Return To Silent Hill… it’s been 20 years since director Christophe Gans‘ first trip into putting the videogame series onscreen with, simply, Silent Hill – which I still haven’t seen, before 2012’s sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation, which I saw at the cinema in 3D and loved it.
But now this new film. Not quite sure who was asking for it, but while I haven’t played much of the series at all, I understand this one’s based on Silent Hill 2, and opens with a chance encounter between the two leads, as ‘flash Harry’ James Sunderland (Jeremy Irvine – Baghead) is driving too fast, sees Mary Crane (Hannah Emily Anderson – Jigsaw) too late, trashes her suitcase – since she’s off to a new job in the city, but instead of him giving her a lift instead, they zoom off to Silent Hill…
Now, at this point, it was already stupid beyond belief. Sure, his wreckless driving broke the latch on her case so it wouldn’t close properly, but in seeing her bus arrive imminently, any normal person would’ve just gathered all their stuff together and got on the bus. But no, she just looks forlorn and waves the bus on, even though it was clear that this was the ONLY bus. Idiot.
But then their tale is told in flashback, since we learn over time that the pair built a life together, she got stuck back there somehow, and now it’s time to…. return to Silent Hill.
But then, you wait… time passes… Pyramid Head sits down and starts singing about gold.
OH MY GOD! Absolutely NOTHING happened! Well, I guess if you want to make a film like the original game, this is a contender, but in a way that it’s like you’re showing the main character simply walking through every different door in a strange town, seeing some mad character do some mad shit, and then leaving to go and open the next one!
I’d seen the nurses and armless characters before, so I recognised them, but as for almost everything else, it just washed over me. Absolute tripe. Like a series of videogame cutscenes from one moment to the next, it’s just random, nonsensical rubbish, and at one point a weird woman with a shock of white hair appeared, which made me think its was Tilda Swinton. But no, she wouldn’t be seen within a million miles of this shit.
Please no more if you can’t understand that a theatrical film is meant to be a coherent experience.
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credit scenes. However, I did note that someone said the end credits are “INSANE!”. They’re not. The main part of the credits just look like a pop video.
Return To Silent Hill is in cinemas now, but isn’t yet available to pre-order on Blu-ray or DVD. However, once announced, it will appear on the New DVD Blu-ray 3D and 4K releases UK list.
However, somehow, someone has made a novelisation of this film, as if you’d leaf through a book of this tripe, any more than you’d watch it onscreen?!
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 105 minutes
Release date: January 22nd 2026
Studio: Entertainment Film Distributors
Aspect ratio: 2.39:1 (Panavision)
Rating: 0/10
Director: Christophe Gans
Producers: Victor Hadida, Molly Hassell, David M Wulf
Screenplay: Christophe Gans, William Josef Schneider, Sandra Vo-Anh
Videogame: Hiroyuki Owaku, Keiichiro Toyama
Music: Akira Yamaoka
Cast:
James Sunderland: Jeremy Irvine
Mary Crane: Hannah Emily Anderson
Red Pyramid: Robert Strange
Laura: Evie Templeton
Eddie Dombrowski: Pearse Egan
Kaitlyn / Angela: Eve Macklin
Dara: Emily Carding
M: Nicola Alexis
Claudette: Martine Richards
Cal: Howard Saddler
Armless / Spider Lady: Giulia Pelagatti
Nurse: Tamara Ristoska
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.