Following on from the relative success of 2006’s Silent Hill video game adaptation we have Silent Hill: Revelation, this year’s horror sequel nobody asked for. In throwing logic completely out of the window this may end up being the most nonsensical movie of the year.
The first film, while certainly not a masterpiece in any way, shape or form at least had some interesting ideas mixed in there somewhere, with unique visual motifs fairly effectively drawn from the source material. The sequel seems content to blandly recycle the visuals from the first film while significantly reducing the level of scares (which was already low to begin with), all contained within an incomprehensible plot that even those who understood The Architect’s speech in The Matrix Reloaded would find difficult to grasp.
Set several years after the events of the first film, we follow Harry (Sean Bean) and his daughter Sharon (Adelaide Clemens) who are now on the run, moving from town to town trying to remain incognito. Sharon thinks its because of a crime her father committed when in actual fact Harry is keeping her safe from the creatures of Silent Hill who want her back. When her father is kidnapped, Sharon travels to the town to try and save him and to discover the truth behind the horrific nightmares she has been plagued with since childhood.
Starting off simply enough all things considered, the sequel soon delves into an absolute mess of half-cooked ideas, lingering questions and a tangled web of illogical set-pieces that are only there because the director Michael J. Bassett (Solomon Kane) thinks they look badass. Never mind why those mutated killer nurses – making a return after being the stand-out element of the first time – are attacking their own people, for example, as long as it’s cool and fulfils the necessary horror beat. The occasional flash of invention, namely a sequence involving a spider-like monster made up of mannequin parts, is not enough make up for the rest.
Even if you can get on-board with the terribly forced father/daughter relationship then the revelation of the title makes sure this thing isn’t even going to work on a narrative level. The back-story of Silent Hill is explored even further than it was in the first film but delivers a weak, tired explanation for why the town is the way it is that constantly fails to play by its own internal logic rules. Not even the likes of Bean, Carrie-Anne Moss and Malcolm McDowell can elevate the proceedings, all embarrassing themselves as they scoop up a big paycheque.
Fumbling its way towards a muddled ending where previously important subplots are either contradicted or ignored completely, Silent Hill: Revelation doesn’t even satisfy on a superficial, leave-your-brain-at-the-door level of spookiness. It fails to provide the requisite scares and amounts to nothing more than a bunch of gimmicky 3D, “wouldn’t it be cool if…?” scenes that don’t fit together.
[youtube id=”KMWrZmD0AN4″ width=”600″ height=”350″]