Silent Hill: Revelation   Starring: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Sean Bean, Carrie-Anne Moss, Malcolm McDowell and Deborah Kara Lionsgate Home Entertainment RRP: £19.99 Certificate: 15 Available 18 March 2013

For years, Heather Mason and her father have been on the run, always one step ahead of dangerous forces that she doesn’t fully understand. Now on the eve of her 18th birthday, plagued by terrifying nightmares and the disappearance of her father, Heather discovers she's not who she thinks she is. The revelation leads her deeper into a demonic world that threatens to trap her in the nightmare of Silent Hill forever...

Silent Hill: Revelation is the sequel to 2006's Silent Hill. Time has moved on and Sharon is now 18 years old and is currently going under the name of Heather. She and her father (played once again by Sean Bean) have recently moved to a new area. Heather is plagued by bizarre nightmares of a strange place she has never visited. And when her father is kidnapped she is forced to return to Silent Hill to rescue him.

The movie is very loosely based on the characters of the third Silent Hill game. If you've played, and enjoyed that game then you'll get quite a kick out of this movie. There's the obvious nods to Alice in Wonderland (courtesy of Robbie Rabbit who pops up on a regular basis). At the end of the movie there's also a nice nod to Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Downpour.

My biggest problem is that the first 30 minutes are painfully slow (even though, in his audio commentary, the director states he wishes he'd spent a bit more time setting things up) and I really didn't warm to Adelaide Clemens or Sean Bean. Their acting seemed a little too false and I'm not sure if that is down to sloppy writing, acting or directing.

Once inside Silent Hill the visuals take over and I have to say that the cinematographer did a fantastic job of creating a creepy atmosphere. The sets, lighting and costumes look incredible. The creatures too, for the most part, work incredibly well. They're never over used or made to feel like placed set pieces. The spider mannequin creature and faceless killer nurses, which only move when they hear sound, are well realised.

It's a film that is worth watching at least twice as you'll pick up loads of subtle references (like the hidden in plain sight red ruby shoe) and I only saw the mannequin spider having a sneaky grope of the newly transformed mannequin on the second viewing.

Extras include an audio commentary with the director (which is interesting and Michael J. Bassett is frank and honest about the elements he felt did and didn't work. He was always on a sticky wicket as he had to make the movie appeal to those that know the games and/or first movie as well as being accessible to those who are coming to the Silent Hill universe for the first time); The Creatures of Silent Hill (2 min, 14 sec featurette which very quickly skims over some of the creatures in this movie); The Cast (2 min, 40 sec featurette which briefly looks at some of the movie's cast); Making Silent Hill in 3D (2 min, 25 sec look at the director's vision for 3D in this film. It explains how the 3D wasn't really used to its full potential until Heather enters Silent Hill); Universal Attraction: A Halloween Horror Night (4 min, 29 sec look at the Silent Hill: Revelation temporary attraction. It's just a shame that more of it wasn't shown on screen- it's not like it would be spoiling anything as it only ran very briefly); Deleted Scenes with Optional Commentary with Michael J. Bassett (11 min, 16 sec look at a bunch of scenes that were thankfully left out of the finished film); and Trailer (2 min, 18 sec).

It's not a great movie, but then it's equally not a total disaster. You can't knock the director's vision though - there's a lot of great stuff here that makes it at least worth renting for a mindless night of fun.

7

Darren Rea