Inspiring many survival horror games such as Fallout (especially Fallout 76 where you can buy already stacked F76 account from Eldorado), Silent Hill is undoubtedly one of the most iconic horror video game franchises of all time. The first installment was created by Keiichiro Toyama and released in 1999 for PlayStation. Since then, the franchise has accumulated twelve installments and several remakes. Like any large game franchise, Silent Hill has inspired many fan theories about the game’s plot and characters. Some of these theories completely change the way many fans see the franchise. Here are some of the best selection of Silent Hill theories the internet has to offer.
The Mirror Room
This theory suggests that the second installment of the Silent Hill franchise, the scene in the mirror room where Angela is talking about killing herself is actually a manifestation of James’s own suicidal thoughts. In some versions of the theory this is a hallucination James is experiencing and in others it is purely metaphorical.
This goes along nicely with the theory that many of the characters and scenarios that take place in the Silent Hill universe are more in the player characters’ heads. Perhaps the hospital and surrounding town is sentient in some sense and can influence the minds of those who venture into its clutches, warping the protagonist’s experiences through a series of psychological manipulations to the point they can’t tell what’s real and what’s not. Maybe it even has the power to manifest the player character’s deepest darkest fears and thoughts in a visual form, like James’s suicidal thoughts.
Pyramid Head is Helping James
Pyramid Head is definitely one the most recognizable characters from the Silent Hill franchise. He is one of the first characters that most people think of when Silent HIll is mentioned. Although he is typically perceived as an antagonist or at least some kind of grave threat to the protagonist in the Silent Hill franchise , some fans have begun to question whether or not Pyramid Head really has such malicious intentions.
Like the previous theory, the Pyramid Head theory centers around Silent Hill 2. In SIlent Hill 2 ,Pyramid Head is widely seen as James’s punisher,steering him in the direction of the less favorable endings.His presence in the game is widely seen as a result of Jame’s need for punishment for his misdeeds. But some fans have started to think of Pyramid Head as more of a guardian figure to James, protecting him by steering him clear of even more grave danger.
One possible example of this is when Pyramid Head “kills’ the manifestation of Jame’s dead wife Maria. This, symbolically or otherwise, rids James of a crippling delusion that was preventing him from moving on with his life and coming to terms with the harm he has done.
The First Installment Takes Place in a Different World
This is more of an overarching theory of the story of the Silent Hill franchise as a whole, but mainly revolves around the original 1999 PlayStation Silent Hill Game.
The theory makes the claim that the original Silent Hill game takes place in an entirely different reality than the rest of the franchise. The main evidence is the design of the buildings. The buildings in the second SIlent Hill game are noticeably much closer to real life than the buildings in the original game, especially the hotel. Since the hotel burned down, this would make the first version of the hotel the otherworld version. There is also flooding and spots of mold in the hotel basement due to the water used by the fire department to put out the fire, adding to the theory that the version of the hotel in the second game is the real hotel and the version in the first original game is the otherworldly version.
Silent Hill is Based on a True Story
One of the most interesting theories about Silent Hill is not centered around any of the plots or characters of the games, but the possibility that the concept of franchise may have been at least partly inspired by true events.
There have been rumors floating around in the Silent Hill fan community since the release of the original 1999 PlayStation that the concept for Silent Hill may have taken inspiration from the event that happened in the real life town of Centralia, Pennsylvania.
In may 1962, the town of Centralia, Pennsylvania had an ordinance by the government to have the local landfill buried due to dangerous waste that had been detected around the area. A mysterious fire had broken out, spreading to a nearby abandoned coal mine filled with a large network of sealed up tunnels and passageways. This fueled the fire to an extent that it continues to burn to this day.
Local firefired attempted to put out the fire for many days, before ultimately deeming it a lost cause. Because of the fire,the air around the town became so toxic and dangerous to breathe that the government issued an evacuation order towards everyone living in the immediate area of the town.
Despite the danger and the evacuation order, several of the people living in the town had chosen to continue living there. Though there are very few, some buildings in the town remain to service the small number of people still living there, including a few small stores and a church. In 2002, the United States federal government suspended the zip code for Centralia and boarded up all roads leading to the town.
At least on the surface level this mirrors the town in Silent HIll quite a bit. There is no cult or genetic monstrosities going on in the real life town that supposedly earned the title of “the real life Silent Hill” on serval internet forums, but there is no denying the simlaraties the story of this this real life town has to the origin story of the town from the Silent Hill franchise. It may not be too much of the stretch to think that the real life story of this town may have at least partly inspired the iconic horror video game franchise.
