Silent Hill Revelation

The first Silent Hill was basically either loved or hated by most. It was, in my opinion, a successful movie adaptation of the game series, that had enough originality to stand on it's own as an entry into the mythos, but at the same time had plenty of nods to the games themselves. Recently (see my last Movie Night post) I finally got a chance to check out the sequel, Revelation, and while it was lots of fun and had more action and monsters than the first movie did, if I'm being completely honest, I was a little disappointed.

Revelation is a direct sequel to the original Silent Hill, picking up with Harry and his daughter having somehow escaped the town, but on the run and in hiding from not only the creatures that inhabit Silent Hill, but The Order as well. Heather/Sharon/Alessa/Whoeverthefuck is in yet another high school, and is yet again plagued by high school kids, and visions of the hellish nightmare town that has plagued her since childhood; faceless nurses, evil mannequins, and your favorite and mine, Pyramid Head! When her father turns up missing, Heather descends once again into Silent Hill in a desperate attempt to save him.

So here's the thing with Revelation...it isn't bad, far from it. Fans of Silent Hill will most likely find at least something to like. That being said, this time around, I kinda saw the point of everyone who panned the original for it's obviously "video game based dialog". I didn't see it as much in the original, but the delivery of almost every line in Revelation felt hokey to me. The characters all sounded like they were reading off of cue cards or something. I don't know if the script itself was the problem, or if it was just bad acting, but it was noticeable and it bothered me.

The rest I liked though, the aforementioned creatures were all pretty cool, and the movie was never boring. If anything, it moved along at such a fast pace that the ending felt a bit abrupt. There's a lot, LOT, of story that was presented in the first film alone, let alone the rest of the Silent Hill mythos, and while this was a sequel, it felt more like Silent Hill lite. Diet Silent Hill, if you will. Silent Hill 10, with all the taste of a Silent Hill, but only 10 calories, meant for men, not women.