‘Silent Hill’ belongs in an early grave

As a huge fan of the “Silent Hill” video game series and the first film, I was pretty excited to see “Silent Hill: Revelation.” If they had literally taken the game scene for scene and turned it into a screenplay, a bad director could have, at worst, made a decent film. Instead, we get quite possibly one of the worst films ever made. There is almost nothing redeeming about it. There is nothing to like about it. The entire film is an insult and an abomination to the entire world. My ticket came with 3D glasses. It should have come with a rope and a stool.

The real problem with this film is director Michael J. Basset. You know him best from nothing, because he is a nobody and this would be his big break. He also wrote the film. Let’s start there. The plot is incoherent, full of holes and rushed to get to an anticlimactic finale. The characters are not at all developed, and even though there aren’t very many, it seems like half of them do not do anything and don’t really need to exist. The dialogue is horrendous. Every time more than two words are spoken, it sounds corny, cheesy and cliché. The actors are also horrible. The only good actor is Malcolm McDowell, and I’m confused about why McDowell, who has had such an outstanding career, is in this film for one scene which really didn’t need to be in this movie. As I said, the dialogue is awful, but the awful acting just makes it so bad that any serious speech has unintentionally become hysterical. Basset did not do a single thing right for this film.

As a huge fan of the series I do not believe Basset understood the video game it is based on (“Silent Hill 3”) or the entire series. He does not seem to even understand what the actual place of Silent Hill is. The first film explained more than any of the games in order to make sure the audience understood what was happening. The director does not seem to understand the first film. He is constantly changing facts established in the first film, as well as the motivations of certain characters. “Silent Hill” was a pretty good movie and there was absolutely no reason to make these changes. In fact, every single motivation or plot point he changed only ruined and contradicted themes and motifs of the first film that were important.

Despite hating this with a passion, I really hope there’s a sequel. It would be an insult to the entire series and the fans to end the film series on such an awful note. However, the director, the actors, the producers, and every single person aware of this film’s existence who sat back and let it happen should be fired, and the next entry should be a reboot ignoring this film in its entirety. This is the only way it could possibly be good. It is a cheap film produced with the sole intention of making a small profit. The director did not get the memo. He tries his hardest to actually make something and it doesn’t make any sense. It isn’t interesting and it only irritates. I really wanted to like this film and truly gave it a chance. I’ve learned my lesson.