FOR THE LOVE OF FILM: Silent Hill: Revelation

For The Love Of Film is UTG’s newest creation from film nerd and lover of all movies Justin Proper. Sometimes you need some guidance to figure out how to enjoy movies, and we are here to help! No longer will you need to fear movie night because your friends have no taste in film. With this column you will be able to love even the worst gems to ever grace the silver screen.

I enjoyed the first Silent Hill movie. This is not a popular opinion to have, as most people did not enjoy it. Fans of the game hated it for not being exactly like the game. People who had not played the game thought it was weird. When they announced a sequel I was excited, and last night I saw Silent Hill: Revelation. It was exactly what I hoped it would be, despite the fact that it will certainly go down in history as a bad movie.

Even though it has 500% more bunnies than the previous installment.

Silent Hill: Revelation follows Heather Mason, an eighteen year old girl with a mysterious past that keeps having nightmares about a place called Silent Hill. Her father gets kidnapped as these nightmares increase (and start appearing as hallucinations during waking hours) and she sets out to find the place she has found herself increasingly more drawn to in hopes of saving her dad. Once in Silent Hill, Heather realizes that she is the reincarnation (sort of) of a demon that is the cause for the darkness in this alternate dimension of terror. Also there is a cult and a whole bunch of other stuff…the plot is really confusing.

This picture sums up how I felt about the plot of this movie.

I am not going to pretend this movie does not have flaws. It is massively contrived and a complete mess in the story department. There have been plenty of bad reviews for Silent Hill: Revelation so far, and they all focus on the same thing: it was confusing. Imagine watching one of your friend’s dreams replay on screen with no context. That is what this film was like. It jumped around, made little sense, but took itself very seriously. Even UTG creator James Shotwell did not like this movie, and he usually sides with me on these things.

Behind the scenes of a weekly column is much less interesting than you would think.

All that plot stuff aside, Silent Hill: Revelation was awesome. Not in the “Wow, that movie was enriching and I feel more fulfilled.” kind of way, but in more of a “Holy shit that was crazy did you see that?!” kind of way. No one in their right mind who has seen this movie would describe it as less than visually amazing. You need to see this in 3D. For the first time since I was a little kid I actually felt like the things on the screen were going to be able to make it out of the movie and walk right in to real life. When it snows ash in the town of Silent Hill you feel like it is snowing ash in the theater. The technology used to shoot this film highlights the potential of 3D technology in a way that made me wish everything was shot in 3D.

Except for this. This was scary enough in 2D.

The creatures in Silent Hill: Revelations look like they walked (or crawled) right out of a nightmare. The whole movie I was looking forward to seeing Pyramid Head (a creature with a giant pyramid on his head…duh) and the nurses (a staple from the first movie and video games), but I forgot all about those the minute I saw the mannequin spider. I do not mean a mannequin that is a spider, it is a spider made out of mannequin parts. Except even more horrifying.

Pictured: Spider-quin. Manne-spider? Whatever, it was creepy.

If you want to see a movie with a great story and driven character stories that build suspense that peaks with a great conclusion do not go see Silent Hill: Revelation. If you want to see a movie that is visually amazing with tons of atmospheric creepiness and some great horror concepts then definitely go see Silent Hill: Revelation. Either way if you find yourself driving on a desolate, foggy, road in West Virginia and you see a sign for a town called Silent Hill turn around and never look back.

 

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