side in a trance (she sleepwalks).
We see from Sharon's point of view the world literally falling apart and becoming some kind of hell (think the Hell LA sequences in Constantine). Just before Sharon sleepwalks off the cliff, Rose gets to her and wakes her up, where she starts screaming, "Silent Hill! Silent Hill!" over and over. Chris arrives and reassures his wife and daughter, although it's obvious both him and Rose know it's far from alright.
Two years later. Sharon is leaning against a tree and coloring in a picture of herself and a lion near the tree. Rose comes up and her and Sharon play around a bit. She then tells Sharon about her sleepwalks and how she keeps mentioning Silent Hill. Sharon says that she doesn't remember, but Rose replies with, "That's why we're going there...so you can remember." They leave and head out, passing a sign that basically says angels shall be judge by saints -- people -- and not the other way around.
Meanwhile, we see Chris trying to contact his wife, who is continually ignoring his calls (apparently this trip was not made to include him). He begins looking at some of the websites Sharon pulled up on Silent Hill, and he learns that it is located in West Virginia, is considered one of the most haunted towns in America, and that 30 years ago, there was a large underground fire that pretty much killed everyone there.
That night, Sharon and Rose pull into Braham's Gas Station, which is within spitting distance of Silent Hill. As she gets out, Rose notices Sharon's pictures and sees that they've been changed to show people burning in various buildings, like a church or a school. Sharon wakes up and Rose asks her about them, but Sharon starts crying and swears she didn't do them, which a nearby female police officer takes notice of.
Rose placates Sharon by saying she can ride up front with her, and then goes inside to pay. The cop comes over and tries to talk to Sharon, but Sharon just rolls up the window and ignores her, saying she never talks to strangers. The cop just smiles and says, "Good girl."
Inside, Rose tries to get directions to Silent Hill but is told that the road is closed and her credit card has been declined. She pays cash and then calls Chris. He tells her what he found out, but she just asks him to trust her. Rose heads back to the car, and the cop tries to talk with her, but Rose waves her off and drives away... but not before the cop gets her license plate number.
A little while later, we see Rose and Sharon approaching the Silent Hill turnoff when they get pulled over by the cop from before. She approaches the vehicle just as Rose notices a sign indicating the turnoff is right ahead. She tells Sharon to buckle her seatbelt and speeds off. The cop gets on her motorbike and gives chase.
Sharon crashes through a padlocked gate and crosses an old bridge, managing to lose the cop at some point. She keeps heading forward at seventy and rounds a curve just as we see someone step into the road. Sharon warns her and the two girls scream as Rose swerves the car and they crash into the embankment.
The next morning, Sharon wakes up with a big bump on her head. She looks around groggily and suddenly notices that Sharon has disappeared. She gets out of the car and begins calling for her as she notices that snow has begun falling... black snow made of ash. She passes a sign that says "Welcome to Silent Hill" and heads into town, utterly lost and disoriented.
She wanders the streets calling for Sharon, and suddenly sees a little girl who looks exactly like Sharon running off. Rose gives chase and eventually ends up atop some stairway leading down below street level. She starts descending just as an air raid siren begins sounding from somewhere. Things grow unbelievably dark, and Sharon takes out a lighter.
She turns it on and sees that she is now standing atop some grated floor with falling apart walls and... basically it's the same hell world Sharon saw earlier. She wanders around trying to get her bearings and trips over a wheelchair. She stumbles upon an undead guy who has been strung up and gutted, and then she catches another glimpse of the Sharon lookalike.
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