As the sequel to 2006’s Silent Hill, the much-hyped then much-lambasted video game adaptation, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D adds a bunch of pretty cool special effects, but even these can’t mask the fact that once again we’ve been served a boring screenplay packed with many, many clichéd scenes.
Based specifically on the game’s third installment, the movie follows teenager Heather (Adelaide Clemens) who suffers from horrific nightmares. Heather spends her life being shepherded around the US as her father, Christopher Da Silva (Sean Bean), tries to protect her from the members of a dangerous cult from the ghost town of Silent Hill—the threat of which she’s not fully aware. On the eve of her 18th birthday, Heather finds herself thrown into a horrific alternate reality where all sorts of demonic creatures are trying to kill her. When she reaches home, she finds out that her father has disappeared, leading her to the conclusion that she must go to Silent Hill to understand her torment. With the help of a mysterious male companion, Vincent (Kit Harington), she discovers the truth about her past, including her recurring nightmares, and the link between her and the demon Alessa who was responsible for Silent Hill first being turned into a ghost town.
Co-written by Michael J. Bassett (who also directs) and Martin Solibakke, the story plays out all too systematically, the motivations of each character barely touched upon. As Heather, Adelaide Clemens basically sleepwalks through each scene as if it were a level of the video game played in god mode. Scene after scene fail to shock or surprise as the audience already knows what will happen. There’s also plenty of unnecessary blood and violence, but nothing to get you recoiling in horror—and, even worse, nothing to get you reaching for that game controller.