Silent Hill's presence in mainstream pop culture begins and ends with the 2006 film. That's why people recognize Alessa, Pyramid Head, Centralia, Pennsylvania, nurses, and "Welcome to Silent Hill". There's a reason nobody outside gaming circles knows who Lisa is, or Maria, or any character who didn't appear in that film. If you're lucky they might recognize Cheryl because she was in the terrible 2012 sequel that Konami and the director of the first movie both despise. Incidentally, Konami really love the 2006 film. They were initially going to shelve the franchise in the mid-2000s, but then the movie came out and changed everything.

It sorta feels like the fanbase of the Silent Hill games has always had an inflated sense of self-importance. They refuse to accept that an adaptation they don't like is capable of displacing the source material. But that happens all the time. There are so many movies based on books and comics and stuff where the mainstream audience knows the movie, they don't know the book. Or if they know the book, they don't care about the book.

If Return to Silent Hill is a success it is going to obliterate what little mainstream recognition that Silent Hill 2 has. There's rumours that Angela has a different name in the film. If so, that will be the name everyone knows the character by. Even if it's not a huge box office hit, it's still going to annihilate Silent Hill 2 in terms of cultural penetration, and further reinforce the first movie's status.