When adapting the first Silent Hill videogame into a movie, some key changes were made to the source material. Most of those changes were cosmetic, such as having nearly all the monsters lifted from the second game instead of the original. However, when it came to handling the Order of Valtiel, the motivations of the cult were radically altered from the game. If Silent Hill were to be a single, stand-alone movie, these changes wouldn’t affect any future stories. The movie as-is works. However, Silent Hill: Revelation is a confused sequel, trying to navigate its way between the conflicting motives of the cult as seen in the videogames and the first movie.The stories of the first and third games center around Cheryl Mason and Alessa Gillespie; two halves of the same soul (the second game is an unrelated side-story).
In the games, Alessa is the prisoner of The Order, which wants to keep her alive but in a suffering state. The spirit of their dark god, Valtiel, incubates within her, feeding off of her hatred and pain. Valtiel’s powers manifest through Alessa as seen whenever the town is transformed into a nightmare world. The Order encourages these displays of dark power and even command the surreal monsters of Silent Hill at times. Alessa uses her power to split her soul in two, and creates a doppelganger of herself. This twin is found by Harry Mason and taken away from Silent Hill to live a normal, happy life as Cheryl Mason. The ultimate goal of The Order is to locate Cheryl and rejoin the two halves of Alessa’s soul, so they can restore the full power of their dark god.
Cheryl and Alessa
The Order as seen in the first movie is a cult of witch hunters. They fear Alessa and her dark powers. They are not in command of the monsters that Alessa creates. They seek refuge from the darkness in a church and pray for the light to deliver them from evil. They speak of purification and fighting demons. It’s clear that they are trapped in a purgatory of their own making, and want to kill Alessa to free themselves from torment. As with the games, Alessa has split her soul in half and put her last shred of innocence into a child named Sharon Da Silva. The Order figures that if they can kill Sharon, they’ll be able to weaken Alessa, destroy her too, and free themselves.
Cult leader, Christabella, prays before a mural of a witch burning.
This movie adapts the story of the third game, but runs into some problems due to the differing portrayals of the cult. Sister Claudia, the new leader of the The Order, reveals that they are now trying to resurrect the dark god, Valtiel. This is in direct contrast to the cult of the first movie that was devoted to fighting demons using ritual sacrifice to prevent demonic forces from consuming them.
Claudia explains that Heather has, "been chosen many years ago to be the vessel. The god can only be born through your flesh. And then we will be free from this prison to cleanse the world of its sins. And all we need is your body. You have the seal of Metatron. With it, I can summon the god."
So do they want to escape from the nightmarish hellscape of Silent Hill or cover the world in it? Or do they think Valtiel will cleanse the world in a way that's more to their liking? And why? If they think they can somehow control Valtiel, then it's never mentioned or shown. They can’t even control Alessa, a mere child when she overtook the town.
Not sure Christabella would approve of the new decor, Claudia.
The confusion is due to Revelation trying to create an amalgamation of the cult seen in the games and the cult seen in the first movie. If Revelation stuck with the original reasoning of killing Sharon/Heather and Alessa to free themselves from purgatory, it would've made more sense and the plot would still be the same. At the very least, Claudia's group could have been established as a splinter group of extremists, that had turned their backs on The Order and chosen to worship the demons.
There is one moment, when Heather arrives in Silent Hill, that made me think this might be the case. Upon walking into town, she spots a few charred corpses that have been burned at the stake. At the base of one stake is a sign that reads “TRAITOR.” It could indicate that there’s infighting going on within The Order; perhaps a clash between traditional members and those taking their religion in a new direction. Or it could mean nothing. What this person did to be labeled a traitor is never explained.
I still enjoy Revelation, but it feels like it's trying to be a sequel to the videogame instead of the movie. The first movie did a 180' on the motivations of The Order and for better or worse, the sequel should've stuck with that. Silent Hill is infamous for raising more questions than it answers, and by mashing the videogame and movie versions of the cult together, it only serves to create more confusion.
