Silent Hill: Revelation

"Everyone has a different nightmare in Silent Hill, I am theirs." Heather Mason (Clemens) has been plagued by nightmares ever since she was little. Her and her father (Bean) constantly are on the move trying to find a way to help her. One day when Heather is at school her father is taken and the only thing left are the words Silent Hill. Heather must now venture into her nightmare in order to get him out. It might just be that I'm older but movies like this don't tend to scare me at all. When the goal is to just out gore the previous scene it really has an impact on the movie. I knew going in that this wasn't gonna be an amazing movie anyway and the actual story wasn't really that bad but when mixed with the armless zombie things and gallons of blood it really is more of a distraction then anything. Again though it may be because I'm too old. Younger fans of this stuff may enjoy it, I did not. Overall, OK story line but tried to be Saw. I give it a C+.

Usually as sequels tend to go, the first is always better, and in this case it's really really really true. Plot what plot?? The movie really tried to tie in the previous storyline but fell completely flat, trying to cash in more on the franchise. The only thing making it somewhat watchable is the awesome visuals and Sean Bean with Kit Harington, before they even worked together on Game of Thrones.

I think the biggest issue with this sequel was making it a sequel to the 2006 film to begin with. Because how the director for that film changed so many things from the video game this sequel had to suffer for it. Although Sean Bean as Harry Mason /Christopher Da Silva gets a lot more to do compared to the last film, his daughter Heather/Sharon feels very underutilized compared to her role in Silent Hill 3. The character Vincent is the biggest downgrade as he's unrecognizable and has now been reduced to a generic semi love interest. It's also depressing to know the slow scare buildups from the last film have now been replaced with underwhelming predictable jumpscares.

Although far from a good movie there's definitely highlights. Going in I was thinking this movie was just going to be 3D CG garbage but to my surprise they use many sets and props that look really good so it definitely scores high for production value. There's a few epic sequences like a mannequin monster, another creepy scene with the nurses, and a pyramid head battle that's quite a spectacle. Also Malcolm McDowell has a role im pretty sure was really fun to play.

While it sadly lacks the slow tense psychological thriller tone of the previous movie, it seems like the makers of this were just trying to make a fun dumb video game adaptation for the fans. Definitely one to get some friends together and drink and laugh to.

1) A much smaller budget than the original (20 mil vs 50 mil).

2) Jump scares. The original had none because of the great story/plot which gave the entire film a terrifying & unnerving feel. This sequel is so cheesy and pretentious that in order to call itself a horror film there needs to be long quiet pauses followed by doors slamming or monsters making loud noises causing the audience jump.

3) "3D"... throw in some scenes where swords thrust out toward the audience even though this kind of gimmicky nonsense breaks any feel of authenticity the movie might have had, even when watching it without the 3D glasses.

4) Flavor of the week actor(s)... Kit Harrington from the popular HBO series "Game of Thrones" is supposedly a high school student along with the main character, but unfortunately he looks (and is) 26 years old... he just feels out of place throughout the film.

I really enjoyed the original (as well as the games) and wanted this one to be good as well. Unfortunately Silent Hill: Revelation sets out to do two things: A) Continue the story SOMEWHAT from the first film to satisfy Silent Hill fans while having characters reveal story lines piece by piece in "plot dumps" that seem forced and out of place. B) Try to make as much money as the original, but with a terrible script, less money, and MUCH less passion.

I'll first of all point out that I am quite the Silent Hill fan before explaining that this director did not get the point of Silent Hill.

The games and indeed some aspects of the last film provoked fear through the unknown, the fact that the characters were totally lost and on their own in a place where anything could happen. The creatures were scary and the less we knew about them, the scarier they were. In the last film the acting was great and there was plenty of suspense, and a decent director and art team running the project.

This one had some great visuals, the environments were great to look at. The CGI effects however, were not. Neither was the poor use of the actors talent, and the over use of extra human characters and monsters. These combined with a terrible attempt to almost follow the 3rd game TOO closely whilst remaining loyal to the first film, makes for a bad experience. It's nice to see that the director here tried to make a nice little tie in with both the games and the film, but the last film wandered into it's own little story, which luckily turned out well. he should have stuck to following the games, or the last film instead of both. Then he needed to write up some less cliché' lines for the actors.