Any obsessive survival horror gamer will be the first to spill about the iconic excellence of 2001’s Silent Hill 2. The franchise at large may have started in the shadow of Resident Evil, but through the foggy mysteries of its small town and the freakiness of its monsters, a human element peaked through to give Silent Hill a unique identity. The two films based on the series are arguably pretty opposite in quality—many people, myself include, count 2006’s Silent Hill as a gold standard of the video game adaptation. Thusly, Return to Silent Hill arrives with some lofty expectations. Writer/director Christophe Gans should not be too worried. His devotion to the brand means he has lived in Silent Hill longer than most of its disturbed characters.
Gans has spent two decades crafting a love letter to the uncontested fan favorite in Silent Hill 2. Earlier this week, I got the chance to have a quick chat with Gans about more directly retelling the game counterpart, recalibrating Pyramid Head, and even briefly about his upcoming take on Fatal Frame!
My exclusive interview with passionate French director Christophe Gans can be found after the jump.
Thanks for taking the time to chat with me today about Return to Silent Hill. I just wanted to start by saying that I really loved what you did with 2006’s Silent Hill. I felt you really captured the atmosphere of the games. For this sequel, it’s probably the closest we’ve gotten to a narrative that’s pulled directly from the source. What was more important to you: honoring the game’s psychology, or directly retelling the events of the game?
CHRISTOPHE GANS: You know, both, I would say. That was part of my challenge. I knew from the beginning that Silent Hill 2 is considered a masterpiece. It’s not just one game of the famous franchise. This one is special. Silent Hill 2 is special because people have been blown away by that weird love story, by the narrative, by the characters, by characters like Angela and Laura and Maria. It was different to adapt this one than back in 2006. I have adapted the first game. I felt that I had less liberty to adapt this one. This one had to be adapted as close as possible.
Even something like Pyramid Head… the way he was used in the other two versus how he’s used in this movie is very different. I really respected that.
GANS: We know that as fans, Pyramid Head has nothing to do in the first film. Pyramid Head is, of course, linked to the character of James Sunderland. Some fans were pretty disturbed back in 2006 that Pyramid Head appeared in the first film. For me, Pyramid Head became the icon of the world of Silent Hill. It became almost like a totem. It was difficult for me to not put Pyramid Head in there. It was a nice way to expose the world of Silent Hill to plenty of people who didn’t know this world.
In this film, I’m very happy that now Pyramid Head came back to its original meaning: the fact that it represents the toxic age of James Sunderland. Pyramid Head goes back to its roots. That was important for me.
Pyramid Head is such a distinct piece of Silent Hill iconography. On a similar note, what did you think was the hardest creature or environment to translate from the game to the film?
GANS: Obviously Abstract Daddy! Abstract Daddy was a challenge since the beginning. Some people in the production were pretty disturbed by that creature and what it meant. The fact that the creature represents an incestuous rape. It was difficult. For me, it was one of the most interesting days of shooting, because it was so weird to shoot in that room made of flesh with the big tube crossing the walls. It was so weird. That creature is special. That’s the creature I do prefer in the film.
It’s interesting because when I started in this business, I had as a producer, Brian Yuzna. Brian Yuzna is very well known as the producer of Re-Animator, and the movie by Stuart Gordon. He’s himself a pretty good director. He did Society, for example, which is very interesting. When I was doing Abstract Daddy, I was telling myself, Brian Yuzna is going to love this creature because that’s exactly what he liked in fantasy horror. When the creature becomes really disturbing and very sexualized. I can’t wait to know what [everyone] is going to think about Abstract Daddy.
I think our time is up, so I just wanted to thank you for making such a great video game adaptation, and I can’t wait to see more. Fatal Frame or whatever you end up making next, I’m here for it.
GANS: Fatal Frame actually has a big chance to be my next one. I have started my dialogue with the producer. Of course, we are all waiting for the score of Return to Silent Hill, but they asked me to start to work. We have a script. During the lockdown of the pandemic, I wrote Return to Silent Hill, and I wrote the Fatal Frame adaptation. So the script is there. The script is done.
Before we start the preproduction of a film, I always spend one year to design everything. For all my films, I always did that. I never jumped immediately into the film. I spent one year with the storyboarder and artworkers to define the aesthetic of the film, and to see how we can make something pretty unique. It’s very important for us to work like that.
Thanks again to Christophe Gans for taking the time to talk about his new movie. Listen for the static and flee from the spreading decay of Return to Silent Hill, opening the gates of Toluca Lake and beyond exclusively in theaters on Friday, January 23rd. My full review will be coming soon.
