Movies
[BD Review] ‘Silent Hill: Revelation 3D’ Is Confounding And Boring
Before we get into this you guys should know that I am not at all the intended audience for Silent Hill: Revelation. I love horror of course, and I appreciated the gore (of which there’s plenty) and makeup designs in the film. I understand that this world has significance to some of you and I can sort of see why, it’s a pretty original aesthetic. So while I can’t grade this film on how well it matches up to the games, the mythology or whatever it is you need out of a Silent Hill movie, I can grade it as a standalone film. And there it does not succeed.
Even if we assume that Silent Hill: Revelation is a complete success in terms of world creation (which I doubt, it’s surprisingly small in scope with much of it taking place in a warehouse/prison type environment), it’s still a mess of a movie. And not an enjoyable one. In fact, I wonder if the film would have been better off being even more insular – keeping outsiders completely at bay. At least then I could wonder if there was something I missed that kept me from being invested in the characters. Instead, this sequel politely opens up its doors to newcomers with an easy-to-follow plot and “characters” whose histories are thoroughly explained. And that’s where the film’s reach exceeds its grasp and it truly reveals itself – it’s not an actual movie.
From the painful expository breakfast table banter between Heather (Adelaide Clemens) and Harry (Sean Bean) to the cardboard cutout cliches of her classmates at school, everything that’s supposed to take place in the real world rings even more maddeningly false than the shenanigans at Silent Hill itself. The dialogue is so unbelievably stilted I couldn’t help but wonder if this was actually a first draft. Perhaps writer/director Michael J. Bassett felt that he needed to cut to the chase and get to the action (which he tries to shoehorn in as early as possible with a couple of substandard waking nightmare sequences that make the 2010 Nightmare On Elm Street look like a Bunuel film by comparison), but there’s really no excuse for these inhuman exchanges. These aren’t characters, they’re ciphers. And their inability to behave or speak like humans is perhaps the film’s most consistent element. We’re literally in a film where a father gives a daughter a white vest for her birthday because “he saw her looking at it in a mall.” I can only guess this vest is an identifiable part of her wardrobe in the game.
The film is in a dead heat to get to the actual town of “Silent Hill” but keeps tripping over itself to get there. An unnecessary private detective character and at least three scenes between Adelaide and her new friend Vincent (Kit Harrington) that begin and end on the exact same notes as their predecessors clutter the proceedings. It got to the point where I was dying for them to get to “Silent Hill.” A burning desire that I later regretted.
Once Heather and Vincent get to the town things get boring. Quick. I found myself longing for the film’s clumsy version of reality because there, at least, I had something to hang onto. Aside from some cool ash-ridden vistas that look pretty great in 3D, this film’s version of “Silent Hill” seems to be comprised entirely of the aforementioned dank warehouse/prison and a smallish fairground just outside. Here Revelation becomes so visually monochromatic it’s hard not to fall asleep. And this is where I’m guessing being a fan of the games might actually help you out, because if you can fill in the blanks in logic that this film has chosen to omit you might just have a satisfactory experience. No such luck for me though. Malcolm McDowell shows up for a bit as Leonard, hamming it up as Malcom McDowell is apt to do these days, and it’s a scene that manages to be both so confusing and so predictable that I was actually kind of impressed by its goofiness.
Things continue until the inevitable and anticlimactic end (which basically features a cenobite, odd in a movie whose other creatures are so distinctive). The denouement provides another impossibly inhuman exchange that, in any other movie, would be treated as a life-shattering event. Here, this potentially profound loss is met with a shrug. Which is pretty much how I felt on the way out of this film. I wasn’t angry with it for wasting my time, just perplexed that this collection of creative choices actually exists as a film. I really hope it makes some of you happy.
Score: 4/10
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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