The Definitive Guide to Living in the Capital , Cairo , Egypt

What is it with
Hollywood and its absolute incompetence in delivering a decent video-game film
adaptation?  The source material is usually
good and worthy of the attention and yet, the movie capital of the world, in
all its splendour, just can’t seem to get it right.

Award-winning director
Michael J. Bassett – who also wrote the script for Silent Hill Revelation 3D
– is a perfect example of not getting it right. 

Silent Hill
Revelation 3D picks
up years after the events of the last Silent Hill film, released back
in 2006.  Harry (Bean) along with his
adopted daughter Alessa (Clemens) – who now goes by ‘Heather’ – is on the run
from the evils spirits that seem to be following their every move in order to pull her into the alternate dimension in which the town of Silent Hill exists. Trying hard to leave their shady past behind,
the duo opts for yet another move; a new town, a new school and a fresh coat of
paint might just do the trick.

Things are not good
for long, though. Heather is still haunted by chronic nightmares and after voicing
her lack of interest in making new friends at school, she finds herself
followed by a mysterious man. She quickly notifies her father of the situation,
and he promises to come to her rescue. However, when Harry fails to show up,
Heather is forced to look for him in Silent Hill. Going against her father’s wishes of never
visiting this horrifying place that they’ve spent a good chunk of their lives escaping, Heather pairs up with Vincent (Harington) – a
kid from school who seems eager to get to know her better – and set out to
search for her father.  

First of all, waiting
for six whole years before releasing a sequel to a film that didn’t get much attention
in the first place, is far too long. 
Furthermore, overcomplicating the plot and filling it with dim-witted
characters doesn’t really offer much comfort either.  It’s hard to believe that an award-winning
director – whose previous films Deathwatch (2002) and Solomon Kane (2009) received endless praise – can go so wrong, so
quickly. 

One of Silent Hill
Revelation’s biggest problems is the pacing. There’s just too much
information crammed into its ninety-seven-minute running time. Everything happens so quickly and no reasonable
explanation is offered for the overcomplicated storyline. The other thing that
makes this film a hard pill to swallow is how it fails to connect with the
audience. It becomes difficult to care whether the heroine lives or dies.

The performances are
just as excruciating. Collectively, the
entire cast of Silent Hill walks around without direction
or purpose. Their spooked-out faces are
a little too much to stomach and despite their best efforts, the group has
little luck in defeating the many deficiencies of the story. Clemens and Harrington
are complete misfits and Bean truggles to bring any integrity to his character.

Painfully dull, Silent
Hill Revelation 3D is just another attempted adaptation of a sophisticated
survival-horror video game falling flat on its face.