Video game movies haven't been altogether successful.
Interactivity is the key ingredient missing. Every choice the player makes
advances the story in various ways and affects the outcome. They are a huge part
of building the narrative whereas the film's audience is solely along for the
ride. There's no button to mash or joystick to jostle if they don't like what's
happening. The viewer is stuck with whatever wrongheaded decision has been made
by the producers or screenwriters. This brings us to the befuddling Silent Hill: Revelation, based on the
spooky franchise from Konami. Think of it was their answer to Capcom's Resident Evil.
The first Silent Hill
game was released in 1999 and adapted into a 2006 picture by director Christophe
Gans (Brotherhood of the Wolf) and
writer Roger Avary (Pulp Fiction, Killing Zoe). To recap: Christopher
(Sean Bean) and Rose Da Silva's (Radha Mitchell) adopted daughter Sharon
(Jodelle Ferland) has frequent nightmares about a ghost town in West Virginia
called Silent Hill. Believing it to be the girl's birthplace, Rose takes Sharon
there only to be trapped in a nightmarish alternate dimension. The town is blanketed
by fog and ash and inhabited by a cult of religious fanatics who accused Alessa,
an innocent child, of being a witch and burned her at the stake. Sharon is
actually a manifestation of Alessa's purity and innocence. The film concludes
with the vengeful spirit of Alessa killing the cult while Rose and Sharon
escape from Silent Hill, but remain trapped in the other world.
That summary may have been unnecessary because Revelation throws most of that out the
window in the opening minutes. A brief flashback reveals Rose used a talisman
known as the Seal of Metatron to send Sharon back home. Since then, Sharon (Adelaide
Clemens) and her father have been moving across the country under assumed names
to avoid the remaining cultists (The Order of Valtiel). Unfortunately, the
Order has caught up with them and kidnapped Christopher to draw Sharon back to
Silent Hill. With the help of classmate Vincent Cooper (Kit Harington), Sharon
sets out to rescue her dad from the Order's leader, Claudia Wolf (Carrie-Anne
Moss), who seeks to use Sharon for a ritual that will summon their god.
Writer/Director Michael J. Bassett (Solomon Kane) should get credit for creating such a slick and
creepy looking movie on a shoestring budget of $20 million. His Silent Hill
feels like hell on Earth and populated by gruesome creatures ripped from the
mind of Clive Barker. Bassett plays plenty of lip service to the hardcore fans
with the appearances of game villains like the knife-wielding Dark Nurses, a
disturbing spider made out of mannequin parts, and the instantly recognizable
Pyramid Head.
Ultimately, the visuals mean nothing when faced with a
nonsensical story that exponentially increases in absurdity. Bassett clearly
loves the source material, but finds no possible way to streamline it. Thus,
the majority of the dialogue is nothing more than exposition. Characters drone
on and on in a vain effort to explain the convoluted mythology of the game.
Malcolm McDowell makes a silly cameo as a raving old man, a
role he's more than capable of comfortably slipping into. Yet, you can't help
but feel he, along with Sean Bean and Carrie-Anne Moss, are slumming it. Neither
of the leads is given much. Aussie actress Adelaide Clemens bares a strong resemblance
to Michelle Williams, except she's not given the chance to show if she has the
same dramatic chops with such a one-dimensional character. And "Game of
Thrones" devotees shouldn't expect a lot from Kit Harington since his
Vincent Cooper isn't nearly as well-written as Jon Snow.
Silent Hill:
Revelation is a portentous horror show that could have easily been churned
out of the Paul W.S. Anderson factory. At least, it's better than anything by
Uwe Boll.
Rating: * (*****)
