It’s reasonable to say that the Resident Evil fandom has some slight reservations when it comes to live-action films, because for many fans, when the teaser for Zach Cregger’s upcoming film dropped, the instinctual reaction was to worry. And when fans were met with a new character telling a new, original story, too many of us got flashbacks to Alice, Resident Evil’s original Mary Sue, brought to us by Paul W.S. Anderson.

The only difference, at least so far, is that at least Cregger’s movie looks freaky. It will, at the very least, be a solid horror movie, but most of us are worried about whether it will be a good Resident Evil movie, which is far more important of a concern; Cregger is definitely taking a gamble by avoiding any legacy characters or storylines.

Yet, as the Resident Evil fandom bites their nails at a live-action adaptation (again), I can’t help but remember the Silent Hill fandom right around the time Return to Silent Hill released. The movie was a mess and a mockery of Silent Hill 2; many fans (including myself) wondered why Christophe Gans didn’t just create a completely original story instead — the complete opposite of the Resident Evil fans — because it would have likely landed much better than a butchered adaptation.

In fact, the more I thought about it, the more I’m convinced: if someone were to create a Silent Hill movie with a story entirely from scratch, it could quite possibly be the greatest video game adaptation there is. After all, the Silent Hill games were made to compete with Resident Evil, so it wouldn’t be a bad idea to take a page from their book (or in this case, script).

Zach Cregger’s New Film is … Interesting Looking

Let’s Just Hope this Isn’t the Alice Effect

Upon watching the teaser for Zach Cregger’s 2026 Resident Evil film, it feels like the only thing he pulled from the games was its name and the creepy vibes of the classics in Raccoon City. The apocalypse is not even taking place in 1998, opting to be set in modern day instead.

It’s not even taking an approach similar to the RE CGI films (which are original stories using legacy characters); literally everything is brand new, built from the ground up to be Cregger’s very own perfect fanfiction. Now, the real question is: will it be good fanfiction?

The Resident Evil fandom has seen what happens first-hand when a director decides to add in their own characters into an original story; many are concerned that the only difference between this new character, Bryan (played by Austin Abrams), and Alice in the Anderson films is the fact that Abrams isn’t Cregger’s wife. Of course, the movie isn’t out yet to tell, but what little we do see is already a very clear self-insert, which is more than enough to build worry instead of hype.

Fans are worried that all live-action Resident Evil adaptations are cursed to be burning garbage, and it’s entirely because some directors are allergic to familiarity. The movies don’t have to be complete, 1-to-1 adaptations of a game — Cregger was right that those stories were done to death — so long as the story is authentic to the source material. However, not even having a single character we know involved in the project tells us that the source material is being tossed away in favor of the director’s visions, and that’s what’s sparking skepticism.

Looking at other successful video game adaptations, such as Arcane, Super Mario Bros., and even Sonic the Hedgehog, there’s a pattern: they also tell their own stories, but they use familiar characters and are authentic to those characters. For many video games, being authentic to a character is being authentic to the game itself, and Resident Evil is no exception to that.

And while Silent Hill is all about its characters, none of the games are connected (other than 1 and 3 … and Origins if you want to be technical about it), meaning that each game follows a new character with a new story — and that makes room for the perfect, completely original adaptation.

The Silent Hill Movies Should Learn a Thing or Two

The Hell Faced is Personal, not a Virus

Silent Hill 2 started the trend that the franchise proceeded to follow religiously: each game being a psychological deep dive into a character’s worst aspects, exploiting fears based on their very insecurities. In Silent Hill 2, it follows James Sunderland and the guilt he’s tormented with after murdering his sick wife. In Silent Hill 4, you play as Henry Townsend, trapped in a nightmare of Walter Sullivan, a serial killer’s making. And most recently, Silent Hill f follows Shimizu Hinako and her inner turmoil before being married.

Each and every single story is distinct, unique to a character in some way or another, telling something that is both deeply personal and relatable. While some games tell those stories in a more poignant way than others, Silent Hill stories have always been about a character’s mental anguish.

Side note, this makes me all the more excited to see what Simon Ordell’s personal hell is about in Silent Hill: Townfall.

Regardless, those personal stories leave more room for originality, as movie makers can create an entirely unique story from the ground up without any issue. For movies, the flexibility is there, and it’s surprising that nobody has really pounced on that opportunity yet.

Not to mention, movie adaptations already have a challenge they have to overcome: video games, naturally, are interactive, and movies take away that interaction, removing a ton of crucial metaphors for while you’re playing through the game. As players can’t explore every nook and cranny to discover someone’s secrets, movies have to maintain that curiosity in their own ways, which would be nearly impossible to do when there is a game counterpart that will always do it better.

Movies built from the ground up, on the other hand, have a lot more freedom to showcase all those same metaphors with a story that fits within a time restraint. The symbolism that the series is known for can properly be executed without having to try and shoe-horn in aspects that just don’t belong, it would just be for a different medium.

In fact, similar movies have been done before, and have even served as inspiration for Silent Hill in some ways, proving that this can be done more than effectively: Jacob’s Ladder. This isn’t even mentioning modern horror movies that know how to manage this kind of symbolic horror, like anything released by Jordan Peele (imagine if Peele wrote a Silent Hill movie; that’s something that would just be masterfully done).

And considering how positively Silent Hill fans react to the series’ original stories, it would only end well if the same was done for a movie, too.

The Fans React Well to Authentic Originality

Silent Hill Can Even Go in the CGI Movie Direction

If Silent Hill f and its massive success has proven anything, it’s that Silent Hill fans actually enjoy the originality and newness that comes with these new entries, because they don’t have to be authentic to anyone in particular. In fact, the only authenticity that people care about with Silent Hill, is if the game is authentic to the Silent Hill Phenomenon itself (which, series producer Motoi Okamoto even confirmed in an interview with Famitsu that Silent Hill is a state of mind, not just a place).

And considering that Silent Hill is a phenomenon, the characters suffering from this phenomenon can be literally anywhere, doing literally anything, under any circumstances — with or without the White Claudia. It sets the foundation for a garden that every single story will grow from, and it’s better if the movies added to that garden bloom in their own way rather than trying to pluck an already-existing flower to claim as their own.

The Silent Hill movies can even go the CGI route like the (good) Resident Evil movies did, telling an original story without the constraint of a whole set, only limited by what a computer’s hardware is capable of. Animation always brings out more creative horrors anyway.

So long as the stories the movies tell are authentic to Silent Hill through its very own phenomena, the possibilities are endless (and better than anything that already exists). We just hope that one day, someone will notice those possibilities and take full advantage of the blank canvas they can work with.

Release Date

September 18, 2026

Director

Zach Cregger

Writers

Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger