Silent Hill influences and trivia

From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

This article or section may contain original research or unattributed claims. Please help Wikipedia by adding references. See the talk page for details.

The neutrality or factuality of this article or section may be compromised by weasel words. You can help Wikipedia by improving weasel-worded statements.

See also : Themes and Motifs of Silent Hill

The games comprising Konami's critically acclaimed Silent Hill series draw inspiration from a variety of sources, and also feature many in-game references to books, movies, and music.

Contents 1 Influences 1.1 Jacob's Ladder 1.2 David Lynch 1.3 Visual Artists 2 General Trivia 3 Game-specific trivia 3.1 Silent Hill 1 3.2 Silent Hill 2 3.3 Silent Hill 3 3.4 Silent Hill 4 4 References

[edit] Influences

[edit] Jacob's Ladder

The games' developers have acknowledged that they are fans of the film Jacob's Ladder. Aesthetically, the two share an uncertain shifting between layers of the "normal" world and one of stylized filth and slow decay, especially within institutional structures (particularly hospitals and subways); the environments of both feature out-of-place industrial elements such as valves, pipes, and chain-link fencing. Also common between the two are their "monsters", which rely less on typically "monstrous" conventions and more on mutilated humanity, fear of the uncertain, and psychological symbolism. Thematically, both deal with a parallel world inhabited by these monsters, and the relation of this world to the protagonist. In Silent Hill 2, this world serves as a kind of personal purgatory, as in Jacob's Ladder. In Silent Hill 3, Heather encounters a subway platform labeled "Bergen Street", which is a real location featured in Jacob's Ladder, and the two environs look the same.

[edit] David Lynch

The films of David Lynch also influenced Silent Hill, as stated in Konami's promotional book Lost Memories. Both Silent Hill and Lynch's Twin Peaks TV series take place in resort towns, and both feature a number of random, menacingly surreal events. Though the town of Silent Hill is not officially located in California, there is a body of water in the town named "Toluca Lake", named after the real Toluca Lake in Southern California. This serves as a roundabout homage; Lynch is legendary for having eaten lunch at the Bob's Big Boy restaurant located in Toluca Lake on Riverside Drive (just down the road from Warner Bros. Studios and Universal Studios) every day for approximately seven years straight. [1] Silent Hill 2 also uses elements from David Lynch's movies Lost Highway and Blue Velvet. For example: James both meets a woman that looks like his wife and discovers a video tape on which he kills his wife. These events also take place in Lost Highway. Similarly, James' first encounter with the iconic Pyramid Head mirrors a scene in Blue Velvet where the main villain of the film rapes a woman while the protagonist hides in the closet.

[edit] Visual Artists

According to the bonus DVD "The Making of Silent Hill 2", the dirty, hellish locations encountered throughout the Silent Hill series were inspired by the works of artist Francis Bacon. Some of the enemies also bear a striking resemblance to the dolls crafted by Hans Bellmer (see Silent Hill 2).

[edit] General Trivia

• Throughout the series, it becomes clearer that there may be three levels of reality in Silent Hill. The 'top level' is where people live out their lives as normal, bearing hardly any difference to any other town of its kind. The next level could be called 'Foggy' Silent Hill (or the 'Alternate' Silent Hill), where an all-pervading fog obscures visibility to a matter of feet, similar to Stephen King's The Mist (a favorite story of one of the series' developers). Some monsters are apparent at this point, but the town environments are practically unchanged. The third layer down, where the real corruption of the reality lies, can be called 'Otherworld'. This darkness is not just a physical darkness, which is used to put the player on edge, but also corresponds to the kinds of monsters found here. This 'Otherworld' is the rotten core of the town. However, the recent comic book adaptations only have two layers, with Silent Hill being in fact an abandoned and monster-infested ghost town. Paint It Black points out that cable, power, and phones all work within the city limits, and the stores are refreshed with food. In Silent Hill 1, the existence of a fourth level may be discussed, it being the monstrous Nowhere, a place even worse than the Otherworld, and infinitely more dangerous. It is there where Alessa Gillespie tries to seal herself with the sigils of the Olympic Spirits before Harry catches up with her.

• It is possible that people that haven't been "called" to the city, ending within its trappings by mistake, are not subjected to any kind of torture by the dark powers of Silent Hill. However, after given a chance to leave, Silent Hill seems to start attacking these people regardless of their purpose. It also becomes apparent the city has no effect upon innocents-as it draws power from the corruption of souls and uses it as a basis for the nightmares that plague the city.

• Many elements of the series, including out-of-season snowfall (or ashes, as it appears in the film), air raid sirens, power failure, and diseased and disfigured creatures are imagery commonly associated with nuclear apocalypse/winter, especially in genre fiction.

• The 'dark' versions of Silent Hill are a personification of the analytic concept of abjection, a key element in horror genres, as blood, monsters, entrails and rusted metal permeate the scenery.

• In the movie adaptation, the web article about Silent Hill that Christopher DaSilva reads is written by Andy Milburn. Andy Milburn is a member of the musical duo Tomandandy, whom composed the score for The Mothman Prophecies, a psychological horror movie which shares some similarities with Silent Hill.

[edit] Game-specific trivia

[edit] Silent Hill 1

• The names K. Gordon, T. Moore, and L. Renaldo appear on a faculty list at the elementary school; they happen to be the names of three members of the band Sonic Youth. (link)
  

  

  Portishead posters in the diner
• References to the musical group Psychic TV occur in the game; the Order is responsible for the manufacturing and distribution of a drug called PTV. Also there are boxes in the last level that say "Psychick TV" on them.
• The diner in the beginning of the game has posters for the band Portishead on the windows (see image to right). The Portishead song "Sour Times" is strikingly similar to the main Silent Hill 1 theme.
• The Little Shop of Horrors is referenced in the form of a plant shop called "Mushnik's Florist" (the name of the shop from The Little Shop of Horrors). (link)
• The elementary school in Silent Hill is called Midwich Elementary, which is the name of the village in John Wyndham's The Midwich Cuckoos.
• The boss fight with Cybil on the merry-go-round in the Silent Hill Amusement Park could be a reference to one of the final scenes of the Alfred Hitchcock film Strangers on a Train, where characters Guy and Bruno engage in a fist fight on an out of control merry-go-round.
• When using the Channeling Stone in certain areas a UFO appears in the sky at a distance. These UFOs look astonishingly like the ships from the classic video game Space Invaders.
  

  

  Newspapers with "Bill Skins Fifth" as headline.
• The newspaper vending machines on the street have the headline "Bill Skins Fifth" referring to serial killer "Buffalo Bill" from the film The Silence of the Lambs. (see image to left)
• A large logo for Jack Daniel's Whiskey can be found painted on a shutter in the Old Silent Hill district.
• The gas station is called "Hell" instead of Shell, (link) (the 'S' in the title seems to be rubbed out) and its logo is a nautilus shell instead of the scallop shell usually associated with the real gas company. (link)
• The convenience store is called "8", clearly parodying the 7/11 name and logo in color and design. (link)
• The fast food restaurant called "Queen Burger", a spoof of Burger King/Dairy Queen. (link)
• Another restaurant named "Poston Market" decorated with the same red and white striped awning as the real restaurant "Boston Market" (link)
• The store where you find the chainsaw after beating the game once through is "Cut Rite Chainsaws"- the same name of the chainsaw store where Dennis Hopper buys his saw in The Texas Chainsaw Massacre Part 2. (link) (link)
• A logo reading "Vestal Gigastore" can be found painted on a building in the mall where the worm/larva is fought, believed to be a spoof of "Virgin Megastore".
• In K. Gordon's house there is a painting of an owl, a common image used in David Lynch's television series Twin Peaks. (link)
• In the Library Reserve room in Midwitch Elementary there is a movie poster on the wall that seems to read "A Woman Came Down From Planet Vulcan!!!!!!!" This poster is obviously alluding to Star Trek. (link)
• In Central Silent Hill there is an eatery named 'Konami Burger', referring to the publisher of the game. (link)
• In Old Silent Hill there is a store on the edge of a ravine that is called the 'Mark Twain Book & Gift Shop'. (link)
• As an in-joke for horror fans, most of the town's streets in the first game are named after popular science fiction, horror and suspense novelists, such as Ray Bradbury, Ira Levin, Robert Bloch, Dean Koontz, Richard Matheson, James Ellroy, Jack Finney, Michael Crichton, Dan Simmons, Carl Sagan and Richard Bachman (aka Stephen King). (link) (link) Some of these authors may have been inspiration for the game, alluded to by the following points;
• As previously mentioned, Silent Hill resembles the plot of the short story by Stephen King, The Mist. The fog shrouding the town, as well as the presence of unexplained monsters in the fog are two major plot points that the story and game share. In addition to the presence of a thick mist in the town, a scene in the diner is reminiscent of a similar scene from the story where a bird-like creature makes its way into a supermarket where numerous people are hiding;
• The word redrum can be seen written on a door in a street, referring directly to Stephen King's The Shining (link);
• There are a few movie posters for the film Carrie (link) and one for the film Pet Sematary (link) (both based on Stephen King novels) strewn about the shop windows in the game;
• On either side of the pinball machine in the diner there are posters that beckon the viewer to "Study Dammit!" (link) The poster is a reproduction of a newspaper layout that Stephen King made while a student at the University of Maine [2]
• Numerous aspects of the game strongly resemble the happenings from the book Phantoms by Dean Koontz, most notably the distortion coming from the radio, the deep fissures that appear throughout the town, cutting it off from the rest of society and the encountering of a gigantic moth-like creature. Also an air raid siren goes off. Each are very prominent features in Silent Hill, some in the series as a whole;
• Ira Levin, suggested by Levin St., is well known for writing Rosemary's Baby whose theme of demon possession/impregnation is shared with Dahlia's description of her daughter's genesis.
• The name of Finney Street in Old Silent Hill may be referring to Jack Finney, a science-fiction writer who was well known for writing The Body Snatchers, a reference being suggested by the 'possession' that takes place with the nurses and doctors of the Alchemilla Hospital;
• The presence of a street named Ellroy and a character named Dahlia Gillepsie might be a reference to James Ellroy and his novel The Black Dahlia;
• In one of the final scenes of the 'Nowhere' area of the game, Harry enters a hallway with a staircase that is supposed to be from Dahlia's house, but it strongly resembles the house from the film Psycho, by Alfred Hitchcock and its source novel which was written by Robert Bloch, who's name is a street name in the town. Also the motel Dr. Kaufman is found is called the Norman Motel, which is a reference to the Bates Motel from Psycho, run by one Norman Bates.
• In the PAL (UK) version of Silent Hill, KONAMI replaced the enemy 'Mumbler' with 'Claw Finger'. This was Because the UK would not accept Demon Children getting beaten to death so they censored it.^{[citation needed]}
• The game was originally intended to be a two disc game, each disc chronicling the events of the game through a different characters' eyes; similar to Resident Evil 2's game format. The second scenario, apparently detailing Cybil's exploits, was inexplicably cancelled before release.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Silent Hill 2

• The German opera Die tote Stadt very similarly contains a main character who laments after his dead wife, Marie, and encounters someone who looks exactly like her, and with only a slightly different name, Marietta.
• There are also similarities with the tale of Orpheus' journey to the netherworld to retrieve his wife Eurydice and the Japanese tale of Izanagi and Izanami.
• A sign mentioning Historic Route 26 is shown. In the United States, Route 26 is located in the western mountain area of Maine on the New Hampshire border. The scenic byway is unique in that it connects with a New Hampshire Scenic Byway and passes through Grafton Notch State Park.
• One of the end songs in Silent Hill 2, "Angel's Thanatos," is a reference to the Freudian idea of Thanatos. It is the desire to give up life and return to non-existence.
• The appearance of Mary/Maria strongly reflects Freud's notion of The Uncanny, notably demonstrated also by movies such as David Lynch's Lost Highway and Hitchcock's Vertigo.
• One of the recurrent enemies, a mannequin with two sets of legs, is apparently inspired on Hans Bellmer's La Poupée. Taylor, Sue. Hans Bellmer in The Art Institute of Chicago: The Wandering Libido and the Hysterical Body. Retrieved on August 30, 2006.
• When you enter in one apartment you find a dead body watching a TV that is showing static. Using a debug mode, some fans discovered that this body in fact is the same model used for James (image). It has been confirmed that the man in the chair is still in a state of near death when James discovers it, and that a brutal assault by Pyramid Head is the cause of his death. Later in the game, after James watches the videotape in room 312 of the hotel, he sits dumbstruck while the TV screen shows static.

[edit] Silent Hill 3

• A view of a solitary wheelchair is a direct reference to the same reoccurring shot from Session 9.
• The Borley Haunted Mansion in the Lakeside Amusement Park is a reference to Borley Rectory, at one time "the most haunted house in England" until its destruction by fire in 1939.
• At the construction site, there is a wall that can be knocked through. Behind the wall there is a corpse, a reference to the short story "The Black Cat" and also "The Cask of Amontillado" by Edgar Allan Poe. Heather says "It looks like something out of The Black Cat. I shouldn't have watched that movie" if you examine the legs after picking up a gun silencer that's located there.
• The pendant around Heather's neck is similar to one found in the book/film Rosemary's Baby.
• A song in Silent Hill 3 is titled "Sickness Unto Foolish Death." This is a reference to the existential philosopher Søren Kierkegaard's theory on despair, which he detailed in his The Sickness Unto Death, an existential concept to describe the state human beings find themselves in when they have to make choices in a world of uncertainty. This state is described as a "loss of self." Looking at the third installment of the series with this theme in context, it could be seen as Heather's difficult choice of vengeance vs. submission to the Otherworld of Silent Hill, and how she loses her self-awareness in the pursuit of vengeance. [3]
• Both the PS2 and PC version of Silent Hill 3 contain four joke references to Silent Hill 2, the main one being a funny cut scene where Heather gets grossed out and refuses to get something out of a clogged toilet like the one James "experienced" in Silent Hill 2.[4] These scenes are unlockable to those that have a Silent Hill 2 savegame present on their PS2 memory card or in their Savedata folder for the PC version. With the PS2 version one only need have a Silent Hill 2 savegame on their memory card, however, the PC version requires some tinkering with the registry.
• At one point in the game, Heather can throw a filthy pipe into a small pond. Afterward, a woman resembling the Great Fairy from the Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past appears and asks, like in Zelda, whether you threw in a gold pipe or a silver pipe. If you respond truthfully she gives you both upgraded pipes and calls you an "honest man" like in Link to the Past.

[edit] Silent Hill 4

• Arguably the first game in the series since the original in which the monsters are based not on the hero's own fears, guilts, etc., but on another character's. The creatures of the original Silent Hill were based on Alessa's imagination (rather than Harry's), and here the monsters seem to be created by Walter's Sullivan's mind.
• A man named Frank Sunderland is the superintendent of the apartments in the game, and at a certain point in the game Henry comments that Frank's son went missing, an indication as to what happened to James Sunderland at the end of Silent Hill 2.
• The novel House of Leaves and its use of impossible physical spaces have been an influence on the series (especially in Silent Hill 4), with its almost interminable corridors. During one part of the game, Henry walks down an infinite staircase relating to the one within the novel. Henry also puts together a scrapbook of letters of a journalist he learns about, just like Johnny Truant in House of Leaves.
• In the liner notes of the Silent Hill 4 soundtrack, an address is listed for the "Heaven's Night." That address is: 2121 Carroll St., South Vale, ME. James Sunderland briefly visits Heaven's Night in Silent Hill 2 and Heather visits it in Silent Hill 3.
• The apartment setting is influenced by the film Rear Window by Alfred Hitchcock. Just as Jefferies from Rear Window observes his neighbours though his apartment window, Henry from Silent Hill 4: The Room observes his surroundings in a first person view and is able to spy on what his neighbours are doing. Henry is similarly confined to his apartment, just as Jefferies is in the film, although by a physical condition, but rather by a physical obstacle.
• The name of the main character, Townshend, is also a name of the New England town prominently mentioned in the story The Whisperer in the Darkness by H. P. Lovecraft. Townshend is located in Vermont, not very far from Ashfield.
• The name of the character Jasper Gein is a reference to infamous serial killer Ed Gein. An "Eric Gein" is mentioned in the radio quiz show James is subjected to in the hospital in Silent Hill 2.
• Andrew DeSalvo's name is a reference to Albert DeSalvo, known as the Boston Strangler.
• If the player continues to look out of Henry's windows for a long time various strange things are seen. For instance a severed head sometimes slowly falls past the window.
• After an increased use of rock music (including the first use of vocals for the series) in Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill 4 uses much less music than previous entries in the series.
• The machine at the end of the game is exactly the same in design as the engine of the spaceship Event Horizon in the film of the same name.
• The ghost of Cynthia in the game bears a strong resemblance to the ghost seen in the movie Ju-On, as her face is covered with long black hair that she can control, and crawls and slithers along the floor in just about the same fashion. The Ju-On ghost - an onryou - is a traditional Japanese icon.
• In DDR Extreme for the PS2 (or DDR Supernova for the arcade), the song "Your Rain: Rage Mix" is featured, with a video displaying Cynthia in a subway describing her short journey with Henry.

[edit] References

v • d • e Silent Hill video games

Silent Hill • 2 • 3 • 4: The Room • 0rigins • 5 Silent Hill (film) Characters • Creatures • Locations