The Silent Hill franchise has had a bit of a resurgence, thanks to the success of 2024’s Silent Hill 2 remake (despite its rough first impressions), and 2025’s Silent Hill f, which gave the titular foggy, cursed US small town a sister city in Japan. The game’s producer, Motoi Okamoto, even suggested they might make Silent Hills set in other countries, like Russia, Korea, or Italy. So long as it is foggy and has an otherworld filled with abominations, it will be Silent Hill, or so one can conclude.
But what if people want to stay in the Silent Hill? The one that got the whole series started for 4 classic entries, and some not-so-classic follow-ups? They will have to go to the silver screen, as after 20 years, Director Christophe Gans (Crying Freeman 1995, Brotherhood of the Wolf 2001) returns to the town in Return to Silent Hill. Produced by Davis Films, Electric Shadow, Supermix and WIP, and distributed to theaters in the US by Cineverse and Iconic Events Releasing on January 23, 2026, the movie takes a crack at adapting Silent Hill 2. For the most part.
Written by Gans, alongside Sandra Vo-Anh (Beauty & the Beast 2014) and Will Schneider (15-40 short, The Crow 2024), it follows James Sunderland (Jeremy Irvine: War Horse 2011, Treadstone series), an artist driven to drink following the collapse of his relationship with Mary Crane (Hannah Emily Anderson: Jigsaw 2017, X-Men: Dark Phoenix 2019). But when she sends him a letter inviting him back to her quiet hometown of Silent Hill, he heads back there to see what is going on. Once he enters its boundaries, he soon discovers the place has changed a lot over the years.
Some viewers might be wary, as while the 2006 Silent Hill movie sort of adapted the first game, it made a few changes that did not gel well with the game’s fans. Like swapping out single dad Harry Mason with married mom Rose DaSilva (Radha Mitchell: Pitch Black 2000, Man on Fire 2004) and her husband Christopher (Sean Bean: Equilibrium 2001, Game of Thrones series), who did not do much. So, when they see Return to Silent Hill open with James and Mary having a meet-cute, feathers might get ruffled all over again, no matter how game-accurate their meeting place is.
Though if they do not like the original stuff, like James being a drunken artist with a therapist (Nicola Alexis: Heads of State 2025), and the snow still being ash, then it will not be long before things start to feel familiar. The movie practically checks off the game’s big set pieces off a list, be it James checking his reflection, his first encounter with the Lying Figure, meeting Angela and Maria (both Anderson), and a certain triangle-headed man with a large rusty blade.
Even so, it is not quite a straight Xeroxing of Silent Hill 2’s big moments. Eddie (Pearse Egan: Cyber Bride 2019, In from the Side 2022) and Laura (Evie Templeton: Lord of Misrule 2023, Wednesday series) do not quite resemble their videogame counterparts, and it has some plot threads that tie into the 2006 movie (and the first Silent Hill game) that SH2 lacked. But for viewers who are just after a spooky Horror flick, whether they know anything about SH or not, they will get a few chills here and there.
The real world and ‘otherworld’ switches are as bombastic as ever, and the monster designs are stomach-churning, even if they lack the game’s subtle, tension-building scares. Likewise, the camera creates neat contrasts through reflections and shadows that play up James’ paranoia about the figures around him. Still, those camera shots work better in the grimy corridors and rooms of the otherworld than outdoors.
The bright, grey light makes the CGI more noticeable (though even some of the indoor monsters look a bit ropey), and if Irvine was not walking around a greenscreen for those exterior shots, the framing certainly makes it look like he was. The town is meant to look unreal, but in an eerie, unsettling way. Instead, it comes off as computer-generated, making it look less realistic than its video game counterparts.
The acting is serviceable, though the best performance, or performances, would have to go to Anderson, given that she is playing at least three different roles. Her Angela and Maria roles do not get much to do; being very condensed, they take on their in-game roles, but she is engaging enough in her fleeting scenes as Mary, with each flashback revealing more of her backstory.
But the story does not really flow well. Even by mixing source-faithful scenes and figures with original ones, the result is rather lumpy and clunky. The pacing stops and starts, thanks to the plot condensing some characters’ arcs down to practically nothing. As a result, its unique narrative twists do not hit home as hard as the ones in the game. For newbies, they will likely come off as ho-hum, while diehard SH fans will be left annoyed again by the changes and their implications (“Say Mary’s name! Say her full name!”).
Overall, if the viewers’ favorite parts of the Silent Hill games were the bombastic shocks, monsters, and theming, they might get something out of Return to Silent Hill, as it does the in-your-face elements well. But if they liked their subtle building tension, the intricate storytelling and characterisation, and eerie atmosphere, it is not on offer here. Return to Silent Hill turns a classic game into an average Horror flick, which is why Cryptic Rock gives it 2.5 out of 5 stars.
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