Silent Hill: Revelation

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.

The first half of the film was great. It was creepy, it was suspenseful, and it was almost scary (speaking as someone who considers most scary films to be dull and silly). The film did a good job of summarizing the first, and the 3D was generally well-done. So where did this film fail? Well first, the character relationships were extremely superficial, to the point where it felt like they were tacked-on or unrealistic. Some of the character motivations were also underdeveloped and made the characters come off as stupid or just hard to relate to, especially towards the end. The characters take a while to actually enter Silent Hill, and when they do the film quickly devolves from creepy moments to explaining the story, which is not particularly compelling. Obviously, the film makers had to work within the context of the original while trying to tie it into the third game, but so much of the film was devoted to characters explaining the plot that it made the film feel somewhat dull. Think of the old adage "show, don't tell". The film was overly short, and it seemed as though this was the central problem. 20 more minutes to SHOW the plot, interspersed with a few more creepy scenes, and this film could have easily surpassed the original. Alas, the director chose to keep the film succinct, and the result is that it feels rushed and the last ten or fifteen minutes feel more like a cheesy action movie than a horror film. As I said, with twenty more minutes of footage, the film could have easily been one of the scariest movies of the last 10 years, and could have had believable characters and a more expertly revealed plot. Instead, we're left with a decent movie with a few good scares.

Now I'm okay with movies that didn't follow exactly like the original plot from games, books, etc like the first Silent Hill movie, I think it is still fine. But this one is just BAD. I'm not sure what I was watching but I didn't feel like I was watching a full movie. It just lack of many things. Maybe it's too short, maybe Silent Hill 3 is just not suitable to be made into a movie because the story is all about Heather trying to find the truth about herself, and since we already knew that at the beginning, what is there to tell anymore? And we as an audience already knew how her father is doing, only Heather didn't know, again there's nothing to look forward too. We just merely watching Heather going from point A to B and nothing else. It is that dull and plain.

And the horror? the movie is trying too hard to be creepy. What's with all the pointless close up of meat cutting and bloody mouthful eating. I don't know it just didn't work for me.

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.

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.