DVD/BLU-RAY REVIEW: FTN reviews Silent Hill: Revelation

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (15)
Directed by: Michael J. Bassett
Starring: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Sean Bean
Running time: 94mins

NB: Before I start writing the actual review, I must stress that firstly I’m a massive fan of the Silent Hill games (the first few, anyway) and I really liked the first movie. So, that’s that out of the way, on with the review.

When her father disappears, Heather Mason is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.

Picking up a number of years after the first movie, Revelation sees Harry (Sean Bean) and his daughter, Heather (Clemens), on the run for reasons that are explained later in the movie, but it’s no secret that they are survivors from the first Silent Hill movie. Their life is a mess, travelling from town to town, settling for short periods of time. Harry knows the horrors that lie in Silent Hill and is trying to keep his daughter from them.

When we meet them they have just settled into a new town and Heather is plagued by nightmares/visions of Silent Hill, even though she knows nothing of the place. When she goes to a new school she meets Vincent (played by Game of Thrones star Harington) who soon becomes involved in her troubled life when Harry disappears, taken to Silent Hill. Which in this movie is easy to drive to. Convenient, really.

Ok, first the negative (there is positives, so stick around). The performances are awful here. Sean Bean, who was functional in the first movie – his character was written into that movie as it was feared audiences wouldn’t accept a movie where the two principals were female – but in this one he’s developed this horrendous OTT American accent that grates with every word. Clemens and Harington, the former a relative newcomer and the later an established part of Game of Thrones, deliver truly monotone performances here. Their horror never truly rings true and when one of them has a pretty big revelation about 45minutes in to the movie it’s a real ‘oh, right, ok then,’ moment rather than something the characters truly need to deal with.

The script is a mess and it never reaches any point where you truly feel afraid or even care for the characters – two things that are essential with stories in this universe.

However. See, I told you. Some of the visuals are impressive. The mannequin/spider monster is genuinely unnerving and visually it’s so disjointed that it really rings true as something that could only live in Silent Hill. Secondly, the scene where Heather finally gets to Silent Hill – easily found on maps now – and the darkness first comes is beautiful to watch as reality peels back and the familiar horn blares across the town.

Also, the usage of composer Akira Yamaoka’s music is always welcomed in Silent Hill and once again it’s one of the highlights of the story as it is in the Konami games.

Also, long time fans of the series – games, comics, movies – will have to admit it is pretty true to the story, it’s just not done well at all.

In the end you can’t help feeling that the ideas in the movie are solid and some even work but it was a secondary concern to get a decent script but rather here it’s a path that simply links together these notions and visuals. And some truly weak made-for-3D sequences.

Overall, not a total disaster, there are a few things to like but it truly has that thrown together feel, and the pseudo-cliffhanger ending? Well, I wouldn’t hold your breath…

2 out of 5 Nerds