Return to Silent Hill — BrandWiki

Return to Silent Hill

director	Christophe Gans
writer	Christophe Gans Sandra Vo-Anh Will Schneider
producer	Victor Hadida Molly Hassel David M. Wulf
based on	Silent Hill 2 by Konami
starring	Jeremy Irvine Hannah Emily Anderson
cinematography	Pablo Rosso
editing	Sébastien Prangère
music	Akira Yamaoka
studio	Davis Films Electric Shadow Supernix WIP
distributor	Metropolitan Filmexport (France) Cineverse Iconic Events Releasing (United States)
runtime	106 minutes‡R1R‡
country	France United States
language	English
budget	$23 million‡R2R‡
gross	$47.8 million‡R3R‡‡R4R‡

Return to Silent Hill is a 2026 supernatural psychological horror film written and directed by Christophe Gans, co-written by Sandra Vo-Anh and Will Schneider, and produced by Victor Hadida through his Davis Films banner. Loosely based on the 2001 video game Silent Hill 2 by Konami, it is the third Silent Hill film and a reboot. Starring Jeremy Irvine and Hannah Emily Anderson, it follows James Sunderland, a broken man who receives a mysterious letter which calls him back to Silent Hill in search of his lost love. However, he finds a once-recognizable town and encounters terrifying figures both familiar and new, and begins to question his sanity.

Plans for a new Silent Hill film adaptation began in December 2006; Gans and former writer Roger Avary had been hired to helm a film adaptation of Silent Hill 2, which was greenlit by Sony. However, the project did not move forward and was instead released as a sequel titled Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) without Gans and Avary's involvement. By 2020, Gans announced he was working on a new Silent Hill film, adapting the events of the second game. The film was greenlit in October 2022, with Gans returning to write and direct the project. An international co-production between France and the United States, the film was shot in Germany and Serbia from April 2023 to February 2024.

Return to Silent Hill was released theatrically in the United States by

Plot

Artist James Sunderland has a chance meeting with Mary Crane as she is leaving her hometown of Silent Hill. When he inadvertently causes her to miss a bus, she decides to go back. James offers her a ride, and they spark a romance, eventually moving in together in Silent Hill.

Years later, James has moved away and become an alcoholic following the end of his relationship with Mary, while a concerned psychologist attempts to rehabilitate him. He receives a letter from Mary urging him to come back to Silent Hill, and he hastily returns. Upon arrival, he discovers that the town is covered in fog and falling ash, and has been almost entirely abandoned due to an unspecified illness that killed many. He meets a woman named Angela and is later attacked by a monstrous entity.

The town transforms into a twisted, unearthly version of itself and James is forced to flee to the Wood Side Apartment building where he and Mary once lived. Inside, he meets a violent and mentally-unstable man named Eddie and a young girl named Laura. James learns that Mary was taken to Brookhaven Hospital and then encounters a ghoulish figure known as Pyramid Head who frightens Eddie away. After a tense encounter with Pyramid Head, James wakes up back in the "real" Silent Hill where he again encounters Angela and Laura; Laura claims that she knows Mary.

While chasing Laura, James meets a woman named Maria who looks near identical to Mary and offers to tag along with him to Brookhaven. Along the way, James recalls several memories where he witnessed Mary's involvement with a cult operating in Silent Hill, one founded by her father. After seeing her being drugged and taking part in an arcane ritual, he and Mary broke up, abandoning her in Silent Hill.

Shortly after arriving at the hospital, Maria discovers an audio tape explaining that Mary was poisoned and left with permanent injuries. The hospital transforms into a nightmarish version of itself and Maria is stabbed by a grotesque nurse mid-escape. James momentarily leaves her and is lured into a room by Laura where he encounters a giant, monstrous moth-like version of Mary.

James suddenly awakens in Brookhaven where his psychologist explains that Mary died shortly after their breakup, and he has become delusional and obsessed with "saving her". The hospital transforms back into the Otherworld and James is able to deduce that Maria isn't real but actually a doppelgänger of Mary. He finds himself in a gallery made up of dozens of paintings of Mary and declares that he doesn't need Maria anymore. Pyramid Head suddenly appears behind Maria and kills her; James briefly sees a version of himself under Pyramid Head's mask.

James awakens outside of the Lakeview Hotel, which he and Mary used to frequent. Inside, he encounters Laura, who explains that she, Maria and Angela are all figments of James' imagination based on aspects of Mary's personality and life. James also sees a vision of Angela being attacked and enveloped by a ferocious monster resembling Mary's father.

James makes it to the roof of Lakeview Hotel, where he has a final flashback. James recalls that he returned to Silent Hill several months prior to find Mary dying of a prolonged illness caused by the cult drugging her; Mary asked for a mercy killing to end her incurable suffering, and James smothered her to death. The moth-like version of Mary appears before James and he tearfully apologizes to her. It transforms back into Mary's body.

James places Mary's body in his car and drives off a pier in an apparent suicide. He suddenly wakes up in the moment where he and Mary met, and relives their first encounter. However, this time he chooses not to take her back to Silent Hill, instead driving away with her.

Production

Initial plans (2006–2007)

In December 2006, Silent Hill writer/director Christophe Gans announced that Sony had officially ordered another installment in the Silent Hill film series. Gans stated that he would like to return to the franchise, subject to his commitment to Onimusha, and stated that Roger Avary would write the screenplay.[11]

In April 2007, producer Don Carmody said a screenplay was in slow development and suggested that Gans would likely not return as director due to other commitments.[12] In November 2010, Sony Pictures announced that M. J. Bassett would direct from her own screenplay, Samuel Hadida was attached as producer and that filming was expected to begin "this winter". Avary was sentenced to one year in jail for vehicular manslaughter, preventing his involvement.[13][14] The sequel, Silent Hill: Revelation, was released in 2012.[15][16] Gans said that he was supposed to direct Revelation, "but when I realized the producers wanted to make the film a kind of Resident Evil, I refused. I wanted to stay true to my principles."[17]

Revival (2020–2025)

In January 2020, Gans told French magazine Allocine that he was in the process of writing new screenplays based on the Silent Hill and Fatal Frame series by Konami and Koei Tecmo with producer Victor Hadida.[18] He later clarified that the work was not a direct sequel to the 2006–2012 film series and that his sensibilities had evolved since the release of the first film. He also described the series as an anthology similar to The Twilight Zone, a place where any story could be told, and intended to depict a more psychoanalytic side to the town.

Written by Gans, Sandra Vo-Anh, and Will Schneider, Return to Silent Hill adapts of video game Silent Hill 2 (2001), with the intention being to create a "faithful" adaptation of the game.[19] Since the game has multiple possible endings, Gans chose to adapt the lake ending which he found to be the most emotionally resonant.[20] Gans said in September 2022 that he had finished the storyboards and that the film takes inspiration from P.T. (2014), the playable teaser for the cancelled game

Filming

Principal photography took place from April 2023[24] to February 2024.[25] Filming took place in Belgrade[26] and the German cities of Lake Ammer, Munich, Nuremberg, and Penzing.[27][28] The film was shot over a 50-day schedule across 67 sets, on a comparatively modest budget of approximately $23 million, which Gans stated was possible due to an extensive year-long pre-production period dedicated to storyboarding and design work.[2]

According to Gans, every monster was portrayed by a professional dancer in

Music

Akira Yamaoka, who has scored the vast majority of the Silent Hill game series, composed the music.[33] Music from the original game was used as temp music during editing.[34] In a January 2026 interview, Gans said he would have refused to make the film without Yamaoka's involvement.[35]