Silent Hill ending explained: Child burning, the Silent Hill dimension, and more

For the better part of the first half of the film, Rose (Radha Mitchell) is just screaming the name of her daughter, Sharon (Jodelle Ferland), in this mysterious town of Silent Hill, about which the little girl used to speak in her dreams. She sleepwalks a lot. That's why the mother decides to give this ghost town a visit. But then Sharon disappears, and Rose needs to find her at any cost.

The experiences are unnerving: There is the legendary Pyramid Head we know from the original video game series, some large, disgusting cockroaches accompanying him, some dead-hot killer nurses, and more. Contrary to the name, there are loud sirens that alert both the audience and the townspeople of the approaching darkness.

Great! Now, about the revelations, while the experience is certainly unnerving, the revelation is worse. Some people of faith burn a child alive, though unsuccessfully. And guess what? The victim is angry, more like in a rage, so much that a dark aspect of her, who is responsible for this horrendous town of Silent Hill, is manifested.

Disclaimer: Spoilers of the film will follow!

Why are people of the church hellbent on burning children?

The director got acquainted with the original video game series six years before making the film. (Image via Konami)

There is something wrong with a group of not-so-sacred people in the town of Silent Hill. They burn children, or, well, whoever they deem as witches. There is no exception. Sharon appears to be a witch to these sacred ones, and the high priestess Christabella (Alice Krige) finds her and orders Sharon to be burnt to "prevent apocalypse."

But why are they doing that? It is revealed when Rose gets past the group of terrifying, lifeless nurses and finds the light at the end of the tunnel. She enters a room and discovers Alessa Gillespie—the girl she has encountered throughout the film. However, this Alessa is a dark manifestation, while the real Alessa lies burned and bedridden in a hospital.

In a flashback, it is revealed that Alessa didn't have a great social circle and was lonely most of the time. In her school's bathroom, she is r*ped by a janitor, which gives Christabella a chance to convince the girl's mother, Dahlia (Deborah Kara Unger), to purify her. In reality, she wants to purify her because the girl was born out of wedlock—what Christabella tells Dahlia is just a disguise.

However, the problem is that purification is done by fire, and Alessa is burnt alive, though she survives as Dahlia comes to her senses and realizes what she has done and calls the police. However, all that's left for her is regret.

Alessa is responsible for this Silent Hill dimension

A sequel to the film was released in 2012. (Image via Konami)

After all of that has happened, Alessa is so enraged that a dark aspect of her is manifested, something like The Woman in the Yard—however, this dark entity controls the town of Silent Hill, which is why she is deemed a devil by the church people.

Sharon is also a manifestation of Alessa, an innocent manifestation, and that is why Silent Hill is in her dreams and her drawings. When Rose and Sharon enter the town, they have an accident. Rose wakes up to find Sharon gone. This is where she has entered the foggy dimension of Silent Hill, which is cut off from the real world.

Did Sharon and Rose get out of the Silent Hill dimension?

The third installment in the film series is currently being developed. (Image via Konami)

Thankfully, the director, Christophe Gans, didn't go the Christopher Nolan route—like in Inception, where fans still debate whether Cobb returned to the real world or not. In this film, it is clear: Rose and Sharon didn't escape the Silent Hill dimension.

Throughout the film, Rose's husband, Christopher (Sean Bean), is trying to find them while all of those horrendous things are happening to the girls. However, he exists in the real world and even feels his wife when they are in the same place together—just that she is in the Silent Hill world and he is in the real world.

At the end, Rose and Sharon return home, but that is in that foggy dimension. Christopher is sleeping and hears the gate opening, but maybe it was the wind—he is in the real world. The color schemes of different worlds make it really clear.