Return to Silent Hill: The Third Film, Based on the Second Game

The Konami videogames never explicitly identified Silent Hill’s state, but it was generally understood to be somewhere in New England, even though it was inspired by the real-life ghost town, Centralia, PA, which was evacuated due to toxic coal mines fires that continue smoldering decades later. However, the first two films located the nefarious burg in West Virginia. Now, the third installment geographically shifts the ominous town to Maine, more in keeping with game lore. Regardless, Silent Hill is a nice place to be from—far from. Nevertheless, James Sunderland revisits his late wife's hometown after several years away, when he receives a mysterious letter from her in Christophe Gans’s Return to Silent Hill, which opens today in theaters.

Presumably, Mary Crane died during the environmental disaster that devastated Silent Hill, but the details were sketchy, so Sunderland still holds out hope. Of course, the letter’s inexplicable arrival clearly suggests a sinister force is luring the grieving artist into Silent Hill’s supernatural peril.

Obviously, this is not the picturesque Silent Hill Sunderland remembers. The air is now foul and cloudy, while monsters roam the ruins, definitely including Pyramid Head, who has been slightly redesigned since the previous two films. Yet, we can tell from flashbacks, evil always lurked below the surface in Silent Hill. That was especially true of the sinister cult founded by Crane’s father, who acted like they had been evicted from the Dakota Building (a.k.a. The Bramford in Rosemary’s Baby).

Naturally, Sunderland eventually finds his way to the Silent Hill hospital, because faceless nurses are an iconic element of the games. Along the way, he encounters Maria, a human survivor, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Crane, except she carries herself in a much more provocative manner. Indeed, she seems torn between helping and seducing Sunderland.

Return to Silent Hill is set in the same cinematic world as the first two films, but it adapts the storyline of the second game release—relatively faithfully. Unfortunately, the most notable deviations devised by Gans and co-screenwriters Sandra Vo-Anh and Will Schneider are uniformly bad, because they dispel the mood and kill the tension. Arguably, the new bits might even undermine franchise mythology, depending how viewers interpret them.

It is strange Gans took such a misstep, because has always maintained a good rep with fans for his understanding of and enthusiasm for the franchise. Indeed, Return does a lot of things right from the perspective of the fanbase, especially the score penned by Akira Yamaoka, the longtime composer for the games. Loyalists will likely also appreciate seeing Evie Templeton reprise her role as Laura, the strange street waif who somehow survived the town’s horrors, from the recent remake of Silent Hill 2, the game (not the movie).

There is a lot of moody creepiness in the first two acts and the franchise mythology Gans reveals will intrigue many non-gamer horror consumers. Hannah Emily Anderson is also terrific as Mary Crane and Maria, both of whom she nicely differentiates, while maintaining eerie similarities. Frankly, Jeremy Irvine’s performance as Sunderland is quite respectable (especially by horror genre standards). Yet, based on the way Gans presents the character, it is hard to understand why Sunderland became a fan favorite amongst loyal gamers.

Essentially, Gans gets the aesthetics right, but fumbles the story-telling. It looks great, albeit in an aptly murky way, thanks to some first-class work from cinematographer Pablo Rossos and the production design team. However, Gans and company butcher the end game worse than Pyramid Head manhandling his victims. Not consistent enough to recommend (but maybe worth sampling when it eventually streams, for the distinctive look and vibe), Return to Silent Hill opens today (1/23) in theaters, including the Regal Times Square in New York.