Still from 2026 movie Return to Silent Hill shows as Jeremy Irvine as James Sunderland

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The latest Silent Hill movie has been savaged by fans(Image: Cineverse/Bloody Disgusting)

Fans of Silent Hill have hit out at a new movie that they say “butchers” an iconic title in the horror videogame series.

Widely considered one of the finest of its genre, Silent Hill 2 commands a devoted following for excellent reasons. As such, gamers have lashed out at a new adaptation of the game that has released in US cinemas.

Return to Silent Hill, loosely inspired by the second instalment of the game franchise, premiered on January 23. Helmed by Christophe Gans, who previously directed the 2006 Silent Hill picture, it is scheduled for release in Gans’ homeland of France next month.

Yet some audiences have condemned Return to Silent Hill as amongst the “worst” horror pictures they’ve witnessed. The picture has achieved a meagre 33 rating on Metacritic, with a marginally better audience score of 4.4 out of 10, reports the Mirror US.

One Reddit contributor headlined a discussion: “Return to Silent Hill might be one of the worst horrors I’ve seen”. They added: “For those of you who don’t know, this movie is an adaption of the video game silent hill 2, one of the most important horror games ever.

“This movie s**** all over the og game.” Numerous commenters concurred, with one remarking of Gans: “I think he loves the idea of a spooky town more than he loves Silent Hill considering how much he butchers it.”

Another observed: “It is terrible, but not because it doesn’t stay true to the game’s lore. It’s bad on its own merits as a film.”

A fourth person on Reddit remarked: “I didn’t even know there was a new one…. Honestly impressive how each Silent Hill movie is worse than the last!” Another branded the film “straight up unwatchable”, claiming the screenplay “completely misunderstands” what Silent Hill represents.

A sixth contributor stated: “Video game adaptations are never one-to-one but for f**** sake respect the source material. I get you wanna add your style/take on it but RTSH is downright insultingly bad on every level.”

‘An ugly, laughable adaptation’

Still from 2026 movie Return to Silent Hill shows iconic horror antagonist Pyramid Head

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Iconic villain Pyramid Head makes an appearance in the film(Image: Cineverse/Bloody Disgusting)

Sadly, professional reviewers have echoed the audience’s sentiments about Return to Silent Hill. Total Film described the picture as having “a confusing plot, mediocre visual effects, and over-the-top acting”.

Collider delivered a particularly scathing assessment: “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 to Silent Hill.”

However, not all responses have been entirely negative, with British publication Little White Lies awarding it 70 out of 100.

Their review noted: “The performances too somehow emulates the game’s awkward, unnatural voice acting, a key contributor to both works’ uncanny dreamlike ambience. Rarely has a film better evoked a PlayStation 2 game.”