Silent Hill: Revelation

Silent Hill: Revelation is the sequel to video game adaption Silent Hill. This time we’re given a rather tenuous story line that concludes the previous film and moves us on into the future.

Sharon, the little girl who got stuck in Silent Hill with her mother during the first film, is now known as Heather and is back living with her bereaved father. The film conjures a tenuous and somewhat unbelievable (if the whole ‘Silent Hill’ thing isn’t hard to believe enough) reason as to why ‘Heather’ is still alive, although I don’t want to give any spoilers if you’re yet to watch it.

My main issue with the film is that it feels way too short. It’s only 94 minutes long and very little actually happens, the ending of the film feels like it should be three quarters of the way through, and the climax isn’t particularly satisfying.

The monsters of Silent Hill want Sharon back, so that they can finally destroy the last remaining ‘half’ of demon child Alessa. After years of running and hiding they finally track Sharon (now known as Heather) down.

One thing this film lacked is Kim Coates. He played the kindly policeman in the first film who not only helped Sharon’s father try to track down his missing wife and daughter, but he also carried Alessa’s burning body from the fire she was almost killed in. I’m a huge Kim Coates fan and it was a shame he wasn’t in it, in my opinion.

I’m not a massive gamer, so I don’t have any reservations about Silent Hill that a lot of avid gamers did when the original came out. I’ve played Silent Hill: Home Coming, it’s made me scream and throw the Xbox controller more times than I care to remember; one time when I was laying on my front I twisted round so I could throw the controller at my boyfriend so he could kill the monster and I injured myself so badly I had a stiff neck for days. Despite that I do enjoy playing the game, however I have no particular issues with the film not matching up, or whatever it was that got the original such negative reviews.

The sequel simply feels lacking. Pyramid-head is actually nice and not formidable…I found myself actually liking his ‘character’ (if you can call it that!) because he was protecting the protagonists as Alessa’s guardian. There are fewer monsters and a lot less tension. The atmosphere isn’t as cold and cleverly constructed as the original film in which you could almost feel the cold come out of the screen during the foggy/ashy outdoor scenes! IT felt very short, almost as if it wasn’t quite finished and the whole thing was completely underwhelming.

That’s not to say I didn’t enjoy the film; I love Silent Hill. Everything about it from the music to the set design makes it one of those films I can watch over and over again…but I was very slightly disappointed