RETURN TO SILENT HILL
(director: Christophe Gans; screenwriters: Sandra Vo-Anh, William Joseph Schneider, based on the video game “Silent Hill 2”; cinematograph Ljiier: Pablo Rosso; editor: Sebastien Prangere; music: Akira Yamaka; cast: Jeremy Irvine (James Sunderland), Hannah Emily Anderson (Mary Crane/Maria), Robert Strange (Pyramid Head), Evie Jayne Templeton (Laura), Pearse Egan (Eddie), Giulia Pelagatti (Armless/Spider Lady), Ljiliana Velimirov (Armless), Eve Macklin (Kaitlyn/Angela), Emily Carding (Dara), Martine Richards (Claudette), Howard Saddler (Cal), Nicola Alexis (M, James’s therapist); Runtime: 106; MPAA Rating: R; producers: Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, Davi, D.M. Wulf; Cineverse; 2026-France/USA/UK/Germany/Serbia/Japan)
“Would have been better off if it remained just a game.”
Reviewed by Dennis Schwartz
French director Christophe Gans (“Brotherhood of the Wolf”/”Crying Freeman”) was born in the Antibes (in the South of France). His “Return to Silent Hill” is a reboot of Konami’s great survival game “Silent Hill 2” (2024), which is not a movie but a game.
Gans’ third “Silent Hill” franchise version is a mediocre, low-budget, atmospheric, supernatural thriller that’s based on a 2001 video game by PlayStation. Gans botches the story but keeps it stylish. It’s a schlocky sci-fi flick that’s weakly written by Sandra Vo-Anh and William Joseph Schneider. This is the third film in a franchise that started in 2006. The original was successfully directed by Gans, but the badly received by critics second version in 2012 was not directed by him.
James Sunderland (Jeremy Irvine, Brit actor playing an American) is a moody loser alcoholic painter in his thirties, in therapy with M (Nicola Alexis). After several years away he returns to the New England town of Silent Hill, now a foggy ghost town destroyed by a fire and covered in ash, that’s inhabited by monsters like Pyramid Head (Robert Strange) and only a few humans. He’s in search of his former heiress girlfriend Mary Crane (Hannah Emily Anderson) he lived there with before they broke up, whose deceased widower father founded the town. She supposedly died from an environmental disease. But he goes there because he mysteriously receives a letter from her that says she needs help and he wonders if she’s still alive even though he knows she’s dead.
What we’re in for is lots of graphic violence, a few suicides, a blood-smearing ceremony, a severed head, some jump scares and a deadly monster named Spider Lady (Giulia Pelagatti). Mary appears as the hospital nurse Maria who is taking James around the disaster area in his search for her. He’s eventually joined by a little girl named Laura (Evie Jayne Templeton), who has some kind of a connection with Mary.
The result is a poorly executed horror film that left me in a fog and would have been better off if it remained just a game.
REVIEWED ON 2/16/2026 GRADE: C-
dennisschwartzreviews.com