#silent hill: revelation

[hellboys]

SILENT HILL: REVELATION dir. m. j. bassett

[pustoe-mesto]

movie parallels | 3/?

➛ MANNEQUIN MONSTER, Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) ➛ VINCENT SINCLAIR, House of Wax (2005)

[violetbudd]

[may8chan]

Silent Hill: Revelation - M.J. Bassett 2012

[ultimateanna]

Silent Hill: Revelation

[k-i-l-l-e-r-b-e-e-6-9]

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) written and directed by M. J. Bassett 

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really That Bad?

I don’t think anyone would call 2006’s Silent Hill the greatest horror film ever, but it’s hard to deny that it is one of the better early attempts at a video game adaptation. The film has some really baffling changes to the plot, sure, but it’s honestly pretty faithful in regards to the visuals and the atmosphere. Sure, some of the symbolism is thrown in to look cool—what the fuck is Pyramid Head doing here, for one—but it’s readily apparent that this film was made by someone who gets the games, who understands the appeal. The result is a film that, again, isn’t beloved like some video game adaptations but most definitely commands a lot of respect and has a respectable fanbase in and of itself.

The same cannot be said for the 2012 sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation.

This movie killed the career of director MJ Bassett, relegating her to television work since then with her only upcoming project the eternally-stuck-in-development-hell reboot of Red Sonja. It also killed any momentum the franchise had, with it taking 11 years for another film to begin development, and who knows if Return to Silent Hill will even come out (I’d love for it to, especially if it really is adapting the second game).

On top of all that, fans weren’t exactly receptive to it. In fact, they were so unperceptive that this film barely registers in discussions of bad movies at all; if I wasn’t a big Silent Hill fan I probably wouldn’t remember it even exists. But maybe people were too harsh on this film; maybe it’s yet another hidden gem among video game movies. Something you may not know about me is I am a huge video game movie apologist; aside from enjoying the obvious stuff like the recent Sonic and Mario movies, I also enjoy the 90s Mario movie, Street Fighter, both takes on Mortal Kombat… Sure, I’ve seen some garbage like Max Payne and Doom, but the reputation of video game movies as unwatchable garbage is greatly exaggerated in my opinion.

So with all that said, I promised to take you to that town I see in my restless dreams and figure out if Revelation is really that bad, or if the hole of negative reception for this movie is gone now.

THE GOOD

Well, the practical effects are all still pretty good, with some really creative monsters. And there are a few scenes here and there with cool and creative imagery. 

What else... oh! Adelaide Clemens is actually genuinely good as Heather. I mean, the writing for her is as bad as the writing for everyone else, but by god is Clemens really giving it her all. She manages to outshine veteran actors like Malcolm McDowell, Sean Bean, and Carrie-Anne Moss. So props to her!

The soundtrack is pretty decent… No complaints there. Fuck guys, I’m really trying... Hm... Oh yeah! Pyramid Head is here for some fucking reason! It makes no goddamn sense, but I’m ultimately a simple man. I see Pyramid Head, I am happy.

Yeah okay I’m done trying to be nice.

THE BAD

This film is just ass from start to finish.

Here’s something a lot of people don’t understand when it comes to adaptations: Sometimes it’s best not to be completely accurate to what you’re adapting. The first film has the respect it does because it’s a loose adaptation that tells a familiar story with unique elements to it while keeping the core elements that make the series so beloved—the emotional moments, the horror, the atmosphere, the visuals. This film, on the other hand, swings into being way too faithful and trying to shoehorn the plot of Silent Hill 3 into the continuity of the films, which does nothing but rip a dozen plot holes open and comes off as desperate course correction that wasn’t needed at all. I’ll give it this—the movie is putting in a lot of effort to keeping this movement towards accuracy to the games from feeling too contrived.

Unfortunately, it’s hard to appreciate the efforts the film is going to due to how legitimately bad everything is. The acting is undeniably worse all across the board, even from legendary actors like Malcolm McDowell; the script is amateurish and ludicrous, with stupid twists and unbearably bland or bad dialogue in nearly every scene; and the CGI is just not up to the standard the first film set. In a way, this film is the original The Rise of Skywalker in how it dumped everything from the contentious film before it and tried way too hard to course correct to disastrous results, all while the previous film began to get a second look due to the catastrophic failure of the newer one.

The director said she wanted to deliver a continuation of the first film first, and an adaptation of the third game second, but with all the clunky retcons in a desperate attempt to emulate the game we’re left with a poorly-paced mess of a movie that is cramming way too much into a 90 minute runtime. The film is just a fifty car pileup of bad ideas, and genuinely there’s not much else to say. Revelation is so bereft of anything resembling good ideas that there is so little I could say that was positive and everything bad about it is so broad that it’s just not enjoyable to talk about, since what’s the point of singling out a bad element when all the other elements around it suck ass too?

IS IT REALLY THAT BAD?

This is genuinely, truly a bad movie, but honestly? It wasn’t a painful experience.

Like this movie pretty obviously sucks. It’s an abject failure at portraying the story of the game it is ostensibly adapting to the silver screen, it has terrible dialogue, it wastes its actors, and it seems more focused on gory visuals and cheap jumpscares than actually trying to be atmospheric or engaging. I don’t know if you noticed, but there wasn’t a lot for me to talk about here, and that’s because this film is so dull and unoriginal that there’s really not much to say. I hate that I couldn’t really dive deeper into how much it sucks, but it just sucks in the most tepid, uninspired ways, ways that don’t invoke much besides an annoyed eyeroll from me. It is genuinely like if Michael Bay tried to make a horror film.

Ultimately, though, that’s the very thing that “saves” this; it is just so dumb that I can easily see how someone could mine entertainment from this in a “so bad it’s good” way. Sure, I didn’t like this film and was bored watching it, but I didn’t feel vitriolic hate for it or anything. I just thought it was a subpar horror film that can’t live up to the games or the previous movie, which is a tall order to begin with. And really, is being a subpar horror film that much of a crime? I’d say it’s better than being as dogshit as Slender Man, Smiley, The Bye Bye Man, or any of the other genuinely abysmal horror films I’ve had to sit through. Horror is a genre of extremes, where typically you’ll either see one of the best and scariest films of your life or the most tedious waste of time imaginable that will have you calling for the director’s head. To find a horror film that’s just perfectly and stupidly mediocre is genuinely impressive. I’m gonna say that 4.9 score is entirely completely fair; the movie is just below average, and while it’s certainly shitty there’s no denying that it has some value as mindless entertainment.

Again, this is a bad film. I am not in any way recommending watching this, especially when you could watch the first film (or better yet just play the games). But when you consider some of the crap I’ve had to sit through for this show, I’ll take a bad movie that only gets me mildly annoyed over a bad movie that makes me legitimately angry or offended like Land of the Lost. And as piss-poor as this film is, it’s still a better adaptation than Ratchet & Clank was!

[maddymoreau]

Thoughts on both Silent Hill movies:

Silent Hill Movie: The first Silent Hill movie wasn’t actually as bad as I expected! It matched Silent Hill’s vibe and I LOVE way it included the games’ soundtracks.

Problem is almost everything I liked was from the games. Although I will admit while she's not really like her game's counterpart I liked Cybil's character.

I think the best part of the movie was Pyramid Head and the Bubble Head Nurses.

Silent Hill: Revelation: Yikes . . . Felt like a cheap torture p*rn movie. The dialogue SUCKSSS 💀 “Do you Facebook?” Vincent being rewritten into Heather’s love interest 🤢🤮!!!

Every character is AWFUL compared to the games. They’ve been changed for the worse. All their charm and personality have been taken away.

Heather is the biggest example.

The only good thing about the movie are the monsters. So just look up those scenes on YouTube.

The mannequin monster was a little cool until it’s face opened up and it looked like a knock off of the Xenomorph from Alien.

Leonard Wolf's scene/fight was a joke 💀

The Bubble Head Nurses are worse compared to the first movie.

Pyramid Head was the BEST and ONLY good part of this movie!! What I don’t understand was his role. Why he was spinning the merry go round😃? Why did he protected Heather?

┐(°ヮ°)┌ Whatever at least he looked hot and like he was having fun.

[emilylorange]

this is either a #StudyBuddies from Silent Hill: Revelation or a woman lost in a plastic bag recycling facility ~2hrs

[horrororman]

🎃 More #horror films that were released on October 26th...

When a Stranger Calls (1979).

Body Double (1984). #BrianDePalma #thriller

Silent Madness (1984).

Shrunken Heads (1994)(video premiere).

Saw IV (2007).

Silent Hill: Revelation (2012).

[owarinaki]

Silent Hill 2 [2012]

[evilwvergil]

"Pyramid Head" SILENT HILL : R e v e l a t i o n ( 2012 )

[heatherchasesyou]

I just watched a review abt that second silent hill movie and remembered THAT shit existed--

[may8chan]

Silent Hill: Revelation - M.J. Bassett 2012

[ultimateanna]

Silent Hill: Revelation - Sharon Da Silva

[hellboys]

PYRAMID HEAD IN SILENT HILL: REVELATION (2012)