Silent Hill Revelation 3D is the sequel to the 2006 film that took the wildly popular horror video game and brought it to the big screen. Director Michael J. Bassett was tapped to bring the sequel to life and as a huge player of the game, considered the task a huge honor.
“Being a fan of the game and realizing that this is a huge opportunity to create and play in this world, there’s not many movies where you get to make worlds. That is why I like fantasy and horror because you are building things from scratch,” Bassett said.
The Australian filmmaker knows how hard it is to get films of any genre made. “The opportunity to make a movie just doesn’t come along that often. It’s hard to get films made.”
After working on the film for years, he is clearly ecstatic about it finally opening this weekend. “I’ve been telling people about it for so long now and finally I get a chance to share it with them,” he said and laughed. “I’m kinda thrilled.”
If the latest Silent Hill film succeeds, much of the credit can go to the impeccable casting of lead Adelaide Clemens. The actress had previously only appeared in small budget Australian movies and Bassett believes the dramatic actress is exactly what the horror film needed.
“The more I think about it the luckier I feel I was to get Adelaide Clemens involved in this -- acting is such a natural talent for her -- to be able to put her into this world of Silent Hill and to see her blossom as a dramatic actress is a true blessing,” Bassett said.
“We’re making a horror movie and she took it very seriously. She’s an actress who is able to ground the whole thing. That’s the thing with horror, it would be very easy to make this with a typical scream queen and it wouldn’t be right. This world is real and unreal… and to have an actress who tackles it like a true drama is a true gift. She treated it like a proper drama, and not like a computer game adaptation and that is exactly what is needed to make it work.”
Many video games when they make the jump to the silver screen forget that they have to become a film with a beginning, middle and end as opposed to simply playing out the game onscreen. “I thought the first Silent Hill was the best game to screen adaptation I’d seen ever... in terms of capturing the visuals and truly getting what the game was. I think a movie like this has to be a visual experience,” Bassett admitted.
“While I admire the Paranormal Activities of the world, they do a different kind of horror. I love the idea of creating something new. It gives me a big palette and canvas."
Horror movies arrive all year long, but the Holy Grail of weekends for the genre is Halloween. Silent Hill Revelation 3D is the only new film released this year on Halloween which has the filmmaker beside himself.
“You can’t get a better time to release a horror film than now. It is the horror day and it is incredibly cool to be here in the U.S. It is a really significant holiday,” Bassett said.
“To be the horror movie that opens on that weekend is a true honor. I hope the audiences will completely freak out and I’d love to go back to this world if audiences are receptive to this movie.”