Published 01/21/2025
Rating : 3/10 Save Your Time
"Heather Mason Deserved Better."
That's what was running through my head while watching MJ Bassett's writing and directorial effort. How much blame rides on her shoulders is up for interpretation. What is not up is the quality of this 2012 sequel starring Adelaide Clemens, Sean Bean, Carrie-Anne Moss and Kit Harrington. When reviewing video game adaptations I try to judge the film on its own merits. The Silent Hill game series is generally beloved and can establish unfair expectations if I'm hoping to experience what Silent Hill 3 ( on the PlayStation 2) provided. Video games and film hit differently, it's impossible to recreate the feeling of dread when you open a door in an abandoned amusement park while sitting on your couch drinking a coke and watching an actress do it for you.
To the filmmaker's credit MJ Bassett nails Heather. Adelaide looks the part and for the most part acts the part of a confused, gifted, abused yet powerful reincarnation of supernatural entity. The rest of the films falls back the waist side. The computer graphics used to both show Silent Hill during the "day" and the Otherworld have not aged well. High-definition televisions will easily parse the actors working against a green screen. The product sets that were actually build hold up pretty well, however, these are limited to intimate corridors and sparsely decorated rooms. You have to wonder how much of the writing wad done with 3D in mind.
The setup for Revelations is easy to follow. Heather is a prized item in the eyes of a cult who want their God to return. She has a good rapport with Sean Bean ( Harry Mason) and they maintain a game plan to stay one step ahead of them. The constant moves and switches has a latent affect on Heather, and it comes to the surface when she's introduced to her new high school class. Don't try to remember her name, because she won't remember yours!
While crafting a story that eventually leads into Silent Hill is needed, once we're there the town becomes an afterthought. One could almost forgive the filmmakers for not giving the town more priority: in the video games Silent Hill 1 and it's spiritual sequel Part 3 focus less on the supernatural aspects on the town and more on the cult which dwells there. Still, I think a little more time of why Silent Hill is so foreboding could have gone a long way to improve the second and third acts. What we get is Heather trapsing through town taking in the sights, and gawking at horrors.
The tent pole of the film was the carnival. The choice is not terrible, after all Heather fights Alessa here in the game so there is a modicum of honoring the source material happening. However, it's the execution that is all wrong, even for a film standing on its own merits. The sequences around the carnival are cheesy at best, cringe at worst. Watching Pyramid head operate the carousel like some two-bit employee cheapened the character.
The sequences around the carnival are cheesy at best, cringe at worst.
The film moves on to the cult storyline. A lot of hocus-pocus ensues and voila! Heather comes out of top without breaking a sweat! She must have set the film on easy. When you consider all of the struggles Heather had the potential to face based on the source material you can see why critics panned the film, and it bombed financially. Even when I write this the third act was so forgettable I had to rewind parts and refocus. Nobody behind the camera took it seriously. Carrie-Anne Moss phoned it in. Sean Bean did he best Boromir impression, and Kit Harrington was but a wee lad. The ending served as a means to an end, nothing more or less.
You recall the film's purpose was to rescue Harry Mason, right? Guess who decides to stay in Silent Hill and look for his presumably dead wife? You guessed it. Viewers get a giant middle finger, and Heather leaves the way she came. Roll credits on this turd.
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