“Return to Silent Hill” is based on the 2001 video game “Silent Hill 2,” which follows James Sunderland as he searches for his deceased wife, Mary. The movie was released on Jan. 23, and people were not impressed.

On Rotten Tomatoes, the film is sitting at a painful 30% on the Popcornmeter and a mere 18% on the Tomatometer. One reviewer summed the issue up perfectly: “Confusing plot, no suspense, no nothing, and an embarrassment to the Silent Hill 2 game.”

Judging by the reviews, this movie basically spawned from “Silent Hill” and never found the map.

The movie opens with Mary and James meeting in what feels like a deleted “Fast & Furious” scene. James is speeding in his Mustang when he suddenly swerves to avoid a truck full of logs, and somehow runs over Mary’s suitcase, causing her clothes to explode everywhere like a cartoon. This chaos then cuts to Mary missing her bus out of town, or more like waving her bus goodbye.

From the start, the movie felt off. The best way to describe it is cinematically incorrect – it felt like it was written by a TikToker who watched one “Silent Hill” lore video at 2 a.m. and was inspired to become a screenwriter.

The cast is mostly up-and-coming actors, except for Evie Templeton, who plays Laura and is known for her role as Agnes in season 3 of the Netflix Original series, Wednesday.

As the movie goes on, Mary and James’ relationship becomes serious, with James moving to her hometown, Silent Hill – a red flag already, given how fast he uproots his entire life for her.

While living there, James notices the townspeople act really strangely towards Mary. She reveals her father was the town priest, and everyone treats her like family in a definitely not cult-ish way.

Things go fully unhinged when James follows Mary and the townspeople into an underground tunnel, where he watches Mary drink a vile, and the townspeople literally consume her – “casual” date night activities. When Mary later returns to her apartment, James begs her to leave town with him, but she refuses, of course, because nobody ever leaves Silent Hill.

The movie constantly jumps between flashbacks and the present, which is exhausting for viewers. In the present timeline, James is an alcoholic who gets thrown out of the bar. That night, completely drunk, he receives a letter from Mary asking him to return to Silent Hill. Without questioning it, he immediately drives there.

When the road is blocked, he simply falls asleep, wakes up the next morning and casually walks into Silent Hill on foot, like he’s wandered into a haunted escape room. This is where the movie completely abandons logic.

From the perspective of someone who hasn’t played the game, it’s clear that James is deeply unwell. The story frames Silent Hill less as a physical place and more as a psychological one. A manifestation of grief, guilt and self-loathing. The monsters, the town and the constant suffering all feel like extensions of his fractured mental state.

The ending is deliberately vague, likely meant to be symbolic and thought-provoking, but after everything that came before, it mostly feels like the movie is saying, “You figure it out. We’re tired.”

Return to Silent Hill feels like James accidentally spawned into Silent Hill with no tutorial, no objective and every ending selected at once. Fans of the game may recognize the themes, but for everyone else, the movie is confusing, chaotic and more exhausting than scary.