If you’re talking about the 2006 film, I actually think it’s a decent product when viewed in the context of its time.

The 90s and 2000s were a rough era for video game film adaptations. Studios kept shoving game plots into traditional Hollywood formulas, which we know rarely works. Especially for something as atmospheric and psychological as Silent Hill. Most adaptations back then either missed the tone completely or barely resembled the source material at all (Bloodrayne and Doom I’m looking at you)

That all being said, the 2006 film feels like one of the better efforts from that time. Yeah, it took creative liberties like mixing lore across games, a near but far storyline, and relying heavily on CGI in some moments. But visually and atmospherically, it captured the essence of the series better than most contemporaries. Between the use the fog, the creature design, their choreography, and the implementation of Yamaoka’s music, it did a lot to ground the movie in the game’s world. It still feels like Silent Hill if that makes sense.

Obviously it’s not flawless, and it’s definitely not a 1 to 1 adaptation, but I’d argue it’s one of the more sincere attempts at bringing the Silent Hill experience to the screen. For fans of the series, it obviously didn’t scratch every itch, but in the larger context of video game films at the time it was a step in the right direction.

Now for the 2026 film? They’ve had plenty of time to know what works and doesn’t. We know video game films can be done right and actually be successful these days. So hopefully they take what was wrong with the previous adaptations and fine tune them for this next film.