Silent Hill Revelation: A Universe Beyond Genres. Mr. Hadida observes, “The Japanese creators of the Silent Hill games have drawn deeply from film masters of the horror genre in order to achieve the games’ great visual and emotional wealth. This quality has undoubtedly contributed to their huge success as one of the strongest performing game franchises ever. Christophe Gans’ adaptation in our first film was an extraordinary homage to the games and the genre. This time I wanted this new experience to become a bridge between the fear felt when playing the game and the tension experienced at the edge of one’s seat in a theater.”
Following the success of the first film, Konami welcomed the idea of a new project. Mr. Hadida and his producing partner on the SILENT HILL films, Don Carmody, just needed to decide the approach. The answer came naturally in a casual discussion at Comic-Con, the large comic book and popular arts convention in San Diego. Mr. Hadida and Michael J. Bassett were there promoting their film SOLOMON KANE. Mr. Hadida recalls, “I knew Michael was a gamer. When I mentioned at Comic-Con that I was preparing a new SILENT HILL film, he was immediately enthusiastic and wanted to participate.”
Mr. Bassett began writing, and completed a screenplay with complex story layers traversing multiple dimensions and levels of existence. Mr. Hadida explains, “Thanks to his knowledge of the game, Michael had the requisite skills and expertise to develop different aspects in the script. He also knew, as a film director, how to give life to his vision on screen. A key element of the story is the interplay of differing senses of reality.
The heroine, Heather, copes with the reality of our day-to-day world, her mental state – which may or may not reflect reality, and the alternate reality of the Silent Hill universe. We had to play with the world of Silent Hill and at the same time draw the audience deeper in the mystery. Everyone can interpret his or her own story up until the outcome.”
Mr. Bassett explains, “Movies with a metaphysical aspect to them interest me a great deal. Silent Hill’s complex mythical structure, wrapped around The Order of Valtiel, the Halo of the Sun, and the Seal of Metatron, allows us to explore big themes about how religion and fanaticism can corrupt and how absolute faith is really no faith at all. It has been a unique journey exploring the Silent Hill world, trying to fold that world into what I wanted to do, then giving that expression back to the game fans who will be very keen to see what I changed, while giving new audiences a cohesive, comprehensive story that fully concludes itself.
“From the outset, we have always endeavored to go beyond a simple adaptation. While the storylines of the game and the film are comparable, they do not mirror each other. Even if we were to remain as true as possible to the third game, we wanted to use characters established in the first film by Christophe Gans and writer Roger Avary, and progress them to an organic conclusion. They are significant to our story resolution, and also contribute spectacularly to the film’s dramatic impact.”
Michael J. Bassett and Christophe Gans met to discuss the development of the story, characters and concept. Bassett then visited the Konami studios where their teams were developing their new SILENT HILL game. After reviewing monster designs and discussing character arcs, Konami was incredibly enthusiastic about Bassett’s ideas.
Mr. Bassett recalls, “It was wonderful to sit with them, telling them the story which was essentially their game that I was changing and our movie that I was creating, and joining together all of the parties and everyone’s creative energies. The freedom of a sequel is that you do not have to reinvent the wheel; the challenge and opportunity is that you have to improve upon the wheel. This is what we believe we have accomplished, and Konami has been completely supportive throughout the process.”
Don Carmody notes, “Michael J. Bassett is a great fan of the Silent Hill games. He knows their codes and mechanisms, and his take on them has brought the character of Heather, a teenager, to life. We took the story to another level, developing new shots and new monsters, and improving the characters’ roles and background development. This has opened up the story to a whole new audience under 25, which is, quite frankly, the film-going audience. They can relate to Heather’s point of view, and also to Vincent Carter’s (played by Kit Harington).”
Laurent Hadida, co-producer, adds, “We wanted to bring something new to the material of the games in order to take by surprise the viewers familiar with its universe, while staying truthful to that universe. SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D is a very dark coming of age story. It is frightening, nightmarish. We wanted to create another level of interaction between the audience and the film, to reduce the gap between watching and playing.
We had many avid gamers within the production team, myself especially. We know how important it was to pull viewers from the audience’s usual passive position. Making this film in 3D then became a storytelling device to allow immersion into this universe. We expect viewers to feel as trapped and scared as our characters!”
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