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Director Christophe Gans helmed the first “Silent Hill” film adaptation back in 2006, a moody and gory film mostly dismissed at the time. Over the years, it has risen in many people’s estimation as one of the best game-to-screen adaptations (certainly far above its odious 2012 sequel, “Silent Hill: Revelation 3D”).
This past week saw the release of “Return To Silent Hill,” a film that opted to adapt the most acclaimed entry in the gaming franchise and a title considered one of the greatest in gaming – 2001’s “Silent Hill 2”.
The richly themed psychosexual thriller game received an extremely well-reviewed remake in 2024, bringing the title back into public consciousness. Hopes were high that Gans could strike lightning twice.
The results have been disastrous, reviews widely slamming the film and even fans discussing how the movie is a very loyal adaptation about 75% of the time, but that remaining 25% makes drastic changes that seem to completely lack an understanding of what made the original game great.
Budgeted at a very tight $23 million, the film took in just $3.2 million at the U.S. box-office this weekend – a number that would seem disastrous. However, overseas appears to have come to the film’s rescue according to Koimoi.
In international markets, the film is performing better than the Chris Pratt-led “Mercy”. The horror film has pulled in $16 million across 37 international markets, and that’s with relatively limited sessions available. $9.5 million of that came from China alone, which helped bring its worldwide debut up to $19.3 million – meaning the title may not lose much money.
In a recent interview with Variety, Gans revealed that despite the budget the film was able to be completed with 50 days of shooting, 67 sets and was able to come in cheap thanks to lengthy pre-production that saw him designing and storyboarding everything out over the course of a full year.
He added that he faced difficulty from people who are not players to “understand why some elements were so important. Sometimes I had to fight because the fans would be pleased.”
“Return to Silent Hill” is in select cinemas now.
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