Return to Silent Hill

Were you silent? Or were you silenced?

written by

RED

Let me start by saying this wasn’t scary in the way it was marketed to be. If anything, it leans more into heartbreak than horror. At its core, it’s about what trauma and loss can do to a relationship. It plays more like a tragic romance than a straight-up horror film—but then again, a love story can also be a ghost story. That said, it’s hard to ignore how rough some of the technical aspects are. The CGI is noticeably obvious, and the budget limitations really show, which takes you out of the experience. It has a solid premise, but it doesn’t offer anything new when it comes to exploring grief and longing, so the story ends up feeling repetitive and, at times, a bit dull as it goes on. It uses the Silent Hill setting more as a backdrop than something that actually deepens the narrative. Props to Jeremy Irvine for carrying a lot of the film on his back. If it weren’t for him, this probably would’ve fallen apart completely.