While bringing to the screen popular monsters from the video game—Red Pyramid, the nurses—and several cast members from the previous movie, the 3D sequel SILENT HILL: REVELATION also provides a showcase for a couple of new faces: stars Adelaide Clemens and Kit Harington, both of whom spoke to Fango at the recent New York Comic-Con.

In SILENT HILL: REVELATION (opening today from Open Road Films), the Australian-born Clemens and British Harington play Heather, a teenaged girl who discovers that her past is intertwined with the titular town, and Vincent, a classmate who tries to help her survive its terrors. Clemens has a number of other genre movies on her résumé, while Harington makes his feature debut here, though they do have a screen parent in common…

ADELAIDE CLEMENS

FANGORIA: How did you come to be involved with SILENT HILL: REVELATION; was it just a matter of auditioning?

ADELAIDE CLEMENS: No; actually, it’s a very funny story. I was at the Sundance Film Festival promoting a film I was in called VAMPIRE, and the producer of SILENT HILL, Samuel Hadida, a lovely French man, came barreling across the street, through the snow, in his snow boots, and followed me around the festival. My mum was there, and I was like, “I don’t know this man!” And then he eventually let on who he was; he was like, “You have to be in my film!” And I was like, “I’ve heard that before,” you know? “I’ve never met you, tell me more about you…” Then he showed me a picture of Heather Mason, and I have to say I was taken aback, and when I read the script, Heather really spoke to me. It’s very funny that Sammy just saw me at this festival and [pursued me] without knowing I was an actor, and then he learned I was in a horror film there, and had grown up in France and Japan, and he’s French—so it all aligned.

FANG: Tell us a little bit about your character.

CLEMENS: Heather is a 17-year-old girl on the run with her father, who’s played by Sean Bean. She starts having these psychological experiences that lead her into the world of Silent Hill. She really spoke to me because she’s a girl looking for her father, and would do anything for her family; that’s where I found my emotional route to the character and the film.

FANG: Is this your first horror film?

CLEMENS: No, I’ve actually done a few of them. I did an Australian film—I don’t know if you’d call it horror, but it’s definitely a thriller—called WASTED ON THE YOUNG, where my character is in peril most of the time. That’s a wonderful film. NO ONE LIVES [by VERSUS and MIDNIGHT MEAT TRAIN’s Ryuhei Kitamura] is another one I did, that’s an interesting film. And VAMPIRE is a wonderful film, by a great director, Shunji Iwai.

FANG: Were you familiar with SILENT HILL, the game or the movie, before doing this movie?

CLEMENS: Yes, absolutely. I have two younger brothers, so it was kind of in my living room all the time, and it’s very strange when something you were around like that growing up becomes something you’re working on. So I was familiar with it, though I wasn’t an avid gamer. To be honest, it takes me about 30 minutes just to set up a profile on those things, which gives you an idea of my technological skills. But I remember having a conversation with my brothers, saying, “What do you think of the idea of making a film about this?” and they were like, “That’s the scariest thing I’ve ever heard of!” They’re really excited.

I did go on the SILENT HILL ride at Universal Studios, and it was petrifying. Honestly, I thought, “Oh, you know, I have this in the bag, I’ve seen all the monsters, it’ll be no problem.” It was actually embarrassing, because I had to stop halfway, like, “I just can’t go any further!”

FANG: How was it working with Michael J. Bassett as a director?

CLEMENS: Amazing. He’s an avid gamer himself, and his enthusiasm was incredible. He was very hands-on, right there with you. He didn’t just sit back and tell you what to do; he really entrenched himself in the production.

FANG: SILENT HILL: REVELATION is your first 3D film; what was that experience like?

CLEMENS: It was interesting, and also physical and time-consuming. We were actually working with prototypes; we shot this over a year ago, so the technology was kind of finding its feet. You had to have a certain physical dynamic with the camera, but as actors, we didn’t have to do as much work as the lovely cameramen. There were all sorts of measurements that they had to take before we did each take, so there would be long waits and things like that, but overall it was wonderful.

FANG: Did it help that you had a lot of the creatures physically there on set with you?

CLEMENS: Oh, yeah; there was only one creature that was not there in the flesh, that was CGI-created. That was amazing as an actor; I got to perform with the ax-wielding Red Pyramid, the nurses were there walking around the set, and what’s interesting is that they take on personalities, and they can really perform. It’s very different from CG monsters, which come across as kind of cold. Which is also scary, but this is a little creepier.

FANG: You mentioned before the interview began that you’re friends with Miss Dead USA…

CLEMENS: Yes, I was doing a TV series in Griffin, Georgia, and she just happens to come from there and worked in the local restaurant. One day she walked in—she’d been on a photo shoot—and was covered in blood and looked completely outrageous. It was so crazy, having your friend walk in looking like that. And she’d never told me! She was just like, “Oh, yeah, I’m Miss Dead USA.” She showed me the photos, and I was like, “Oh my God, this is insane!”

KIT HARINGTON

FANGORIA: You’ve done a lot of stage work; is this the first movie of this magnitude you’ve appeared in?

KIT HARINGTON: Yeah, it’s my very first film. I went from drama school to theater, and then to TV, and then to film.

FANG: How was it going from the stage, where everything is tangible and real, to the fantasy world created for SILENT HILL?

HARINGTON: It was amazing. Stage work is very, very different from film work, and I’m finding that out as I go along. But it’s wonderful to do an eclectic body of work like that, where you can go from something like the main play I was in right after drama school, WAR HORSE, where I was playing with a puppet horse, to playing with men with crazy costumes on and blood dripping from their hands. It’s fantastic work that we get to do in this industry.

FANG: Were you familiar with SILENT HILL before you did this film?

HARINGTON: Yeah, I was; I grew up with it. I was probably about 11 or 12 when it came out, and my brother played it, and I was always a bit of a wimp when it came to these games. I’d get very tense and scared playing SILENT HILL, so I wouldn’t play it as much as my brother did.

FANG: How was your collaboration with Michael J. Bassett?

HARINGTON: It was fantastic. When I first auditioned for this, I met Michael in the room, and we chatted and got on straightaway. I watched his back catalog of films when I got the part, and I think he’s got a wonderful vision. It was great working with him, we got on very well, and working with the monsters was new to me [laughs], but it was a lot of fun. If you don’t have fun on a film like this, you go insane.

FANG: Was it a physically demanding shoot, doing a lot of the creature and action scenes live, without digital FX?

HARINGTON: Yes, it was. It was a long, hard three months on this film. It was a long shoot, but it paid off in the end. I’m very happy with the film.

FANG: It’s interesting that you played Sean Bean’s son on GAME OF THRONES, and here you acted opposite Adelaide Clemens, playing Bean’s daughter. Which one did you shoot first?

HARINGTON: THRONES came first.

FANG: What was it like coming back to acting with him, in a different onscreen relationship?

HARINGTON: I love working with Sean, and to do that on my first two filmed projects was such a privilege and honor. But it was kind of strange, coming back and doing a different genre with him, where I was suddenly not playing his son anymore. But he’s a wonderful guy, and he kind of took me under his wing. It was a good experience all around.

FANG: Are you interested in doing more horror films in the future?

HARINGTON: I’ve loved horror movies since I was a kid and I love being scared, so I wanted to do one. Whether I do more in the future, I don’t know. Hopefully, if I get the right offers. But I definitely ticked a box off my list with this one.

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