The “Return to Silent Hill” Reviews Are In

While the reviews for “Mercy” are bad and the box-office looks weak, it’s in a better position than Christophe Gans’ “Return to Silent Hill,” which opens Friday.

With 15 reviews counted, the film sits at a disastrous 7% on Rotten Tomatoes and a 30/100 on Metacritic. That’s behind Gans’ original 2006 film at 33% on RT and 31/100 on MC, and more in line with 2012’s “Silent Hill: Revelation” at 8% on RT and 16/100 on MC.

This time, the film serves as something of loose adaptation of the highly acclaimed and iconic video game “Silent Hill 2” which released a celebrated remake in 2024 – both versions praised for their atmosphere, pervasive dread and storytelling with psychosexual themes of repression, trauma and guilt.

Reviews for the film, however, paint it as a poor adaptation, one struggling to compress the 20+ hour storyline into 106 minutes. It’s being criticised by fans of the game for major changes that undermine the original story, and by those unfamiliar with it for delivering a narrative that doesn’t seem to work.

Almost all agree to go out and play the game, as you’ll get a much better experience that way. Here’s a sampling of reviews:

“Loosely based on the 2001 game Silent Hill 2, Return to Silent Hill can be an atmospheric horror film with original creature designs worthy of Konami’s legendary franchise. But a confusing plot, mediocre visual effects, and over-the-top acting might make director Christophe Gans’ newest Silent Hill adaptation just as divisive as his first attempt 20 years ago.” – Ashley Bardhan, Total Film

“It shouldn’t work, and it doesn’t a lot of the time, but there’s something compelling in how it all wraps up, how decisions that floundered in the moment feel a little more justified once the credits roll (which are awesomely stylish for some reason).” – Dominic Baez, Seattle Times

“As an adaptation of one of the best video games ever made from a filmmaker who successfully translated the games’ world to film before, it’s a major disappointment. As a movie, it’s just bad.” – Kyle Logan, Screen Anarchy

“20 years later Gans still can’t figure out how to escape the open-ended confinement of gameplay, or even give it the forward momentum of a game with a mission.” – Jesse Hassenger, The Guadian

“Return to Silent Hill isn’t the worst entry in this video game movie series, but it fails to accomplish anything that the source material doesn’t do better… Those craving a truly great psychological horror experience are better off booting up a version of Silent Hill 2.” – Jesse Schedeen, IGN

“Director Christophe Gans understands Silent Hill so arrestingly and vividly when it comes to visual nightmare fuel that it makes it all the more frustrating that, with this story, he still doesn’t “get” what he is adapting” – Robert Kojder, Flickering Myth

“With bad direction, terrible acting, and a world that has no weight behind it (especially since most of it was clearly made in a computer), this isn’t the way to bring Silent Hill 2 to the big screen. This powerful survival horror story has been turned into an ugly, laughable adaptation that proves that maybe we should’ve never gone back” – Ross Bonaime, Collider

“Return to Silent Hill” opens Friday and is only expected to earn around $1-3 million for the weekend domestically. Where it may prove a hit is China, with a post on Reddit claiming the film’s advance ticket sales are outpacing “Final Destination: Bloodlines” by 50% – a movie that pulled in a total gross of $28 million in that market.