T’S RATED 29 PERCENT ON ROTTEN TOMATOES, AND IT FAILED TO
RECOUP ITS $50 MILLION BUDGET DOMESTICALLY, BUT IN THE SIX YEARS SINCE ITS RELEASE, SILENT HILL HAS CULTIVATED A FAN- BASE THAT APPRECIATES ITS BEAUTIFUL, PAINTERLY VISUALS; NIGHTMARE LOGIC NARRATIVE; AND MENAGERIE OF HELLSPAWN.
Thanks to this delayed appreciation for Christophe Gans’ adaptation of the video game franchise, plus a profitable overseas box office, producer Samuel Hadida de- cided to return to the abandoned town with a terrible past, which sits atop a demonic underworld. For a while there was official talk of Gans returning for the sequel and directing a script penned by Roger Avary (True Romance, Pulp Fiction, Beowulf). But after
Avary was arrested for vehicular manslaughter and Gans moved on to the French film Fantômas, Hadida enlisted Michael J. Bassett, whom he previously worked with as producer on Solomon Kane (2009, but released this fall), to write and direct. Bassett, whose film resume also includes Deathwatch (2002) and Wilderness (2006), turned to the third Silent Hill game for the basic plot of Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (in theatres now, from Alliance). Adelaide Clemens stars as Heather Mason, who moves with her father Christo-
pher (Sean Bean, reprising his role) from city to city, avoiding both the police and the cult members who are trying to bring Heather back to Silent Hill to fulfill some sort of dark destiny. When dear old dad is kidnapped, she travels to the town to save him, with the help of a classmate named Vincent (Kit Harrington). Once there,