Written by: Luis Vox
First and foremost, I must confess that I am no movie expert. I am a cinematic nobody. I have very little knowledge of what it takes to make a movie, or all the logistics and hoops that must be jumped through to get a film made. I am nothing more than a normal person, like most of you, who watches a metric shit ton of movies and ends up with strong opinions.
Granted, those opinions may not mean much. But I still invite you to voice yours, especially if you think I’m wrong. Because then we really do need to have a war of words in the comment section.
Let the rant begin.
Back in 2022, Konami held its first Silent Hill Transmission. As we mentioned earlier, they announced Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 remake, which was released in October 2024. They also teased early footage of NeoBards’ "Silent Hill f", released in September 2024. And, as we mentioned in a previous article, we got the smallest tease of "Silent Hill: Townfall."
Along with all of those gaming announcements, Konami also revealed they were teaming up once again with "Silent Hill" (2006) director Christoph Gans for a sequel to his film titled "Return to Silent Hill". The movie would adapt the beloved "Silent Hill 2" video game, which is a very risky proposition to say the least.
Gans’ first adaptation of the original "Silent Hill" left much to be desired. It was okay at best.
WATCH THE TRAILER FOR "RETURN TO SILENT HILL" BELOW
The infamous "Silent Hill 2" story needs more than something serviceable or adequate. It needs to hit you just as hard as the game does. It requires the subtlety and nuance that slowly reveal the truth about Mary’s fate at the hands of her husband. It needs to explore who Red Pyramid Thing is and what he represents to James, Mary, and the town of Silent Hill as a whole.
Every character James meets should feel meaningful. Each one is either another lost and broken soul searching for redemption or someone who has fully succumbed to the darkness within themselves, giving everything away until they become the monsters they believe they are.
Anyone who has played the game, whether it was Team Silent’s original 2001 release or Bloober Team’s 2024 remake, knows that "Silent Hill 2" is a perfect example of psychological horror. It uses a tormented and broken man to weave a story about loss, trauma, and death. Everything from the oppressive locations to the disturbing monsters contributes to the larger narrative. Nothing is there just for the sake of cheap thrills.
Every monstrosity is a physical manifestation of James’ lust, guilt, rage, hate, and self-loathing. But they also reflect Mary’s pain, her lack of self-worth, and her terminal illness. Even the characters James encounters represent pieces of this psychological puzzle.
I have had friends tell me that their college psychology classes actually brought up "Silent Hill 2". Eddie, for example, can be seen as a manifestation of James’ self-loathing, resentment, and anger. His helplessness while watching his wife slowly decay right in front of him eventually leads him to end her life. But it was not an act of mercy. It was selfishness. A sad and broken attempt to reclaim a life that was already gone. Instead, it only leaves him with more anger and an even deeper sorrow.
Eddie himself is a bullied, beaten, and deeply sad man. Until he kills someone and discovers he enjoys the power it gives him. That moment transforms him into a monster of his own making. He begins to justify death and murder as a means to an end. In his mind, he is owed this. He deserves to take his life back by any means necessary.
Sound familiar?
Or maybe Eddie is nothing more than another person trapped in Silent Hill’s torment, just like James. Someone who lets the darkness win and learns nothing from the sins he committed.
Angela is similar to Eddie in that regard. She can be interpreted as a manifestation of Mary’s abuse and trauma, representing repressed feelings from before she met and fell in love with James. Or she could simply be a deeply hurt and emotionally scarred young woman who is finally forced to confront the truth that her father sexually abused her. In the end, she takes her life back by killing him.
This ambiguity was always one of the greatest things about Silent Hill. The theories. The endless conversations with other fans about what everything truly means. I have spent countless hours talking about it with people just like me, and those conversations still happen to this day.
Was James the only “real” person in Silent Hill? Or were all the others simply people on their own personal journeys through the town?
The film does absolutely none of this.
Its depth is comparable to a kiddie pool. The story is handled with the subtlety of a child smashing toys together and calling that conflict. The changes made to the story are flat-out unforgivable.
I can somewhat accept the film giving us a little backstory about how James and Mary met. But I cannot forgive the decision to tie her to the cult from the first movie. That single choice fundamentally alters everything about her character. It also completely changes James. His motivations, his guilt, and the reasons behind his psychological collapse are all different now.
In the film, Mary begs him to kill her. She begs.
I am not saying that it would not still be traumatic. Of course it would be. But it is nowhere near as horrifying as the original story, where James kills her out of selfish desperation rather than mercy.
Tying her cancer to the cult is basically heresy.
James and Mary are not even married in the film, and none of the flashbacks show the deep, eternal love that would justify someone walking through Hell to find her. And do not even get me started on Maria, Angela, Laura, and the complete pointlessness of Eddie.
Eddie appears in the film for maybe five minutes and has absolutely no reason to be there. There is no real conflict. He is just an asshole from the moment he appears and then disappears just as quickly. The only thing we get later is a half-hearted attempt at the Abstract Daddy moment. But Angela is so underdeveloped that none of it carries any emotional weight. Everything feels surface-level.
FINAL WORDS
I am not saying AI was used to make this film. But the story is so completely devoid of soul that it feels like someone asked ChatGPT to write a Silent Hill 2 script with no nuance and then forced it to connect to the 2006 movie.
This is Silent Hill 2 for someone who only read the cliff notes. There is zero substance.
If Return to Silent Hill were my dying wife, I would gleefully smother it with a pillow. No guilt. No hesitation. No coming back.
Do yourself a favor. If you want to experience Silent Hill 2 the right way, play the 2001 original or the excellent 2024 remake. Both tell the story far better.
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