Return to Silent Hill

Among the more well-known film adaptations of video games, Silent Hill (2006), directed by Christophe Gans, is one of the more divisive ones. Critics at the time didn’t like that much, though fans and general audiences have had a more mixed response. When I saw it for myself at the time that I had immersed myself in the Silent Hill franchise, I did find some genuine criticisms, but otherwise found it one of the better adaptations, especially for its time. Although Silent Hill would stay on the small screen after the disastrous Silent Hill: Revelation (2012) (Revelation), directed by M. J. Bassett, the surprise announcement of a full Silent Hill revival in 2022 included another film, an adaptation of Silent Hill 2 (SH2) titled Return to Silent Hill (Return), with Christophe Gans returning to the director’s chair. In fact, this project acted as the catalyst internally for the series revival, as Konami thought that a film project alone wouldn’t satisfy fans. Now, over three years later, Silent Hill has finally returned to the big screen and, as someone who loved both the original SH2 and the remake, I went in to this one cautiously optimistic. However, while Return did meet my expectations, at least improving over Revelation, it unfortunately fell short where it mattered most.

Five Nights at Freddy's 2 (Film)

When the first Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) film finally came out in 2023 and proved itself a runaway success, making back over ten times its $20 million budget, a sequel, Five Nights at Freddy’s 2 (FNAF2), based on the game of the same name, was inevitable. As a fan, I was hyped enough for the film that I attended the Hall H panel at San Diego Comic-Con, where the cast and crew discussed the experience working on the film and they had announced a Scream reunion with Matthew Lillard and Skeet Ulrich appearing in the same film once again (they also gave away pizza boxes lifted straight out of FNAF). As a reviewer, I recognized the flaws in FNAF, even more so on repeated viewings, though there were assurances that the production crew had listened to feedback and incorporated the criticisms into the sequel, which had a much smoother production. While FNAF2 did leave me curious about the future of the series, I can’t deny that it was overall a step down from the original.

Stubs - Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire

Ghostbusters: Frozen Empire (2024) starring Paul Rudd, Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Kumail Nanjiani, Patton Oswalt, Celeste O'Connor, Logan Kim, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson. Directed by Gil Kenan. Screenplay by Gil Kenan and Jason Reitman. Based on based on the 1984 film Ghostbusters by Ivan Reitman, and on the 1984 film Ghostbusters written by Dan Aykroyd and Harold Ramis. Produced by Ivan Reitman, Jason Reitman, Jason Blumenfeld. Run time: 115 minutes. Color. USA Supernatural, Comedy

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) was a re-awakening of a franchise which had been dormant for more than 30 years. (I am purposely not counting the 2016 gender-bending remake/reboot since that is not part of this continuity.) The ending of the 2021 film, and by that, I mean the after-credits scene, pointed to bringing the story back to New York, which is where the new film comes in.

Rohan at the Louvre

Even if you’ve never heard of mangaka Hirohiko Araki, chances are you’ve at least heard of his best-known and longest-running work, JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, a multigenerational epic about the Joestar family and their battle against evil (currently at Part 9 in Japan as of this writing). Following the publication of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure Part 4: Diamond is Unbreakable, Araki made the one-shot “At a Confessional,” the first in what would become a series of one-shots in the spin-off series Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan (TSKR), centered around the character Rohan Kishibe from Diamond is Unbreakable. During the run of the Diamond is Unbreakable anime, a handful of these one-shots were adapted into a series of OVAs, later followed by an unrelated live-action drama adaptation with the same name that currently runs at 3 Seasons. When I first heard about the drama series, I assumed it would remain exclusive to Japan, which I also assumed of the related live-action film, Rohan at the Louvre (JP: Rohan au Louvre, Kishibe Rohan Rūvuru e Iku), itself based on the similarly-named one-shot, when it was first announced. Once I heard that Amazon would bring the film overseas via Prime Video, I also learned that the drama was also available on the same platform, sub-only and free for Prime members, so I finally got to watch the drama in preparation for watching the film.

As someone who has read the Thus Spoke Kishibe Rohan one-shots currently available in English, after watching the drama and seeing some of the liberties taken with it to form a more cohesive narrative across each Season, as well as to wholly disconnect it from the original context of Diamond is Unbreakable to make it more accessible to those unfamiliar with JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure, I would say that they did a fantastic job in this regard and that it’s the perfect way for someone to dip their toe in the world of JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure without having to commit to starting from Phantom Blood. As someone who has also read the English translation of the Rohan at the Louvre one-shot, I felt it worked as both a faithful adaptation of the source material and an enjoyable movie in its own right.

Five Nights at Freddy's (Film)

Back in 2014, the original Five Nights at Freddy’s (FNAF) caught the internet by storm and, within a year, became a series that exploded in popularity as fans obsessively dissected the ever-expanding lore. In April 2015, this popularity led to the announcement of a film adaptation from Warner Bros. While the franchise continued its reign as a cultural juggernaut, however, the film itself had unfortunately entered a development hell that saw a change in studios, from Warner Bros. to Blumhouse Productions, multiple director changes, from Gil Kenan to Chris Columbus to Emma Tammi, and several scrapped scripts (some fans have suspected that Warner Bros. retooled one of these scripts into The Banana Splits Movie, which, if true, wouldn’t surprise us). Only in 2023 did the film finally enter production, as series creator Scott Cawthon, who had a very hands-on role from the beginning, had finally approved a script he loved.

As a fan of the series (even if I had only watched Markiplier play the games until I played Security Breach and its DLC for myself), I had experienced the emotional highs and lows from following the production for years, ending with excitement as news from the final production slowly trickled in. With final details of the story mostly shrouded in mystery until the official trailers rolled in, I had no idea what to expect, but still remained optimistic and got tickets for a screening on opening day, where I watched with someone who didn’t know anything about the games or expanded universe. As a fan, I can happily say that while the final film likely won’t go down as a classic of the genre, it’s a very enjoyable love letter to the series and its fandom that even newcomers (who the marketing doesn’t do much to entice) can still get into.

Hocus Pocus 2

While certainly not the longest gap between sequels, twenty-nine years is still a pretty long wait for a sequel to Disney’s Hocus Pocus from 1993. At the time we finally saw the original, we found it entertaining and could see why it developed a cult following, but didn’t find it enough to go into our regular Halloween rotation. Come the release of Hocus Pocus 2 and although we were on the fence about watching it, we thought we might as well see how well the second appearance of the Sanderson sisters stacks up to the first. The good news is that it does a great job at emulating the tone and feel of the original film, but the bad news is that not everything lands.

Stubs - Ghostbusters: Afterlife

Ghostbusters: Afterlife (2021) Starring Carrie Coon, Finn Wolfhard, Mckenna Grace, Logan Kim, Paul Rudd, Annie Potts, Bill Murray, Dan Aykroyd, Ernie Hudson. Directed by Jason Reitman. Screenplay by Gil Kenan, Jason Reitman Based on Ghostbusters by Dan Aykroyd, Harold Ramis. Produced by Ivan Reitman. Run time: 124 minutes. Color. USA. Supernatural Comedy

When Ghostbusters was released in 1984, it was a huge success. With a budget of around $30 million, the film would earn $282.2 million during its initial theatrical run, making it the second-highest-grossing film of 1984 in the United States and Canada, and the then-highest-grossing comedy ever, and making its theme song, "Ghostbusters" by Ray Parker Jr., a number-one hit. Its success would lead to the popular animated television series The Real Ghostbusters (1986), its sequel Extreme Ghostbusters (1997), video games, board games, comic books, clothing, music, and haunted attractions. It would also naturally spawn a sequel film, Ghostbusters II (1989), which wasn’t as successful either financially or critically.

Of course, this being Hollywood, and there is nothing more tempting than an old IP, there was a reboot Ghostbusters (2016), that switched out the male roles for female leads and really didn’t advance the franchise forward.

In some ways, the original film didn’t have a proper sequel until Ghostbusters: Afterlife was released in November 2021. Being a theatrical release, the film was not one that we at Trophy Unlocked were willing to risk seeing. But now that it has been released for home video, we were anxious to see the film.