Return to Silent Hill, directed by Christophe Gans, the same filmmaker behind the 2006 Silent Hill, was released on January 23, with early screenings on January 22 that included a Silent Hill-themed postcard. The postcard is, unfortunately, the most memorable part of the film’s 1-hour-and-46-minute runtime.
The movie barely follows the plot of the video game of which it claims to adapt, Silent Hill 2. Beyond James Sunderland’s depression and the town being foggy and ominous, nothing is kept. This review contains spoilers, as the only real way to review a movie like this is to go over the very bad plot and complain about it.
The film opens with James Sunderland, played by Jeremy Irvine, speeding down the road in his car, nearly crashing into a truck before meeting Mary, who is played by Hannah Emily Anderson. This entire intro is completely made up for the movie. In Silent Hill 2, the story begins quietly in a rest-stop bathroom, where James reads a letter from his deceased wife, Mary, asking him to meet her in Silent Hill at their “special place.” In the movie, James instead receives the letter in his apartment, and Mary’s death is not confirmed until more than halfway through the film.
Once James arrives at Silent Hill, the movie briefly aligns with the game, but quickly diverges again. He encounters Angela, who in the game is physically healthy and new to the town. In the film, she is sick and dying due to the fires surrounding Silent Hill, which are said to have poisoned the remaining residents.
The movie then continues with its trend of not following the game’s story. James ends up in the Otherworld, a mirrored version of reality, and somehow rushes to the apartments, a part that, in the game, took me over three hours to finish. He runs into Laura, a little girl who hides in a closet as Pyramid Head appears from the dark, before he chases James out of the apartment. The stretch from the apartment to the hospital was so uneventful, aside from Maria joining James.
From there, the movie continues to undermine its own story by introducing confusing and underdeveloped plot points, including a schizophrenic episode in which James kills Maria using Pyramid Head. Pyramid Head is then briefly revealed to be James himself, an idea that is never explored again and adds little beyond implying that James controls all of Silent Hill.
At the Lakeview Inn, the movie introduces its most drastic change. Laura reveals that Mary, Angela, and herself are just different versions of the same person: Mary, James’ dead girlfriend. This twist is entirely original to the film and fundamentally alters the meaning of the story. The movie ends with James driving his car into the lake, only to wake up at the beginning of the film, being given a second chance for some reason.
Return to Silent Hill tries its hardest to be its own version of Silent Hill 2, but falls flat by changing not only why James comes to Silent Hill, but also the core purpose of the original story. By giving it a happy ending, the film undermines the game’s themes of guilt, grief, and self-punishment.
I cannot in any way, shape, or form recommend people to go see this movie. Viewers interested in the story would be better served by playing Silent Hill 2, which is available digitally for $70, or, with some luck, physically for around $30 at GameStop. Return to Silent Hill is a poorly paced adaptation, marked with bad CGI, questionable casting, and a rushed narrative that removes entire locations and events from the game, including the prison and much of the town’s introduction. It is best viewed only as an example of how not to adapt a psychological horror classic.