The shifting realities of the Silent Hill: Revelation 3D universe comprise one of its most dynamic aspects. The characters discover reflections in other realities, other perspectives, of their own desires, feelings, and fears.
Michael J. Bassett explains, “This is one of the elements that can be found in both the games and the film. Horror is rooted in the subconscious of the person experiencing it. What is deeply embedded in each us becomes real. Intimacy, the unsaid, the deep-rooted thus become driving forces of the film. This can be seen vividly with the creatures and their triggering of our fears and feelings. The result is striking.”
“The thing about the function and nature of the monsters in Silent Hill is that it isn’t about a single thing,” Bassett adds. “It’s about what this place does to the minds of the people who go there and that stuff is projected outward to create the monsters they then see and experience. The 11 world of Silent Hill is a very subtle, intricate world and you try to allow for those interpretations and depth to be there for the audience who want to see that depth.”
In order to continue the widely acclaimed work that had been achieved on the first film, creature designer Patrick Tatopoulos and Paul Jones, a special makeup and creature effects designer, worked together again to give life to these horrific monsters and characters…
Red Pyramid
Imposing, iconic, sinewy and positively deadly, Red Pyramid first appeared in the second SILENT HILL video game. His nightmarish form was later adapted on the big screen in Christophe Gans’ SILENT HILL film.
“In the game, he’s a manifestation of the character’s psychosis within that world,” says Bassett. “I am using him again because he is so visually striking. He is an extrapolation of the executioner who existed in the 1600s when the colony of Silent Hill was first founded. He represents the father, the protector of Alessa. For me, he represents masculinity taken to an extreme – violence and power.”
Throughout most of SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D, Heather is unaware of Red Pyramid’s motivation. She believes he is a threat. “He’s the servant of a higher power, and trapped in Silent Hill,” says Bassett. “He’s a watcher, he’s a creature that goes beyond the immediate, superficial fear and violence and aggression of Silent Hill’s creatures. He has a bigger purpose than that.”
Playing Red Pyramid is Robert Campanella, who first slipped into the role in SILENT HILL and makes an encore performance in Bassett’s film. Bassett explains why it was ideal to bring him back: “He’s a dancer. He’s also the creature choreographer for the whole movie. For a time, I thought, let’s get a bigger guy. But he moves in a particular, agonized way and Roberto gets that. We experimented with getting a lighter, fiberglass helmet. Basically, you cannot see. So we created this grill to give him a little visibility. What we discovered is that it was very hard for him to do an over-arm swing whilst wearing that helmet. We had to do all of the fight carefully to allow for full movement.”
The Nurses
Anyone traversing the grounds of Silent Hill knows to keep very, very far away from these lethal ladies. Unfortunately, for Vincent and Heather, meeting them was unavoidable. Hideously disfigured, these nurses stand prone until the slightest sound sends them into attack mode.
“The nurses are a fan favorite,” Bassett says. “They’re grotesque, sexy ladies in strange latex skin-tight suits who are out to gut and eviscerate you. I loved them in the first movie and I wanted to use them a bit differently in my movie. Knowing we were going to be in a medical environment gave me a great opportunity to bring them back.” 12
The director did not call upon the first film’s nurse performers because he was looking for a new group of women with, “more flexibility.” In the opening shot when you see my nurses, the camera tracks across them in the surgery room, the girls are bent over and twisted. There are only certain dancers who could do that, so we used experienced dancers who were able to give me some slightly unusual maneuvers.”
To pull off the look of the nurses, FX artist Paul Jones and his team needed to paint every exposed piece of flesh on each performer, then squeeze them into their costumes and apply the distorted latex face. So, what makes the nurses a “fan favorite”? Bassett believes, “It’s a combination of visceral horror, the way they move and the uniform. It’s repulsive and sexy, it’s the paradoxical tension between those two ideas. That’s why they’re a great monster in the Silent Hill pantheon because they do two things to you at the same time, which is diametrically opposing.”
The Mannequin Monster
In her journey through Silent Hill, Heather encounters this spider-like creature pieced together from mannequin parts. This thing “uses the mannequin as a carapace and turns his victims into mannequins. Later, he breaks them apart and uses the pieces to possess and manipulate,” explains Bassett. “Mannequin monster is a not an entirely new creation because within the games, mannequins are used. There are a few shots of them in windows in the first movie, and I wanted to move that along a little bit. The mannequin creature in the games I liked and I thought we could develop and enhance that and come up with something which is a weird combination of human body parts and spider-like energy.”
This multi-limbed threat is the only fully-digital creature in the film. “While I do like to do practical FX on set, there was no way to capture the fluidity of the creature’s movement that way,” Bassett admits. “There’s a repulsive beauty to it and if you look, in close-ups, there’s wonderful artistry on display with the cracks and tiny details.”
The Missionary
“There is a monster in my film which is a genuinely new creature. No progenitor in any of the games,” Bassett says of the feminine, mysterious being in SILENT HILL: REVELATION 3D which is known solely as The Missionary. “The Missionary represents the mother, sometimes quite literally. In a very broad way, I liked the idea of a creature that is out to convert you in a very literal sense. I wanted to create a creature that was a counterpoint to what Red Pyramid is – which is masculinity. I thought, what if you had the brute force of Pyramid with the ferocity of the blades of this Missionary creature. The lack of eyes on her is a very much Silent Hill thing.”
The Missionary’s design came courtesy of Patrick Tatopoulos. FX artist Paul Jones recounts, “One of Patrick’s strengths is that he comes up with iconic designs. The Missionary, the ultimate Silent Hill assassin, is loosely based on one of the characters from the game and was modified to suit Michael’s story. Her design, however, is original. She has an almost featureless face, lips drawn back into a permanent snarl, 13 receded eyes without lids, and what looks like a medieval bear trap clamped around her skull with four blades that swing around her cheekbones and over the top of her head. Then we installed additional blades into her limbs.”
In realizing this design for a 3D movie, Jones and his team of thirty people created twenty different versions of the Missionary’s head until they achieved one that would read properly from all angles. The costume itself was derived from over a hundred different pieces. “All from a variety of sources,” says Jones. “Some involving tried and true industry materials and some custom made innovations.”
Related Link: View the Full Production Notes for The Silent Hill: Revelation 3D
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