Return to Silent Hill
2026.
Supernatural psychological horror film written and directed by Christophe Gans, based on the 2001 video game Silent Hill 2. Produced by Davis Films production company and The Electric Shadow Company. Service Production Company – WIP – Work In Progress Production.
Production designers Jovana Mihajlovic and Mina Buric.
As a result of working on this one of a kind project 67 custom-built sets brought to life for filming during 2023. Most of the sets were created on stage, but filming this movie also included various locations adaptations, existing city street backlot transformation into Silent Hill exterior with many new elements added to follow the story, and filming in virtual production studio.
official trailer
Restroom:
Int hospital – various sets:
Int apartments and building corridors:
Ext city streets:
Ext maze:
Int / ext hotel:
Int bar:
About the project:
Working on “Return to Silent Hill” movie was for sure one of a kind experience for Mina and me. Video game adaptations are very interesting and challenging at the same time – there is original source material, but translating the game into a movie always take a different shape.
Of course everybody knew about the “Silent Hill” video game and there were several fans of the game in the art department. So there were questions about what the end would be, or what ending we would get this time. And our director, Christophe Guns, actually kept us in suspense for a while.
We had 2 main focuses and assignments – how to present and create the dark/rusted world and how to bring James artwork to life.
Dark world is changing through the story – rust and the nightmarish effects are growing and end up in complete darkness on the screen and in James’s mind. We all loved the idea how the darkness and rusted world were supposed to be developed, and from the art department view, that was the most interesting thing. Going through the movie the walls, spaces were becoming almost alive and how the time passes more grotesque. Head of scenic was Marko Orsulic, and together we had many tests, samples, weeks of preparation, many changes of techniques, colours, textures… We had a really big team of scenic artists and painters working on this project.
Similar thing is happening with his paintings. Marija Mandic is the artist that worked on paintings, and no – the paintings in the apartment are not the same as in the gallery, since his psyches in these moments was not the same. We had several phases of his work, each more deviant than previous.
We can see through both of these elements how we are closer to the “end of the game” or in our case – the movie.
Of course, there were several things so recognisable from the game that we couldn’t (and should not) change. Silent Hill sign (entrance to Silent Hill) gas station and the toilet in the gas station were our game matching sets, so we tried to honour Konami artists as much as we possibly could.
JM 