Silent Hill fans had quite the exciting year ahead. With upcoming remakes for “Silent Hill 1” and “Silent Hill 3,” along with a movie being announced in October of 2022 for January of 2026. Fans were over the moon at all the recent Silent Hill media being produced, as this followed the recent release of “Silent Hill F,” which was a major hit. But, after the release, it has been breaking records… and not in the best way. As of Feb. 11, it has become Rotten Tomatoes worst rated movie on the entire platform. So, how could a movie with so much hype behind it, be so terrible?
The Silent Hill franchise has been a staple to psychological horror ever since its release in February 1999. The game immediately garnered attention, leading to a multitude of sequels and stand alone games in the series.
Overall, in the realm of horror games, Silent Hill is regarded as one of the ‘Big Three’ games in the psychological scene. Following these games and their success, Christopher Gans, who has directed every installation of the Silent Hill movies, made “Silent Hill” as a movie adaptation of the first game in 2006. While the movie had mildly negative reviews, it did well within the actual fan community of Silent Hill. While it wasn’t exactly true to the story completely, it did capture the game’s essence and likeness very well.
The second movie was directed by a different man, M.J. Bassett, and was also disliked by most of the public. This movie was focused more on adapting “Silent Hill 3” and also was not disliked among fans, but wasn’t as cherished in comparison to the games. So, with these two mild successes for the fanbase, how did this new movie manage to disappoint the general public, and loving fans of the series?
“Return to Silent Hill” was directed by the same producer of the first movie, Christopher Gans. During his directing of the first movie, Gans was initially enamored with the story of “Silent Hill 2” from its gameplay, and wanted to adapt it during the first movie. But, in order to provide the viewer with context, he had to build the backstory for the city and monsters. Gans eventually got his chance to finally adapt it with the new movie “Return to Silent Hill” and returned to work on the movie. Not unlike the other movies, the public opinion was mildly negative. Most of these movies had been made for fans of the games, and new fans obviously wouldn’t share the same love and understanding for the adaptation. But, the fans normally stood up for each of the previous films, so hopes were high. However, as soon as it was released, it faced incredible backlash from the public and fans alike for the awful movie.
The movie, which was described as being a faithful adaptation of the second game, fell short in exactly that element. While creative liberties in adaptation can add a lot to movies, this retelling completely changed the story, and took away from the deeper meanings and stories in the characters and monsters they face. Each Silent Hill is made with incredibly deep thought into every aspect of the game, from big things like the characters, to smaller things like the soundtrack or atmosphere. Because of the changes made in the movie adaptation, the plot and story was warped, and it lost a lot of its deeper meaning from the changes. Overall, most of the outrage over the movie was because of the changes made, along with CGI and design choices that looked cheap, and were not very reminiscent of the normal Silent Hill-esque.
The movie follows a semi-basic plot. James Sunderland (played by Jeremy Irvine), plays our protagonist, who has recently broken up with his longtime partner, Mary Crane (played by Hannah Emily Anderson). He receives a letter from Mary begging him to return to Silent Hill, the town where their romance started. When he comes back to the town, he finds it’s been covered in fog and abandoned by everyone, except for a few other characters. All of these people suffer from their own problems, and it’s slowly revealed that this town shifts between worlds, and tortures its inhabitants in their own specific way. At the end, when James finally finds Mary, it’s revealed that she begged him to kill her when she was ill, and when he did, he covered it up inside his own mind from his grief. He takes her body and puts it into the back of his car, driving it into a lake in a suicide attempt, only to awaken to the moment him and Mary met, where he drives off with her, away from the town where they met.
The movie sounds interesting at first glance, but in comparison with the original game story, it’s clear that it’s a terrible adaptation. The game follows a similar idea, but the plot is much more intricate, and makes more sense. In the game, James’ wife (Mary) has been dead for years, having passed away from cancer. However, he’s drawn back to the town by a letter asking him to come to her, and saying things only she could know. He returns to the town, despite her being dead, in the hopes that she did send this letter and is waiting for him in Silent Hill. He meets the same few characters, but this time, it’s no secret twist, and there’s no mercy killing. While his wife was sick, he killed her out of his own selfish reasoning. There’s no retribution either, and in one of the endings, James drives into the lake next to the town. It hits so much harder because you go through the whole game experiencing his grief and sadness, only to find the betrayal that he killed his wife. There’s no forgiveness or ‘waking up’, it’s just painfully over.
While the movie was a flop for fans, the year of 2026 still has much more on its way. With the new game, “Silent Hill: Townfall” coming sometime this year, along with the confirmation that “Silent Hill 1” and “Silent Hill 3” are in production, these remakes will no doubt make up for the utter failure of “Return to Silent Hill”. With these exciting game remakes on the horizon, I have no doubt fans will be able to forget the awful adaptation that “Return to Silent Hill” was.
