Return To Silent Hill Reviews Call Movie ‘Frustrating’ and ‘Ugly’

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With so many remakes and reboots being made, the Silent Hill series keeps getting revisited—and often disappoints. Hollywood frequently tries to turn video games into movies, hoping for success, but these adaptations often receive negative reviews, with critics lamenting another failed attempt to capture the game’s essence.

In his review for The Seattle Times, Dominic Baez compares watching the film Return to Silent Hill to seeing the original Silent Hill 2 game reflected in a shattered mirror. While all the key parts are present, the movie feels fragmented and strangely unfamiliar. Baez notes this makes Return to Silent Hill feel more like a re-telling of the story than a true adaptation, and describes the experience as both frustrating and captivating.

Film critic Ross Bonamine strongly disapproves of the new Return to Silent Hill movie. He argues that it’s a poor adaptation of the classic Silent Hill 2, turning a compelling horror story into something unintentionally comical. Bonamine believes the film attempts to be both scary and thought-provoking, but fails to succeed at either.

GamesRadar+ wasn’t impressed with Return to Silent Hill, calling it neither a good adaptation of the game nor a strong film on its own. In a review giving the film just one and a half stars, Ashley Bardhan described it as needlessly disturbing, comparing it to ‘salting soup with blood’.

Return to Silent Hill Should Be The Last Return To Silent Hill Movies For Good

Most critics agree that Return to Silent Hill, like many horror video game movies, has a great idea but doesn’t quite deliver. It’s not the only one – films like Resident Evil have also been criticized despite being popular with fans. This pattern of interesting concepts failing in execution seems to be common for these types of adaptations.

I was really hoping for something special with this movie, especially since it’s based on one of my all-time favorite games and comes from the director who did such a great job bringing the game’s world to life on screen before. Sadly, I have to agree with Kyle Logan from ScreenAnarchy – it’s just… not a good movie. It’s a real disappointment.

In a review for Slant Magazine, Justin Clark strongly criticizes the new Silent Hill movie, Return to Silent Hill, finding it deeply flawed. He argues that even without the comparison to the video game, the film’s visual effects are shockingly bad – some of the worst he’s seen in recent cinema. Clark contrasts it unfavorably with the first Silent Hill film and Silent Hill: Revelation, suggesting Return to Silent Hill feels more akin to the notoriously low-budget film Birdemic: Shock and Terror than a proper sequel.

The movie Return to Silent Hill serves as a warning to film studios eager to adapt successful video games. It demonstrates that simply having a popular source material doesn’t guarantee a good movie, and critics are quick to point out when a film fails to capture what made the original game so appealing.

Return to Silent Hill opens in theaters on Jan. 23.

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2026-01-21 21:08