After six years Silent Hill is making its way back to the big screen with writer/director Michael
J. Bassett's sequel Silent Hill: Revelation 3D. I had the pleasure
of covering the press conference for Silent Hill: Revelation 3D Comic-Con
2012 with Michael Bassett and Adelaide Clemens in attendance. Unfortunately Kit
Harington could not be there, due to an injury.
Revelation 3D's 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.
One big question on everyone’s mind was, if you had to be
familiar with not only the first movie, but also the video games. The movie
follows the third video game.
Bassett said “You
don’t need to have seen the first movie in order to understand the second one.
That’s really important to get across. People who are new to it will totally
get it. Even though there are some recognizable faces too. Sean Bean is back.”
And not to worry, Bassett also said that it does make sense
to go from the first to the third game, as the third game actually explains why
they have to go back to Silent Hill. And there are plans for further films
based on the games if this one is received well.
Bassett touched on the appeal of the franchise. “ I'm a fan
myself, but to try and make a video game adaptation work, it's got to not be a
video game adaptation. It just has to be a good movie that tells a great story,
and I think that's possibly the mistake that other people have made. Listen,
it's hard to make any movie, let alone a good movie, but I think we're there.
There’s the sense that proper hardcore ‘Silent Hill’ fans,
there’s a chance they won’t like it. Because they have such a clear vision of
what the film should be. And I can’t give them their vision, I can only give
them my vision. I have to make it play in a way that’s not so particular to the
game. It has to work as a movie as well.”
Clemens focused more on the appeal of her character. “Honestly,
the physical challenge of being Heather Mason and of what working on Silent
Hill: Revelation entailed; it was very physical- you know, all the falling and
running. I just remember one of the final shots of me running through the ashes
and we'd have one walkie talkie on one end and one on the other and I probably
had like a mile or a mile and a half to run. They'd have a technical glitch in
the camera but I can't hear anything because I'm running so when I'd get to the
other side, they'd tell me we didn't get that one and I had to go back. So then
I'd have to run back and do it again and again! The psychological journey of
Heather was appealing. There was so much to sink my teeth into. I was really
satisfied on all levels.”
There was so much excitement over in the room over the film
and 3D aspect, even though it made
filming hard at time. Though anyone who saw the first one, with the ash scene
knows that the advanced format would fit well with the franchise. Barrett
insisted that audiences should see the film in 3D, that they would be well
rewarded.
“The world of Silent Hill is a dusty, dark and rusty
place. So we were shooting in some pretty terrible places. Some horrendous
places. Some abandoned warehouses, and an abandoned electrical generator
factory out of Toronto.” Basically the very stuff that everyone loved about the
first film.
If you haven't checked out the Nurses clip from the flick you can check it out
here.
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D opens in theatres on October 26th
from Lionsgate.
Silent Hill: Revelation 3D is written and directed by Michael J.
Bassett, based on the survival horror video game Silent Hill 3 and a sequel to
the horror film Silent Hill, which is an adaptation of the video game of the
same name.
Heather Mason (Adelaide Clemens) and her father, Christopher Da Silva (Sean
Bean), have been evading forces that she does not understand for years. On
the eve of her eighteenth birthday, plagued by nightmares and her father's
disappearance, she discovers that everything she knows about her past is false.
This revelation leads her to an alternate dimension existing in Silent Hill, a
demonic world that threatens to trap her forever. There a cult led by Claudia
Wolf (Carrie-Anne Moss) and the insane Leonard Wolf (Malcolm McDowell)
resides. Heather is accompanied by a man named Vincent (Kit Harington).
Characters Rose Da Silva (Radha Mitchell) and Dahlia Gillespie (Deborah
Kara Unger) from the first Silent Hill film adaptation will also appear in
the film.
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