10/02/2013

Gamer Cinema: Silent Hill: Revelation



So being that it's October, and there are a pretty decent amount of video game-based films that are horror-focused, I figured for the next few weeks I'd keep the horror theme going. So here we are with the follow-up to Silent Hill, which is loosely based on the third game in the series.
Taking place several years after the first film, the father (Sean Bean) and daughter from the original have basically pent years on the run, constantly moving and changing their names in order to stay hidden from the cult supposedly trapped in the demonic hell version of Silent Hill that is still looking for her as a key to their freedom. Somehow the cult manages to kidnap the father, so of course the daughter has to return to Silent Hill in order to find him.

This sequel actually manages to be less vague than the original, completely dismissing the idea of hallucinating from the fumes, and not dealing with the concept introduced in the first film where there is a normal but abandoned town and then one in another dimension filled with freaky monsters and just plain weird stuff. It still manages to be pretty nonsensical though. One of the most confusing scenes is where some goons take a character strapped to a gurney into a room filled with the demon nurses. These respond to movement, pretty much slashing and clawing blindly at anything they sense. The goons should know this, they are part of the evil cult and yet somehow are taken by surprise as if they didn't know what would happen. Also characters are often knocked out either for seemingly no reason only to be attempted to be killed later, like bad cartoon villain logic.

The one positive of the previous film I could point to was the really well done visuals. Sadly the sequel clearly had a smaller visual effects budget and it really shows. The ash effect looks incredibly fake, the newer monsters look awful and at times even silly and the sets mostly look like they belong in a silly carnival haunted attraction. I can't even recommend this to people who enjoyed the original as it lacks any of what anyone would've found appealing in the previous film.

That's it for today, look for another post sometime this weekend.

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