The Silent Hill Franchise is back with Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. Based on the survival horror video game Silent Hill 3 and a sequel to the horror film Silent Hill. The new plot follows teenager Heather Mason who discovers on the eve of her eighteenth birthday that her presumed identity is false and as a result is drawn to an alternate dimension existing in the fictional American town of Silent Hill.

Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) and her father, Christopher Da Silva aka Harry Mason (Sean Bean), have spent years evading forces of a nature that she does not fully recognize. On the eve of her eighteenth birthday, plagued by nightmares and Christopher’s disappearance, she discovers that her presumed identity is false and her life’s origins too. This revelation leads her to an alternate dimension in Silent Hill, with the latter also entered by a man named Vincent (Kit Harington), and Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell). Eventually we find out that a cult led by Claudia Wolf (Carrie-Anne Moss) and the insane Leonard Wolf (Malcom McDowell) holds power over the town, but that doesn’t stop Dahlia Gillespie (Deborah Kara Unger) to show up.

Plot wise, it’s nothing more spectacular than that. This film has no depth, much like its characters. Adelaide Clemens holds her own and being a perfect mirror for a young Michelle Williams probably helps. The supporting cast; Kit Harington, Sean Bean and Carrie-Anne Moss, all play a respectable part and try to do what they can, but with the weak script and storyline, even they can do little to breathe life into this film.

Visually the film scores points in my book, which is pretty rare. I am not a fan of 3D, I find it to be played out and cheap, especially when a film is advertised as 3D and it’s really only two or three scenes (cash grab). Silent Hill: Revelation 3D however does have its parts, from Sharon wandering ash-covered streets, to spooky abandoned asylums, the 3D visuals work well. It’s no Avatar, but it’s probably the only thing this film has going for it – and I’m stretching here.

The assortments of creatures are weak if anything. It’s like they found them at Guillermo Del Toro’s garage sale. Nothing is really new; it’s the same faceless ghouls; buxom twitchy nurses, and our old friend pyramid head and the funky bunch. There is a new creature that showed potential — a spider fashioned from random mannequin parts – but it doesn’t do much and is quick to part, never to be seen again.

The Silent Hill franchise is the new Resident Evil, both based on video games with great potential, only to end up with sequel after sequel, flop after flop. Unfortunately director/writer Michael J. Bassett was unable to come up with anything more imaginative and engaging than whatever this was on screen. Maybe you think I’m being unfair by just ranting about what lacks in the film, so let me put it straight. For a film with rabid demons, creatures, and ghouls hauling blunt weapons, there was absolutely, positively, no gore. Sure we have death, but it all takes place in the shadows or entirely off-screen. At least with Resident Evil we knew what to expect when going in.. action, violence, and gore.

Silent Hill: Revelation 3D is a lifeless uninspired sequel that retreads much of the same ground and lacks the scares of its predecessor.  It suffers from identity crises — not gory and action packed like Resident Evil to be a “good B movie”, yet not scary enough to be classified as a horror film, so what is it? I’m a fan of horror films, heck, I’m a fan of grind films, but if I’m going to watch a film with no real character depth, poor script, and weak story, there better be some blood — which is why I give it a 4/10.

Felix Kay,
Catch Movie reviews by @TheFelixKay every Thursday on Vancity Buzz.

“Silent Hill: Revelation 3D” is rated R for violence and disturbing images, some language and brief nudity. Running time: 94 minutes. In theatres everywhere October 26th, 2012