THE SMELLS OF HORROR: Return To Silent Hill (2026)

Hello out there to those that are out there. Rob here and this is going to be quite the ride. 

First, let me start by introducing myself. 

I used to run a conglomeration of podcasts and shows under the banner of the 'New Jersey Horror Collective' for a couple years and have helped begin and grow the 'Horror Wars Podcast' from that. 

This year celebrates FIVE YEARS of our show and with that comes many wonderful things. So please, make sure you check us out! We're exclusive to the Screamify app and you can sign up for free to listen to us! 

Now that I've said my hellos I should ask...have you ever wondered what a horror movie smells like? 

The gore. The entrails. The bodies decaying. What does Michael Myers actually smell like? He's been in that house waiting for quite some time in a few of those movies. How can Jason not be smelled as he's right around the corner? He's a literal zombie. None of this makes sense and - luckily for you my fearless readers - it doesn't matter. 

All that matters is the putrid and ferocious smells that will violate the inner sanctum of your nasal cavities once I spin my vile bile into your brain. Join me here to do a dive into the unclean and unkempt realm of...

THE SMELLS OF HORROR!!

For our first foray into this experimental way to do a review, we’re going to discuss ‘Return To Silent Hill’ from 2026. Please be aware that this contains spoilers for the film. If you haven’t seen it yet, please check it out and then come back to read this. 

*SPOILERS FROM THIS POINT ON!*

James Sunderland comes back to Silent Hill after receiving a letter from Mary — the woman he loved, the woman he lost, the woman who should not be writing letters anymore. Right away, the film makes a crucial move: this doesn’t feel like a mystery. It feels like a relapse.

James is already broken before he ever reaches the town — alcoholic, isolated, barely holding himself together in therapy sessions that feel more like someone documenting a slow collapse than preventing one.

So when Silent Hill reappears, it isn’t dramatic. It’s inevitable. And the town itself isn’t just fog and ash. It’s dry, chemical, powdered — the kind of air that coats your throat and makes breathing feel like work.

Silent Hill doesn’t greet you with horror. It greets you with decay that’s been waiting. Every character carries a different kind of rot. Angela, Eddie, Laura — they don’t just function as side characters.

They feel like emotional scent trails. Angela carries the cold, metallic sting of long-term pain. Eddie feels damp, defensive, sour — panic that never dries. Laura smells clean. Normal. Almost untouched (which is terrifying in a place built from suffering).

This is where the film quietly tells you the truth. Silent Hill isn’t full of people. It’s full of pieces. Fragments of guilt. Memory. Denial. All orbiting James. When Pyramid Head appears, the film avoids cheap shock value and leans into something heavier.

He doesn’t feel like a creature. He feels like a verdict. Hot metal. Oil. Blood that won’t rinse out. The sensory language around him is punishment, not violence. And the closer he gets, the clearer the message becomes…James isn’t being chased by a monster, he’s being chased by what he did.

Maria is where the movie turns cruel. Maria looks like Mary. Sounds like Mary. Feels like the past trying to rewrite itself. But something is off. Where Mary feels human and warm, Maria feels manufactured — too sweet, too perfect, like perfume covering something spoiled underneath.

That difference matters.

Because ‘Return To Silent Hill’ isn’t about wanting someone back; it’s about wanting to go back to the version of yourself that existed before everything broke. Maria offers that illusion. And Silent Hill is the kind of place that lets illusions live just long enough to hurt more when they die.

Brookhaven Hospital is where denial collapses. Hospitals always pretend to be sterile. Brookhaven barely keeps up the lie. Bleach over sickness. Plastic over fear. Order stretched thin across something dying underneath. When the truth about Mary surfaces — poisoned, suffering, fading long before James left — the movie’s emotional center shifts from mystery to confession.

Once the nightmare version of Brookhaven takes over, escape stops being the goal; recognition does, because James is running out of ways to lie to himself. The real horror isn’t the monsters, it’s mercy. The final revelation lands exactly where it should.

Mary was dying.

The suffering was slow.

And James ended it.

A mercy killing.

It’s one of the rare horror twists that doesn’t feel shocking — just heavy. The kind of truth that settles in your chest instead of exploding on screen. From that moment on, everything in ‘Return To Silent Hill’ stops feeling supernatural. It feels personal, an ending that smells like a second chance or a lie.

James drives Mary’s body into the water. A full stop. Guilt completed. Then the film loops back to their first meeting — and this time, he makes a different choice. He drives away from Silent Hill. Is it redemption? Fantasy? A dying thought in the final seconds before impact?

The film doesn’t answer, and that restraint is exactly what makes it work. ‘Return to Silent Hill’ understands something most horror movies forget: closure isn’t scary, uncertainty is.

‘Return To Silent Hill’ isn’t interested in jump scares or spectacle. It’s a slow, suffocating descent into guilt, memory, and the way love can rot when it’s trapped in the past. More than anything, it’s a film about how the senses betray us — how a smell can pull you backward, how memory can rewrite reality, how forgiveness is sometimes the one thing you can’t reach.

You don’t just watch this movie. You sit in it. You breathe it.

And long after it ends you swear you can still smell Silent Hill on your clothes. With that being said, this isn’t the most faithful adaptation of the video game and it seems to be catching a lot of slack because of it. 

This film is flawed. Very flawed. But the funny thing is, I’ve seen it twice in theaters and I really can’t wait to watch it at home. I don’t know what that says about me or the movie, but I know I liked it for finally getting at least the bulk of a story I love so much out there to even more people. 

If you’re a fan of the video game ‘Silent Hill 2’, try to remember that it’s a ten-to-twelve-hour game and they tried to shove all of that into a less than two-hour film. Give it a shot if you find it on sale or streaming. 

Rating: C

Review by: Rob Woodward Jr