Visionary Director Christophe Gans on His ‘Return to Silent Hill’ [Interview]
It has been nearly two decades since Christophe Gans first drove audiences into the foggy side streets of gaming’s most infamous ghost town. While his 2006 adaptation of Silent Hill remains a gold standard for atmospheric game-to-film adaptations, fans have long wondered why the director never returned to tackle the franchise’s most emotional chapter: Silent Hill 2.
Now, with Return to Silent Hill finally here, Gans is stepping back into the existential darkness we know and love. I sat down with the filmmaker to discuss the twenty-year journey of bringing James Sunderland’s grief to the big screen, the “romantic” nature of existential horror, and why he chose to hide tributes to P.T. and Jacob’s Ladder within the film.
Dread Central: With Return to Silent Hill you’re at last adapting Silent Hill 2 — why did it take 20 years?
Christophe Gans: I planned to adapt Silent Hill 2 originally in 2006. It was the game I wanted to adapt. But after some reflection, we realized with my producer that it would have been maybe too difficult to do this film at that time. Back in 2006, horror films were all about jump scares, you know. Yet Silent Hill was a very different proposition. It was about this town changing, existing in another dimension where you can be trapped.
But I kept in mind the fact of adapting Silent Hill 2. Then, after the success of the first film, they wanted to make a follow-up to the first. And I did not agree with where they wanted to go. They wanted to create something like a franchise like Resident Evil. They were talking a lot about Resident Evil because they were also co-producers on it. They wanted to say, “Okay, that’s going to be the next Resident Evil.”
And I said, no … the fans of Resident Evil are not the same as the fans of Silent Hill. I’m a big fan of Resident Evil, by the way. I love the games. But it’s more about action, I think.
Silent Hill is much more about people who enjoy horror as a romantic feeling.
DC: Do you find that making existential horror for an American audience is tricky?
CG: I would say that in recent years, we have seen plenty of very intelligent directors pushing horror films toward new ground of modernity and sophistication. Midsommar, It Follows… and more recently Bring Her Back. Directors are trying to push horror on a much more sophisticated level. And for me, it was time to do a new Silent Hill that goes deeper into the metaphysical aspect of the game, and not just the surface. I would say the first film was like an opera, an operatic adaptation of the game.
But for Mary, I wanted somebody with what we call a Nordic beauty, a perfect symmetry of face, like the face we find in the game. For me, Anna was perfect. She has that perfection, and she looks like a game character.
DC: Have you played Silent Hill f?
CG: Not yet. Not yet, because I’m completely… you know, when I was doing the film, I had no clue what the Bloober team was doing right now. The only thing I saw during the shooting was the trailer of the remake of 2.
And I took the shot where you see the feet of James entering into the restroom, with a little cross crossing the frame just to say hello to that other crew I didn’t know, working on the same material. But I had no clue what they were doing. So I did my version, just according to the original game. And they did a great work.
DC: Now, are you talking about the poster where you see the eye peeking through the skin — like a skin sheet? It’s scary.
CG: Yeah actually, in my mind, that shot is in the film. It’s a homage to Silent Hills P.T. You remember the famous unfinished game by Del Toro and Kojima? In that corridor, there is a crack in the wall, and you have to look into that crack — and we see something like a bathroom. That’s actually my homage to Silent Hills P.T.
DC: Fans are still so heartbroken about P.T.
CG: I kept it. I have it on my PS4. It’s there.
DC: Did you ever get to talk to anybody involved — Del Toro, Kojima — to learn what happened?
CG: No. But I know something happened between Kojima and Konami.
I’m a big fan of Kojima. I was very happy when he showed himself going to a shop in Japan to buy the new 4K restoration of Brotherhood of the Wolf. He was posing with my film.
That’s all these little signs we send to each other. We all belong to the same pop culture. I love seeing amazing creators I admire sending me some signal. And if I can do the same thing in my film, I say okay.
So yes, the shot of the eye through the crack is a P.T. homage.
DC: Do you have any No Exit horror inspirations for your Silent Hill films?
CG: Obviously, we were talking about Jacob’s Ladder and The Tenant by Polanski. Those are no-exit movies, but the people are in their mind.
And if you look carefully at the marquees of the big theater James is crossing into, you will see the midnight double bill: Jacob’s Ladder and The Tenant.
These two films were seminal for the people who did Silent Hill. They were quoted in the game. They are very unique films … very existentialist.
I took a lot from Polanski. And of course I watched again Jacob’s Ladder, because Jacob’s Ladder tells the same story as Silent Hill 2. Everything happens in the last glimpse of consciousness. The hero never comes back to New York. He never had that adventure with demons and conspiracy. You think about that when he’s laying in Vietnam, almost dead.
And that’s interesting, because that’s more or less what happens in Silent Hill. I was thinking a lot about the timeline in Silent Hill 2: when exactly does he receive the letter from Mary? The timeline is foggy. He erased all his memory, and now the letter is new.
I took care in the film to keep this ambiguity all the time and not confuse the audience. That was the most work I had to do with my editor — to play on ambiguity and not confuse the audience.
DC: Could you see yourself continuing in this world?
CG: You mean if I would like to go back again? Yeah. I’m a fan of Silent Hill, and I hope my films help the recognition of Silent Hill.
When we went back to Konami before doing the new one, we had a meeting. Konami showed us a document about where the popularity of Silent Hill comes from, depending on the zone in the world. In Japan and South Asia, it was coming from the game. But in America, it was coming from the films.
And I was very proud.
DC: If you were to make another film, what game would you want to adapt next? If this was Silent Hill 2, and you’ve done Silent Hill 1 — would it be Silent Hill 3? What would you want to adapt?
CG: The Room, for… I love The Room. That’s a no-exit horror. I think it’s a great game.
But I have to replay them. They are on my table here. I didn’t play these two games since a long time. But I kept a strong impression of these two games.