Silent Hill: Revelation (2012)

 

Director: M.J. Bassett

Screenplay: M.J. Bassett

Based on the videogame franchise by Konami

Cast: Adelaide Clemens as Heather; Kit Harington as Vincent; Carrie-Anne Moss as Claudia Wolf; Sean Bean as Harry; Radha Mitchell as Rose Da Silva; Malcolm McDowell as Leonard; Martin Donovan as Douglas; Deborah Kara Unger as Dahlia

A Night of a Thousand Horror (Movies) #227

 

Silent Hill: Revelation is not a good film. It says a great deal that, with my negative reaction to the original film by French filmmaker Christophe Gans, Revelation manages to convince me that the prequel was a better production. The problem is simply that, adapting Silent Hill 3 (2003) from the videogame franchise, is that you have a film at ninety minutes having desired to elaborate on a complex narrative but never bothers to let the viewer ingest and soak in the world. Everything within this film, whilst cliche, will always been intriguing for a fan of horror storytelling like myself, and there is plenty to work with. Cults, an evil god, a cults, a god, a figure in the lead Heather (Adelaide Clemens) who is in hiding with her father (Sean Bean) and her connection the place of Silent Hill, an abandoned town which descends into an alternative world hellscape when the alarm sounds.

In mind that the original video games are famous for their slow drip feeding horror and psychologically complex content, and a lot of horrifying monsters, there is a film here like so many American horror films of the 2000s onwards (even popular ones) which are like rollercoasters but not for me imaginative ones. Looking at Revelation without the context of the videogames, it runs out of the gates very early into itself. Following from the prequel, Heather is connected to a dark past of Silent Hill, an abandoned town lost to a nightmare based on a former form of herself left there, on her eighteenth birthday drawn back to the environment and a cult there wishing to dispose of her dark other half. It makes very little makes sense beyond this. It does, but it is thrown abruptly onto the wall, and in mind to what the videogame narratives might have had, one would hope they are not this abrupt throughout with their use of their plotting. This crowbars a lot including the other half of Heather, Heather as a character herself, and a large part of the Silent Hill mythos including cults and trying to resurrect gods, but what you get is a lot of exposition and CGI monsters rather than trying to elaborate on this.

Originally commissioned in three dimensions for the theatrical screen, part of the return of 3D as a gimmick in the late 2009s and early 2010s, this does have the presentation of a haunted house experience as, at the moment Heather is in a mall, you get more absurd kooky horror than psychological dread where kids turn into demonic figures eating bloodied offal, and she enters a kitchen where a tied up male victim is having flesh cut off him to cook on the griddle. This is definitely, even as someone who came to the film never playing the Silent Hill games in time sensitive context, not what I came to knowing those video games for, even when they at the time of this film had Western made sequels not well regarded. Even if its original creator Konami have not been as kind or strict to their franchise as you would think, including commissioning a pachinko machine from the series' iconography¹, but the problem in truth is that, even if this is the divisive goofy entry in the franchise, it was never actually an experience to sit through, just a case of a film which hurdles along and leaves no impact, every decision ill advised in presentation even if everything in the plot ideas is not inherently bad.

It is not scary, but the worst thing is how abruptly put together the film is and how predictable it is. The moment the cult subplot is introduced, it is one I have seen in other American films, but that is less of a concern than how it feels ultimately pointless as a plot thread, never interesting and is barely with context in the scheme of things. The sequel follow on from the first film, but it feels an abrupt extension, including a sister from the original antagonist who is barely given screen time and only stands out for her pale skin and lack of eyebrows, ultimately a figure to turn into a Hellraiser film character design abruptly as a final antagonist. Knowing, in video game lore, the character Claudia Wolf is actually important to the original Silent Hill 3 game as an antagonist makes this even worse in how she was handled, even worse for film fans knowing they cast Carrie-Anne Moss, who many know for the Matrix franchise, and barely gave her screen time in this role.

You have a generic male love interest, feeling sorry for actor Kit Harington as for everyone in front and behind the camera, a figure has a secret to him which is obvious. Pyramid Head, the iconic figure from the Silent Hill franchise, is misused again, here a guardian figure who spends most of the film tied to a merry-go-round as its tormented engineer. Malcolm McDowell, the legendary actor once behind Lindsay Anderson films like If... (1968), makes for some fun and a potential H.P. Lovecraft tangent this film could have had as a man deemed insane for having realised there are multiple dimensions, including the Silent Hill hellscape itself. He is only in the film briefly, turning into a monster, and to throw out the term "Metatron" abruptly, thus burying a figure from the real Rabbical Talmud as merely an unseen plot exposition, so this is sadly a brief glimmer of joy.

The truth in Revelation is the opposite problem to the prequel, the first 2006 wanting to tell a story in its slower pace ultimately not that interesting, and Revelation hurdling along without thought to its material being more creative or unique either. Neither haunts the viewer, which is the biggest lasting mark of the original video games whether their writing and technical aspects (like voice acting and graphics) age for every new gamer or fan to the franchise or not. Even the prequel had a haunting nature in briefest of moments where you wandered through an abandoned town full of raining ash and Akira Yamaoka's score from the games standing out.

The one moment which offers something at least lurid and creative, only to be lost, is the one monster in the film clearly designed to stand out. A freakish doll monstrosity with multiple heads, held in hands too, and including the heads of victims turned into mannequins and ripped off the petrified corpses to become part of its form. A weird spider creature, its creation in CGI is unfortunate, but alongside with the one exploitive moment in the film, with an actress cast to do nudity as the victim turned into a mannequin, you have at least something which is weird and perverse even if the CGI and knowledge this creature will never return to the film to be dealt with neuters it. It says a great deal to that, when you research the original Silent Hill 3 videogame, there was even more weight made of what is called "The Memory of Alessa", effectively an evil doppelganger created in the game's complex lore who is talked if here in exposition with weight and ties back to the first film. Within that game, you at least had a boss fight, whilst here osmosis by hugging abruptly resolves that issue quickly. Cast who returns to the film, even in cameo, never have any context for them being here, such as Sean Benn, and baring a weird context of lopping limbs of prisoners in an asylum and a boss scrap, Pyramid Head is a concept without any of its initial context, sapping the horror of a figure who, merely made from polygons, became iconic in the first place for gamers.

The fact the film came to me, and will go, is a tragedy. It is a tragedy, not wishing to bother to talk of it in any elaborate detail, where I feel sympathy for its director-writer M.J. Bassett, or the cast, feeling that it in another time could have been something special but is tragically a work that shot itself in its feet. If we have to talk about this in terms of videogame adaptations, for myself personally the greatest sin with many of them was never accuracy to their source material, as I tended to come to many without the original context, but whether any had energy to them. Super Mario Bros. (1993) is a terrible adaptation of the source material in terms of adaptation, but I openly admit it is a compelling goofy and bizarre creation, turning a platformer into a Blade Runner pastiche with fungus people and Dennis Hopper, whilst Street Fighter (1994), a bad adaptation of the source, is entertaining just for Raul Julia's godlike scenery chewing.  Nothing in either film, even if angering the fanbase, of the Silent Hill films really stood out as memorable in terms of interpreting the source material, and ultimately between them they are a real tragedy in their own ways together with such promising source material.

 

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1) Dubbed Silent Hill: Escape, as detailed HERE, Konami can as mistreat their own franchises to their fan bases as anyone else can, so I will not just cruelly dog pile Silent Hill: Revelations for tonal choices only.

Haunted Castle (2001)

From https://images3.static-bluray.com/
products/20/47276_1_front.jpg

Director: Ben Stassen

Screenplay: Ben Stassen and Kurt Frey

Cast: Jasper Steverlinck as Johnny; Kyoko Baertsoen as the Mother; Harry Shearer as Mr. D

A work like Haunted Castle, an IMAX 3D presentation which got a British DVD early in the medium's existence and is long out-of-print, is the kind of motion picture work whether it is held as good or not that will sadly be forgotten. There is an innate issue in motion picture history of what to do with these types of films - the "gimmick" films, not taking into considering the motion pictures that run with amusement park rides, which this explicitly evokes by Hell's transport system as a rickety tram system, but even in regular cinema itself. The inherent issue is that what large companies spent large amounts of money on to create in specially designed cinemas cannot be easily recreated for the home - the death of 3D television, or absence in the United Kingdom for less harsh words, is an example to this, and even something as simple as "Odorama" with scratch and sniff cards is an expense only Criterion of all people will invest in for their release of John Waters' Polyester (1981), a tribute/parody of this gimmick where you can now smell dog shit by the card included with the Blu-Ray.

This is a shame as, whilst a flexible viewer of cinema, I honestly think even the fact that I've seen very few films on a cinema screen is itself missing a part of the medium's power even though I am flexible with my cinema viewing on TVs and streaming. I am not a purist, but if even repertory screenings are an elusive thing for me where I am, what does one do with gimmicks (Cinerama, the long lost Earthquake (1974) system of Sensurround etc.) which require a lot of tech unless you can fund a budget to allow anyone to see this pieces. Even something as simple as John Carter (2012), which I saw in the cinema in 3D, is going to be difficult if you can't afford the equipment, or its pointless to without more films to use it for. Whilst the memory is precious, it's an inherently asinine ideal that it'll be more precious without chance to see it in the same context, as I'd still create a new memory and gain new perspective if I could see John Carter in a cinema in 3D again, a potential to build on a work in layers lost due to tech being cumbersome to acquire. Sadly the cost to run many properly is also factored, in the case of Haunted Castle, with the age as this short forty plus minute work would be viewed obsolete today.

Admittedly, its director Ben Stassen, who founded nWave, has this film mentioned in the catalogue of productions on their website, so there is some hope that. Ben Stassen himself, before we get to the film itself, didn't disappear into obscurity either though many might not recognise the name. Starting in IMAX/sideshow experience films, he worked his way up to the modern day with animated films The Queen's Corgi (2019). He's also a pioneer in 3D, a Belgium producer/director who's founded company nWave worked on many large-format spectacle films before changing to computer animated movies. Admittedly this might mean that Haunted Castle is better preserved as mentioned, but if Stassen ever found out about this itsy-bitsy review I hope he still appreciates someone dusting an old title in his filmography off and letting a wider audience know of it.

As a film Haunted Castle is a theme park ride, literalised as Hell's basement for musicians who've sold their souls to Mr. M (Satan if voiced by the same man who played Derek Smalls in Spinal Tap befittingly) right down to a Ferris Wheel that carries people across over the chasm over fiery hell magma. To be honest, call it a simplistic pleasure but it was catnip for me, the notion of immersion something I appreciate even in simple amusement, in this case propulsion through our lead character, a musician whose mother was a famous singer, through this strange place like an exhibition.

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/74d1w_yisjQ/maxresdefault.jpg

The premise is that said son searches for her at the titular castle, which is simply an excuse for his journey where he experiences the sights of everyone who signed their soul to the Devil, even if that means their bodies are disposable for torture. Whilst this is a spectacle film, it does get surprisingly dark for a PG rated film, reaching a scene where in mirrors everything from acid baths to Saw franchise death traps can be recreated as long as you don't show the actual aftermaths to them. The pretence of a plot, following a male character, means you occasionally see him, real actors (including singer Kyoko Baertsoen as his mother) superimposed to the computer animation, whilst most of it is from the perspective of first person.

Haunted Castle was designed originally for 3D as well, originating from a period long after the fifties created the format and the brief eighties period died out, long before the reattempted version from the late 2000s intermittently still with us, where I'd naturally understand why the format would probably be more common in this type of spectacle ride instead. This is entirely part of the idea of multi-media in general, the issues with preserving this material notwithstanding an entire spectrum of ideas including even 4D cinema which raises a lot of issues; one simple issue is that for many, they can be viewed as entirely anti-cinema in turning the medium into just thrills and little else, but is a fascinating territory to consider for the open minded.

One factor already mention that will hurt Haunted Castle for many is that its animation is obsolete, not 8-bit or 16-bit from videogames, which is still trendy nowadays, but beyond that to later consoles and advancement stuck between uncanny valley and severer dating in effect. I love it, but in the gap between Playstation One and Playstation Two, animation if not stylised will always date. I love this type of animation however for this reason, not for irony but entirely in the same mentality of the vaporwave musical/internal culture of how it develops a dreamlike substance as it becomes more dated. Haunted Castle, watching the 3D version without equipment and putting up with the image being partially blurred where props were meant to stand out, eventually sucked me in as an imaginative experience in lieu to what it was meant to be.

In fact, I find animation like this in general, computer animation or very abstract work, even some great timeless creations, sometimes bad aesthetic, far more engaging for me over live action cinema, in a sense like the aforementioned living dreams which are felt as fully formed, surreal experiences. And trust me, for that surreal mood, the fakeness of this work now helps Haunted Castle a lot in that department too. The film does end on a flat note admittedly that undercuts this, where the lead doesn't prove himself to be a great rock star in the slightest in his flat vocal delivery and a bland pop rock song played in the concert we watch at the end. It's a slight moment, and a reminder that in 2001 we had a lot of terrible music. This isn't even a slam against pop music, because I am sure if you dug somewhere there'd be something more bombastic from the time.

It does however make up for this in the general ghoulishness of the material preceding it, a sense of surprisingly macabre sensibility that is to be admired. At least in terms of an entertainment spectacle, now that the 2000s is now old, this has the curious charm that one finds when one encounters a toy from a previous decade, their personalities grow by the style and very videogame-like appearance. And the spectacle itself is gleeful, be it a robot band being slowly picked off by a crown of wrecking balls suspended over them or the reason Satan now really likes to torment opera musicians more than anybody else. It is eerie, not broad despite envisioning the tram system of one of Hell's soul storage units as a malfunctioned and rickety rollercoaster ride, but eerie in tone even if it's never scare, just a ride.

Abstract Spectrum: Immersive/Eerie

Abstract Rating (High/Medium/Low/None): None

From https://i.ytimg.com/vi/74d1w_yisjQ/hqdefault.jpg