Just because October is in the rearview doesn’t mean we can’t get another horror film trailer. And as far as Konami is concerned, November is prime Silent Hill time. More specifically, a closer look at the official trailer for director Michael Gans’ upcoming Silent Hill 2 movie, Return to Silent Hill.
Return to Silent Hill sees the original 2006 Silent Hill film director undertake the herculean task of adapting Silent Hill 2 (arguably the best Silent Hill game; argue with a wall). In it, James Sunderland (played by Jeremy Irvine of Warhorse fame) entered the secluded, foggy, eponymous town in search of his wife, Mary (Hannah Emily Anderson). What he gets is horrors as well as a reckoning with his deep-seated transgressions as a so-called wife guy™. Joining Irvine and Anderson in the delightfully macabre horrors are Evie Templeton as Laura, Pearse Egan as Eddie Dombrowski, and Robert Strange as “Red Pyramid” (a.k.a. Pyramid Head).
What we can say positively about the upcoming film, beyond what the trailer has hyped as a must-watch, is that its soundtrack will bang unequivocally. This comes thanks to the return of series composer Akira Yamaoka. In fact, in an exclusive clip from a couple of months back, Gans stressed he wouldn’t have said yes to making the movie had Yamaoka not been involved with scoring it. For folks who don’t know ball when it comes to Silent Hill, that was the most tapped-in thing Gans could’ve said to engender confidence that the director understands how integral the soundtrack is to the games’ DNA—especially Silent Hill 2. With the tidbit of information that Gans used Death Stranding developer Kojima Productions’ Silent Hills PlayStation 4 demo, P.T. (which was swiftly cancelled), as a reference point for Return to Silent Hill, it bodes well for the film living up to everyone’s lofty expectations. Lord knows the wigs on James and Maria aren’t.
In other adjacent Silent Hill news, boy, has this franchise turned the ship around. Since Return to Silent Hill was first announced during Konami’s big Silent Hill showcase livestream back in 2022, the psychological horror series has had more bases loaded and home runs (remembering it could still make games after years of no motion) with games like developer Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 Remake as well as NeoBards Entertainment’s Silent Hill f. The former of which performed so shockingly well that there are now plans for Blooper Team to spin the block and remake the original Silent Hill video game. Likewise, Silent Hill f is getting adapted into a novel, and its lead actress, Konatsu Kato, has become an overnight YouTube sensation, racking up over 1.7 million views in her first-ever livestream playing through Silent Hill f and getting jumpscared at every turn. We are so back, fogposters.
Time will tell whether Gans’ return to making Silent Hill films will similarly bear fruit now that he won’t be lifting parts of 2 like Pyramid Head for referential scares and will now have the giant lummox actually terrorize James on the big screen.
Return to Silent Hill releases in theaters on January 23, 2026.
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