The curse that has been bestowed upon video games that were adapted into films could soon be lifted through the horror filled journey of the Silent Hill universe. Out of the half-dozen films that have been made based on video games, the film adaptation of Silent Hill proved to be decent if not above average compared to the garbage we’ve gotten before. Far from being perfect, the Silent Hill movie got the look of the video games down and it wasn’t too cheesy, even if some of the dialog was a bit ham-fisted. Now we could receive our first near perfect video game movie thanks to Silent Hill: Revelation.
A direct sequel to the first Silent Hill movie, SH: Revelation borrows the plot of the widely acclaimed Silent Hill 3. On second thought maybe borrow isn’t the right word as it looks like Revelations completely adapts the tale of horror spun in SH3 – complete with an appearance by an old grizzled private investigator. Previously only a few simplistic publicity and behind-the-scenes images were released for Silent Hill: Revelation, but today we have our first trailer for the flick and it seems to be a few steps up above bombastic action fair such as Resident Evil: Retribution.
I won’t go through a scene by scene breakdown of what’s shown in the trailer, but the basic jest of the plot is that Heather (Adelaide Clemens) finds herself winning the unlucky lottery since her father, played by Sean Bean, is kidnapped; thus she needs to venture into Silent Hill to rescue him and uncover her mysterious past. Of course not all goes planned as Heather runs into some new and familiar faces in Silent Hill as well a few things she’ll likely regret ever encountering.
There may be a few spots in the trailer in which the film looks a bit low budget, but there does seem to be a level of care instilled in the film as the look matches that of its predecessor and the original Silent Hill games. I don’t know what fans will make of Pyramid Head running massive amusement park rides that look like they were dreamt up by Clive Barker, but the movie seems to have some substance to go along with all the style and scares it’s providing.
The whole 3D gimmick does seem tacked on as it’ll no doubt provide a few standard sequences in which stuff is thrown towards the screen, but it could prove to be atmospheric as the constant ash of Silent Hill could look amazing when donning a pair of 3D glasses.
With how the Silent Hill video game series has dropped in recent years, Silent Hill: Revelation could give fans of the franchise the elaborate psychological horror they want while still doing enough to keep those who played SH3 half a dozen times thoroughly entertained. I know it’s never good to immediately praise a video game film prior to seeing it, but I’m somewhat confident that Silent Hill: Revelation be decent or at least be a better option for those who don’t want to stare at Milla Jovovich killing zombies for 98 minutes.
