Konami has been swinging big lately to bring Silent Hill back to the forefront of horror and, in terms of video games, it’s been a success. Bloober Team’s remake of Silent Hill 2 saw nothing but widespread acclaim and the newest original addition to the franchise, Silent Hill f, put a fresh spin on the series’ brand of psychological horror. Unfortunately, the latest attempt to revitalize the franchise’s standing in film, Return to Silent Hill, offers fans nothing but disappointment.
While previous Silent Hill films have blended elements and characters from the games without directly adapting any specific story, this film does not. Instead, Return to Silent Hill adapts Silent Hill 2, one of the most beloved and iconic horror narratives in gaming. It follows widower James Sunderland (Jeremy Irvine) encountering monsters and buried truths while searching for his late wife Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson) in the abandoned town of Silent Hill. Unfortunately, this adaptation is riddled with problems largely stemming from its lack of depth. James’ trip through Silent Hill is meant to be quite cathartic and filled with side characters who have their own intertwining arcs and meaning within the main plot. Sadly though, there are a lot of layers of Silent Hill 2 that this film simply doesn’t capture even at surface-level.
It’s incredibly disappointing to see characters like Eddie (Pearse Egan) and Laura (Evie Templeton) be such throw-away additions. Both of them (Eddie in particular) have no impact in the story whatsoever, and the more sadistic and emotional aspects of their arcs are nowhere to be found. Mary is such a baffling character whose presence is tarnished by weird, unnecessary changes. The flashbacks to Mary’s relationship with James are remarkably flat and never offer new insights that elevate James’ personal reckoning. The new cult elements to her backstory are terribly executed and muddy up the narrative poorly.
Then, there’s James. Return to Silent Hill bastardizes James tremendously by making him woefully generic and totally uninteresting. Irvine never makes any of the emotions coursing through James believable, and every time the film tries to tap into the lingering hurt within James over Mary’s death, it barely leaves a dent on you. Return to Silent Hill totally fumbles these characters in ways that will definitely upset fans, and doesn’t do much better when it comes to horror.
Admittedly, the film finds mild success when it comes to bringing the source game’s iconic monsters to life. Pyramid Head and the Bubble Head Nurses are as creepy as ever and the practical backbone they have helps make their terrifying presence land. However, they’re also terribly underutilized. They’re barely in the film and, like other supporting characters, don’t play the role they’re meant to in connecting to James’ personal guilt. The 2006 Silent Hill film characterized these monstrosities more effectively; to deliver good scares and jaw-dropping scenes. Seriously, that skin-ripping scene with Pyramid Head still lives in my brain while this version of the character could be instantly forgotten.
Even in terms of atmosphere, which is what Silent Hill is all about, Return to Silent Hill is painfully lacking. You barely ever get chills as it transforms into a pure nightmarescape and there are no real scares that keep you on edge. Also, the film never overcomes its cheap look so even the best moments of gore don’t leave a big impression. It’s such a head-scratcher where things went wrong because director Christophe Gans also made that 2006 adaptation that’s way scarier than anything this film does.
Worst of all though is the story. It’s such a mess with how it tries to touch on big parts of the game’s narrative only to fall flat on its face. Despite strange deviations in Mary’s story and not using other characters to build up the themes of guilt within James’ journey, the film touches on the same twists as the game and fails miserably. Every potentially good attempt to look back into James and Mary’s romance is thwarted by flashbacks loosely shoved in and not progressing the story in any meaningful way. The new parts of the story complicate things for no reason whatsoever and lose the relatable horror themes audiences could’ve connected with in the process. When the film heads to the same horrifying places for James’ conclusions as the game does, none of the emotion or power is there to make it feel truly special. You feel absolutely nothing as it plays out and we don’t even get one of the beloved or fun endings from the game.
Return to Silent Hill is a return no one will welcome as it butchers an iconic entry in a way that no fan desires nor provides a horror story worth watching for newcomers. It’s a bland, baffling retelling of Silent Hill 2 that can’t even capture the basics of what makes that game continue to be special. In a thriving era of video game and horror movies, Return to Silent Hill is a major misfire.
