5.3 | / 10 |
Users | 2.7 | |
Reviewer | 2.5 | |
Overall | 2.6 |
When her father disappears, Heather Mason is drawn into a strange and terrifying alternate reality that holds answers to the horrific nightmares that have plagued her since childhood.
Starring: Adelaide Clemens, Kit Harington, Carrie-Anne Moss, Sean Bean, Radha MitchellHorror | 100% |
Thriller | 62% |
Supernatural | 37% |
Psychological thriller | 4% |
Video codec: MPEG-4 AVC
Video resolution: 1080p
Aspect ratio: 2.40:1
Original aspect ratio: 2.39:1
English: DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 (48kHz, 24-bit)
English SDH, Spanish
50GB Blu-ray Disc
Two-disc set (1 BD, 1 DVD)
UV digital copy
DVD copy
BD-Live
D-Box
Mobile features
Slipcover in original pressing
Region A (locked)
Movie | 1.0 | |
Video | 3.5 | |
Audio | 4.5 | |
Extras | 0.5 | |
Overall | 2.5 |
Silent Hill: Revelation has a creepy cover (fleshy mouths *shiver*), a lead actress who's a dead ringer for Michelle Williams, and a limited bit of genre cred fueled by Silent Hill's small but fervent fanbase. (For the record: terribly flawed flick, decent visuals.) Oh, and of course Sean Bean, an otherwise talented actor who's inadvertently built a career around dying on screen. And... yep, that's about it. Revelation is terrible. Just terrible. Every time Maxime Alexandre's cinematography and the sequel's rusty boiler room atmosphere delivers, every time writer/director Michael J. Bassett (Deathwatch, Solomon Kane) transplants a still-beating heart from the Silent Hill videogame series that's genuinely chilling, the film descends into direct-to-video mediocrity, plumbs new depths of awful, and then plunges even deeper, to circles of cinema hell lesser horror sequels wouldn't send their most hated enemies.
Revelation scares up a solid 1080p/AVC-encoded video transfer that, if nothing else, looks the part. It isn't flawless, or even close to ideal -- noise spikes rather violently here and there, skintones are occasionally a bit over-saturated, slight ringing and banding creep in at inopportune times, contrast is inconsistent, shadows are often muddy or muted, and crush wreaks a small but manageable bit of havoc -- but the presentation soldiers on, and sometimes even impresses. Colors show strength in spite of varying levels of bleakness and grunginess, primaries have visceral pop, reds are particularly pulpy and black levels are appropriately dark and malevolent. Detail is quite good on the whole too (despite an inherent unevenness), with generally clean razor-wire edges and gritty yet revealing textures. Fortunately, significant macroblocking, aliasing and other abominations don't make an appearance, meaning many of the presentation's aforementioned faults trace back to the film's original photography and visual effects.
Universal's vicious DTS-HD Master Audio 5.1 surround track is loud and grisly, just as it should be. Revelation's sound design is as subtle as its visuals, and yet there's a finesse to its jolting directional effects, aggressive rear speaker activity and eerie cross-channel pans. Low-end output sinks its teeth in as well, throwing the full weight of the LFE channel's wares behind whatever bloody supernatural bedlam Bassett unleashes on screen. All the while, dynamics are excellent, dialogue is well- prioritized and firmly grounded in the nightmarish plane of Silent Hill, and the soundfield is surprisingly immersive, dropping the listener into the midst of the horrors Heather encounters. Ultimately, Revelation's lossless mix is the highlight of the release and the one thing just about everyone will agree is up to snuff.
Silent Hill's supplemental package is as slim as they come, with little more than a short "Look Inside" promo (HD, 3 minutes) and a theatrical trailer (HD, 3 minutes).
Brace yourselves for a sequel so bad, so dysfunctional that the scariest thing about it is the prospect of watching it in its entirety. If I didn't have a review to write, I don't know that I would have subjected myself to the full 95-minutes of Revelation. That said, if I had cut my viewing short, this would probably be a slightly more positive review. (Slightly.) So it goes. Universal's Blu-ray release is better, thanks to a solid video presentation and a terrific DTS-HD Master Audio track, even though the disc's 6-minute supplemental package is a disappointment no matter how you feel about the film itself. Definitely rent Silent Hill: Revelation before considering a purchase.
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