What's with the church ?

[Mis Krist.]

Take a look at the Quicklinks thread. That's already been discussed and translated.

[Phantom Allure]

^I see...

that'd make a great banner for an AA meeting if they ever hold one in Silent Hill.

[AuraTwilight]

I think they were subconsciously conjured by the cultists as a "Warning from the Lord" or some such.

Or maybe Alessa made them as a warning to make it a more fun of a chase. Either way, I think they were conjured mentally as a clue.

Why would you think the cultists capable of creating actual living things?

Myself, I'd lean more towards your second guess. But what i hold to most of all is that the birds support the theory that the people trapped in Silent Hill were already dead. Why? As I mentioned before in the movie ending thread, birds are commonly associated with the afterlife as messengers or escorts of departed spirits, in which function they are referred to as "psychopompos". Remember the Stephen King story, The Dark Half? Also, there's the movie, The Crow. And what are the birds that were flocking to the Church in Silent Hill? why, they're mostly crows, with a smattering of pigeons and sparrows.

In a sense, when they were leading the people to sanctuary when the Darkness rises, they're performing the duty of leading souls. I couldn't quite chalk their behavior up to purely animal instinct, especially given the fact that the extremely loud siren would have frightned off the birds

The birds might not actually exist. They might be as substantial as Maria or the Monsters.

And I like your psychopomp analysis, even if I don't agree with the "LOL DEAD" theory.

[phantomess]

I was referring to all of the birds in the movie.

Yeah. But as I said in my post before that, I'm not remembering there being birds going to the church. I suppose I was paying too much attention to the people or something else to take much notice.

[Dark Sky]

I think a more interesting question is: why the hell are all those birds flocking to the Church? surely, Alssa doesn't give a shit about enacting her revenge on them... also, why would animals be able to differentiate that they're fleeing into a "safe" place?

Animals being able to sense danger unseen by humans is a well documented event, and has been used in countless films for scores of years. Especially horror films, with dogs barking at "possessed" people...or animals fleeing from Damian in The Omen films...that sort of thing.

And that's all there is to it in the Silent Hill movie... The birds can sense the Darkness coming...it's not a conscious "oh look, the Red Pyramid won't hurt ME, I'm just a poor little birdy tweet, I'll fly around his head and peck affectionately at his helmet!!!" for them; they just sense the utter evilness and nastiness inherent in the Demon's possession of the town, and so fly away to a place where they can sense safety...i.e., the church.