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{{
[[File:sh-townlarge_1491.jpg|link=Silent Hill 2|
{{quote|''{{color|red|The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.}}''}}
'''''Silent Hill''''' is a Konami video game franchise in the survival horror genre consisting of the following:▼
▲Silent Hill is a Konami video game franchise in the survival horror genre consisting of the following:
▲* ''[[Silent Hill 1 (Video Game)|Silent Hill 1]]'' (1999)
* ''Silent Hill Play Novel'' (Japan only, 2001)
* ''[[
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mT-TN_pMcxE Fukuro]
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mP6aah6ttPs Ki-No-Ko]
* ''[[
** [http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KLqEAhZpGMc Usagi]
* ''[[
* ''[[Silent Hill (
* ''[[Silent Hill]] Mobile'' (2006, a Japan-only cellphone remake of the first game)
* ''[[
* ''[[Silent Hill:
* ''[[Silent Hill]] Orphan'' (2007, a Japan-and-Europe-only cellphone game)
* ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'' (2008)
* ''[[Silent Hill]] Orphan 2'' (2008, another Japan-and-Europe-only cellphone game)
* ''[[Silent Hill]] The Escape'' (2008, a shooter cellphone game released in Japan and on iTunes)
* ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour
* ''Silent Hill: Revelation'' (movie sequel) (2013
And a handful of para-game material such as artbooks, [[Silent Hill (
▲And a handful of para-game material such as artbooks, [[Silent Hill (Comic Book)|comic books]], and a "making of" DVD.
The titular setting is an American lakeside resort town with a long history. American Indians called the area the "land of the spirits," and may have considered it cursed. The history of Silent Hill is rife with disappearances, murders, and mysterious activity, mostly owing to the existence of an unnamed demon-worshiping cult.
The Silent Hill games have largely dealt with the repercussions of that cult's actions, including the existence of multiple "layers" of the town itself. The normal town is an average American tourist attraction. On another level, it is long-abandoned and empty, save for the lost and damned who stumble onto its streets. On deeper levels, it is a crumbling ruin, or the full-fledged Otherworld: a burning, rusty [[Hell]].
A new entry in the series was announced for Sony's recently revealed Playstation Vita called Silent Hill: Book of Memories, which is a multiplayer hack and slash game starring player-created characters.
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Along with ''[[Resident Evil]]'', it is considered one of the defining examples of the [[Survival Horror]] genre, and is famous for the high quality of its story and background music.
{{franchisetropes}}
* [[Abandoned Hospital]]: A staple of the series.
** Subverted in ''Homecoming,'' where the game starts in an [[Abandoned Hospital]] that is also a [[Continuity Nod]], but it's {{spoiler|just a dream.}} Later on, you can find an item or two on the grounds of the familiar Alchemilla Hospital and it's labeled on the map, but you don't actually go inside.
** Completely averted in [[Silent Hill: Downpour]], which lacks a hospital level entirely.
* [[Abusive Parents]]:
** A lot of them, but Dahlia Gillespie takes the cake. Poor, poor Alessa...
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* [[Action Survivor]]: All the protagonists of the games and movie, presumably to give the audience relatable leads from various mundane walks of life.
* [[Advancing Wall of Doom]]: Pyramid Head in the alternate hospital basement in SH2, and the infamous Advancing Red Light of Doom in the Borley Haunted Mansion in SH3.
** The Red Light [[Comeback Mechanic|made a comeback]] in ''Downpour'', this time as "The Void".
* [[Alien Geometries]]: Common in the lower levels of the [[Dark World]], like the Historical Society, Labyrinth, and the alternate Hotel at the end of SH2.
* [[All Just a Dream]]:
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* [[And I Must Scream]]: Several of the monsters, particularly the humanoid ones. ''Silent Hill 2'' is pretty much dominated by these guys; Even Pyramid head, the most invincible of the bunch, was animated to suggest great pain under his helmet.
* [[And Then John Was a Zombie]]: Puppet {{spoiler|Cybil}}, Pyramid Head {{spoiler|Alex}}, Butcher {{spoiler|Travis}}, and Bogeyman {{spoiler|Murphy}}. Note that these are all [[Bad Ending|Bad Endings]].
** An enemy in ''Homecoming'' is alluded to be {{spoiler|James/Mary}}, still wandering about the Otherworld.
* [[And Your Reward Is Clothes]]: Starting from ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'', you can earn alternate outfits for the player character (or Eileen and Cynthia {{spoiler|until her death}} in the case of [[Silent Hill 4]]).
** Alex gets a new outfit for every ending he gets in 'Silent Hill Homecoming', too.
* [[Anti
* [[Awesome but Impractical]]: The heavier melee weapons (hammer, great knife, mace, etc.) and the hunting rifle, particularly in the second game (can't move with it drawn, too slow to fire and reload, only useful for the last two bosses). In the hands of a skilled player, though, the hammer is one of the better melee weapons available.
* [[Ax Crazy]]: Walter. Travis looks like this whenever he has the fireman's axe equipped.
* [[Bad Samaritan]]: In the first game, {{spoiler|Dahlia}} turns out to be a dark version of this trope. To a first time player, {{spoiler|she}} seems enigmatic and obtuse, but {{spoiler|her}} advice and clues tend to steer you onto a path to progression regardless. That {{spoiler|she}} turns out to be pure evil after Harry has given {{spoiler|her}} the benefit of the doubt is a pivotal point in the plot.
** {{spoiler|Vincent}} from the third game has shades of this as well.
* [[Beware of Hitch
* [[The Blank]]: The bubble-head nurses, Grey Children, Lying Figures/Patients, Valtiel, Lurkers, and Rawshocks.
* [[Bloody Handprint]]: Part and parcel of the decor in certain parts of Silent Hill. In [[Silent Hill 4]], it also doubles as [[Foreshadowing]].
* [[Bottomless Pits]]: Usually used as an [[Insurmountable Waist High Fence]], but you ''can'' fall to your death down them in harder difficulties in [[Silent Hill 3]].
* [[Bread, Eggs, Milk, Squick]]: Done ''visually'' - some truly horrendous sights are scattered around Silent Hill with such subtlety that you can pass right by them if you don't slow down and examine your surroundings.
* [[Breakable Weapons]]:
** Silent Hill 4 has the golf clubs that hog inventory space after they break.
** Every non-special weapon in Silent Hill: Origins is breakable.
** Played with in Downpour, as while the melee weapons break after prolonged use you can use the metal parts of objects as more durable weapons.
* [[Burn the Witch]]: Happens to {{spoiler|Cybil}} in [[The Movie]].
* [[Butter Face]]: The nurses.
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** The UFO endings of each game typically have some nod to the previous games (see below).
** ''Homecoming'' has some interesting nods with its achievements. Beating a Feral is ''Eddie's Legacy'', using health-enhancing Serum for the first time is ''Kaufmann's Handiwork'', beating a Siam is ''Shades of James'', and beating the game on Hard means ''The Old Gods haven't left this place.''
** ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
** The plot of the fourth game and The Arcade are based around minor articles from the second game about Walter Sullivan and The Baroness.
* [[Controllable Helplessness]]: Aside from the portions of the game where the player can't do anything except watch horrific things happen around them, all of the games can be argued to be an extended exercise in controllable helplessness. This counts especially if you get the bad ending, as you're effectively forced to herd the player character to their own doom.
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* [[Creepy Doll]]:
** Various bloodied dolls are scattered about Silent Hill in 1 and 3.
** Silent Hill 2 has a creepy voodoo doll apparently left by an insane prisoner, and although it's not strictly a doll, there's a ruined, creepily-staring teddy bear sitting outside what is implied to be Angela's sealed-off childhood bedroom.
** In Silent Hill 3, Heather finds various dolls next to diary entries written by a Brookhaven Hospital patient with a crush on her.
** Silent Hill 3 also introduces Lakeside Amusement Park mascot Robbie the Rabbit, who reappears in 4 and Homecoming.
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** The doll monsters in Downpour
* [[Critical Existence Failure]]: Averted in Shattered Memories, where Harry noticeably starts limping more and more when he's been tackled enough times.
** Also averted in Downpour, where Murphy will hold his side and limp after taking a large amount of damage.
* [[Cruel and Unusual Death]]:
** Happens fairly often, but one of the most notable is {{spoiler|Richard}} getting slowly electrified to death in ''The Room''.
** [[The Movie]] features {{spoiler|Anna}} getting skinned alive, {{spoiler|Cybil}} getting slowly burned alive (in full-on gory detail), and {{spoiler|Christabella}} being ripped in half with {{spoiler|Alessa's}} living barbed wire - after it has [[Impaled
* [[Cutscene Incompetence]]:
** Henry [[Broke Your Arm Punching Out Cthulhu|breaking his arm]] at the end of the Good ending or {{spoiler|getting possessed by Walter in the 21 Sacraments Ending}}.
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** {{spoiler|Harry}} himself is one of these in the {{spoiler|worst ending}}.
** A major part of [[The Reveal]] in ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'' reveals this to be true of {{spoiler|Alex's little brother, Joshua.}}
** From ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Degraded Boss]]:
** The Abstract Daddy/Doorman of SH2.
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** {{spoiler|Eileen at the end of The Room}}, making the boss fight harder.
** {{spoiler|Heather}} at the end of SH3, depending on what actions the player took.
* [[Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?]]: At least half the games end with the hero confronting and defeating some incarnation of the "God" that the cult worships (which may be prematurely born each time, or simply not really a god at all). Heather even makes a dour remark about it in the third game:
{{quote|
* [[Difficulty Spike]]: The hospitals, where the nurses are much tougher than previously encountered enemies, notably in SH 2 and SH 3 on the higher difficulty levels.
* [[Distress Call]]:
** James gets a letter from his dead wife to kick off the second game. He also gets calls from her on the radio after he picks it up and after watching the tape in the hotel.
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** Likewise, early on in Homecoming, Alex receives a call for help on his radio intended for somebody else.
** In the fourth, Henry gets a call on his disconnected phone from Cynthia after losing her mere moments after agreeing to an [[Escort Mission]].
** Harry gets these quite frequently in ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Does This Remind You of Anything?]]: In quite a few places. Of noteworthy mention is Pyramid Head, who eventually gets a ''long, jagged spear'' with which to ''penetrate'' his ''victims''. {{spoiler|He goes on to ''penetrate'' Maria.}})
* [[Driving Question]]: At least one per game, usually in the form of "What the hell is going on?" and/or "Have you seen X?" The first game even lampoons it in the bonus UFO ending, as the first thing Harry starts to say to the aliens is "have you seen a little girl around here" (they stun him before he can finish).
* [[Drone of Dread]]: The air raid sirens signify an impending world-shift.
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* [[Eldritch Abomination]]: The things that you have to fight or run from, and possibly the entire town itself.
** *Cough-cough* Every boss battle and larger-than-the-average-Mook in the game. *Cough-Cough* Incubus, Flesh Lips, Abstract Daddy, Sephulcher. *Cough-cough* Every boss from Silent Hill 2 (save for Eddie), and Silent Hill Homecoming. *Cough-cough*
* [[Elemental Powers]]: ''Book of Lost Memories'' adds this trope to the series. The titular book gives information about the seven elements: [[Light'Em Up|Light]] is born of the Heavens, [[Bloody Murder|blood]] is born of this world, and [[Extra Ore Dinary|steel]] is born of mankind and the strongest of the elements. The other four elements are the Chinese Wu Xing elements, and are considered less important and less powerful by the writers of the book. It also obeys the [[Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors]] trope of the [http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wu_Xing Wu Xing elements]; the [[Dishing Out Dirt|Earth Sword]] is super effective in the [[Making A Splash|Water Zone]], the Water Sword is super effective against monsters in the [[Playing With Fire|Fire Zone]], the [[Green Thumb|Wood Sword]] is super effective in the Earth Zone, and fire and steel change up the usual weaknesses because the Fire Sword is super effective in Wood Zones and the Steel Sword is super effective in both Light and Blood Zones and the Steel Zone have no weapon which is super effective inside of it. Also, the Karma powers use the elements of blood and light. Blood attacks use [[Bloody Murder|rays and waves of blood]] to deal damage whereas light abilities focus on using beams of light to steal health and heal. The thing that powers the abilities is [[Blood Magic|the spilled blood of the monsters]], which is aligned with either light or blood.
* [[Empty Room Psych]]: Some rooms contain no monsters, items, or any of the fun Silent Hill surprises.
* [[Enemy
** Unless you play with headphones on. At least in 3 anyway.
* [[Escape From the Crazy Place]]: The premise of the fourth game and how the player feels in the others.
* [[Escort Mission]]: Protecting Maria in 2, Elle in Homecoming, and Eileen in 4. Eileen's is the worst, since {{spoiler|the ending you get depends in part on how much she got attacked throughout ''the whole freaking game''. The more she's been attacked, the faster she'll walk towards Walter's death machine, making it nigh-impossible to beat Walter before she's killed if she's been beaten up badly}}.
* [[
* [[The Everyman]]: The protagonists tend towards this. The original game's Harry Mason couldn't hit the broad side of a barn. (His successors have improved aim.)
* [[Everything Trying to Kill You]]:
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*** The Bloody Mirror Room [[Death Trap]].
*** The insta-kill red fog during the escape from the amusement park's haunted house.
*** The hallway that suddenly turns to meat in a [[New Game
** In the fourth game, after {{spoiler|Henry's apartment becomes haunted}}, the walls, furniture, and fridge (among other thing)s can harm you.
* [[
** And then we have this gem courtesy of Dahila in [[Silent Hill 1]]:
{{quote|
*** Made even better by the fact that Gyromancy is spinning around in place while in a circle of letters until you fall down, and choosing the letter you fall on.
* [[Evil Albino]]: Claudia (of note, the drug used in the first game to make cult followers hallucinate was called ''White Claudia'').
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** Done '' bizarrely'' in ''Homecoming'', where [[Final Boss|Amnion]] is "pregnant" with {{spoiler|the corpse of Alex's [[Dead Little Sister|dead little brother]], Joshua.}} Whether this is ultimately a positive experience for Alex or very, very bad depends on the ending received.
* [[Fission Mailed]]: A staple of the [[Silent Hill]] series. 1, 3, and Homecoming start out with a nightmarish sequence that turns out to be a dream for each respective player character.
* [[
** All the phone numbers in ''The Room'' and ''Shattered Memories''.
** Averted with the Konami help line in Shattered Memories. That really is their number.
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** A recording in Homecoming has Alex's dad stating that Alex doesn't always see things the way they are. The first dog enemy also receives a lot of foreshadowing, starting with the empty dog house in their backyard.
** Shattered Memories is full of this, right down to the names of the enemies. {{spoiler|1=Raw Shocks = Rorschach, as in a Rorschach test. You are literally trying to fight off the therapy Cheryl is receiving (or perhaps fighting off the resistance she is giving to the therapy itself?)}}
* [[Freud Was Right]]: [[In
* [[Gaiden Game]]: The ''Silent Hill'' Play Novel revolves around Cybil's adventures in Silent Hill during the course of the first game. The game's not referenced by the rest of the series and generally [[Canon
** Supposedly, ''The Room'' was originally meant to be one, before being integrated into the main series partway through production.
* [[Genius Loci]]: The town itself is arguably alive. More than alive, the town's image is unique to its inhabitants, reflecting upon their personality and past experiences, good or bad.
* [[Getting Crap Past the Radar]]: A popular theory states that the reason for the sheer void of implicit information in the first game is because the [[Moral Guardians]] would never have otherwise allowed the publication of a game whose plotline contained so many satanic elements.
* [[Ghost Town]]: An unclear example, actually. No one outside of the town ever says it's abandoned, but we never find out just where the hell the townsfolk are. One very popular idea is that there's an unseen "level" of the gameverse town that's normal and inhabited (an idea that, at the least, makes the most sense for the prequel game ''[[
* [[Giant Mook]]: The Large Numb Bodies in the third game.
* [[The Greys]]: The aliens that show up in the {{spoiler|UFO Endings}}.
* [[Guide Dang It]]:
** While most of the puzzles have in-game clues, it's still nigh-impossible to get some of the endings without consulting a walkthrough.
** ''[[Silent Hill 3]]'' and ''[[
** Special shoutout to the hard mode puzzles in 3, which require you to have a working knowledge of Shakespeare's tragedies and know a specific fact about ''a particular species of bird''. Though even possessing such knowledge may not help much.
* [[Hair
* [[Hand in
* [[Happier Home Movie]]:
** [[Silent Hill 2|James's]] videotape of his wife {{spoiler|that also shows him smothering her with a pillow}}.
** The videos of Cheryl and Harry in ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Happily Adopted]]:
** Cheryl, who was found on the roadside by Harry and his wife. {{spoiler|Harry adopts Cheryl again by the end of the first game}}.
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* [[Holy Hand Grenade]]: Aglaophotis.
* [[Hotter and Sexier]]:
** Dahlia gets quite the makeover in ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
** In that game, Cybil may also be a [[Stripperific]] cop, depending on what choices the player makes.
* [[Human Sacrifice]]: A recurring theme {{spoiler|except for ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Hyperspace Arsenal]]:
** Almost every protagonist in the series is capable of carrying an array of knives, holy swords, stamina drinks, and keys with only the clothes on their backs.
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** Silent Hill never sounded like it would be a harmless remote resort town to begin with, so once things start getting freaky, you know for sure that it's a [[Names to Run Away From Really Fast|place you should run away from really fast]]. [[Closed Circle|If it allows you to.]]
** Ditto for South Ashfield from [[Silent Hill 4]] and Shepherd's Glen from [[Silent Hill Homecoming]]. Though those examples are somewhat arguable.
* [[Impaled
** Happens to {{spoiler|Maria}} - twice - in ''Silent Hill 2''.
** {{spoiler|Christabella}} in [[The Movie]].
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* [[Implacable Man]]: Red Pyramid a.k.a. Pyramid Head {{spoiler|until the end}}. Walter counts as well.
* [[Improvised Weapon]]: It'd be easier to list the melee weapons in the series that ''don't'' fall under this trope.
* [[Inventory Management Puzzle]]: Starting from ''[[Silent Hill 4]]'' onwards (except for ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Infinite Flashlight]]: There's a certain moment in ''[[Silent Hill 2]]'' in which James's flashlight battery dies on him - it is part of a puzzle.
* [[Insurmountable Waist High Fence]]: Everywhere you go, you are blocked by doors with broken locks, police barricades, and points where you can't proceed unless you have the right [[MacGuffin]].
** ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[The Ishmael]]:
** Almost all of the playable characters are at most nominal protagonists, while the real focus of the plot lies elsewhere. Silent Hill 2 is an exception, {{spoiler|considering that most of the game is caused by James's subconscious mind}}.
* [[Journey to
** Most obvious in [[Silent Hill 2]]. {{spoiler|Did James really descend about five miles beneath the Silent Hill Historical Society?}}
** {{spoiler|The entirety of ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Katanas Are Just Better]]: Crops up as a [[Justified Trope]] - see [[Improvised Weapon]] above.
* [[Karmic Death]]:
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** In [[Silent Hill 4]], Andrew DeSalvo is locked into a cell of the prison where he had acted as its sadistic warden, and later {{spoiler|is brutally murdered by one of its former prisoners, Walter Sullivan}}.
** In ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'', {{spoiler|Judge Holloway}} has her own {{spoiler|electric drill shoved through the bottom of her jaw}} after torturing Alex with it.
* [[Last
* [[Late to
* [[Lovecraft Country]]: Or at the very least [[Stephen King]] Country.
* [[Malevolent Architecture]]: In addition to being alive, Silent Hill is quite the sadist entity.
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* [[Mind Rape]]: Silent Hill's stock in trade.
* [[Mind Screw]]: The major premise of the series.
* [[Mind Screwdriver]]: While not official material, there are several plot analyses on [[
* [[Moon Logic Puzzle]]: As [[Zero Punctuation]] put it, a lot of the game involves trying various interpretations of keys on various interpretations of doors.
* [[Multiple Endings]]: Some of which are real downers and some of which are pure comedy.
* [[New Game
* [[No Canon for
** [[Silent Hill 1]] - {{spoiler|The third game follows either of the best endings, where both Harry and Cheryl escape the town. In the best ending, Cybil survives as well, but according to [[Word of God]], she dies.}}
** [[Silent Hill 2]] - {{spoiler|James's fate isn't stated for certain, but in the fourth game, his father notes that he and his wife disappeared after visiting Silent Hill.}}
** [[Silent Hill 3]] - {{spoiler|The fifth game reveals that not only did Douglas survive, he also took down most of The Cult.}}
** [[
* [[No Communities Were Harmed]] - The movie's foggy setting is inspired by the real-life town of Centralia, Pennsylvania, a town mostly abandoned decades ago when a fire started burning beneath the town. To this day, smoke burns out from the ground.
* [[No Sidepaths, No Exploration, No Freedom]]: Many outdoor areas, where the player is herded along a linear path from Point A to Point B by [[Locked Door|locked doors]], [[Insurmountable Waist
* [[Nonstandard Game Over]]:
** Harry meets a gruesome death by tentacle if he fails to use an item before proceeding in the original.
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* [[Nothing Is Scarier]]
* [[Notice This]]: Starting with the second game, the characters will look at any and all objects they can pick up in the area. They also look at monsters.
* [[Offing the Offspring]]: In addition to all of the instances of attempted [[Human Sacrifice]], [[Silent Hill Origins
* [[Old Save Bonus]]: Having a [[Silent Hill 2]] save file on the same memory card as [[Silent Hill 3]] gives you a couple of extra scenes:
** Inspecting a mailbox will net a joke about having no mail, not even a letter for a dead wife.
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* [[Painting the Fourth Wall]]: Along with providing telephone voiceover via the Wii Remote's speaker, Harry's in-game cell phone's battery meter in ''Shattered Memories'' will match the Remote's current charge.
* [[Papa Wolf]]: Harry Mason. He'll go [[To Hell and Back]] for his little girl. The third game reveals that he outright killed a cult member to keep Cheryl safe.
* [[Path of Greatest Resistance]]: Occasionally, it can be easy to get turned around or unsure of which direction to go. When you are attacked by one of those damned nurses when you open a door, you know that yep, this is the way.
* [[Perverse Puppet]]:
** The Mannequins from the second game.
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* [[Pipe Pain]]: A staple of the series.
* [[Point and Click Game]]: The Cell Phone spinoffs.
* [[Premiseville]]: Silent Hill, [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?|Wherever It Is]].
* [[Psychological Torment Zone]]
* [[Rape
* [[Recurring Riff]]/[[Leitmotif]]:
** Several of the riffs from the first game's opening theme recur throughout the series.
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* [[Reincarnation]]: {{spoiler|Alessa/Heather/Cheryl}}.
* [[Religious Horror]]: The occult elements as well the cult.
* [[Road Runner PC]]: Outdoor segments are a breeze, as enemies aren't particularly speedy. The most irksome ones are the air screamers, the only (to-date) airborne enemies, and difficult to outrun.
* [[Say My Name]]: Got a missing loved one? Your [[Escort Mission]] ally is in danger? In ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
* [[Sensor Suspense]]: The radio starts playing static as dark things draw near. [[Silent Hill 4]] instead uses this to indicate that the room is haunted.
* [[Soundtrack Dissonance]]: Every game got one. Especially in the opening, when you can hear a somber, mellow tune, or even upbeat song... which can distract you from the fact that the games are fueled with [[Nightmare Fuel]]. To quote IGN's review of the DVD:
{{quote|
* [[Scare Chord]]: In some parts of SH 2, it takes the form of a high-pitched screeching or ringing noise.
* [[School Uniforms Are the New Black]]: Alessa is usually seen wearing her school uniform.
* [[Scenery Gorn]]: True to the tagline, there are a lot of wall-mounted corpses in this series.
* [[Second
* [[Self
* [[Shock and Awe]]:
** Heather can use a taser as a weapon.
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** The creators are frustratingly coy about which of the endings are canon. A few of the [[Its All There in the Manual|additional releases]] [[No Export for You|only available in Japan]] do shine some light on things, but real answers are as rare as ampoules.
** Although to many, this simply makes the games more scary, since the games are one of the few instances in media where pretty much ''everything'' is symbolic of something. It causes many players to simply speculate even more about the series. Since there is no true answer to many of these questions, it makes the nature of the town [[Eldritch Abomination|that much more unsettling]].
* [[Sigil Spam]]: The Order's official seal, the "Halo of the Sun." It's practically wallpapered all over
* [[Sinister Geometry]]: Pyramid Head.
* [[Something Completely Different]]: Bonus Endings are a ''Silent Hill'' tradition:
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** Another alternate ending of [[Silent Hill 2]] is {{spoiler|a shiba inu dog did it}}.
** The UFO ending of [[Silent Hill 3]] has Harry (and James) getting angry about Heather being picked on by the cult members and unleashing lasery death on the town with an entire UFO armada.
** [[
{{quote|
Alien: You drive stick? }}
** [[Silent Hill Homecoming]] can end with Alex and Elle being abducted by aliens while Wheeler watches in amazement.
** [[Silent Hill:
** ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
** ''[[Silent Hill: Downpour
* [[Solve the Soup Cans]]: It's Silent Hill. Even the puzzles hate you. According to "The Book of Lost Memories", many of those are meant to represent various fears. For example, the key you get from the vending machine represents the fear of machines not working the way they're supposed to.
* [[Spooky Painting]]: Frame pictures in Silent Hill often depict the impossible -- like the exact room you're standing in, complete with slumped corpses.
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** [[Silent Hill 1]]: Poor Harry.
** [[Silent Hill 2]]: According to Frank Sunderland in [[Silent Hill 4]], James never returned from Silent Hill, either, though [[Word of God]] is unclear on whether this means James just didn't ever contact his father or is [[Driven to Suicide|In Water]].
** Averted with [[
* [[Survival Horror]]:
** ''[[Silent Hill Homecoming]]'' pulled a ''[[Resident Evil]] 4'' and, according to some critics, somewhat switched to an Action Horror gameplay style by increasing the emphasis on the combat.
** ''Shattered Memories'', on the other hand, abandons combat altogether and forces the player to have to run, hide, and barricade entrances to defend oneself against monsters, heavily emphasizing the "survival" aspect.
* [[Suspicious Videogame Generosity]]:
** [[Silent Hill 2]] and [[
** The town as a whole is also suspiciously "generous" with weapons, ammunition, and healing items, considering that [[Everything Trying to Kill You|everything else is trying to kill you]]. Then again, there's no fun in having a plaything die horribly within the first 30 minutes of fun, now is there?
* [[Tank Controls]]: A notable offender.
* [[Tarot Motifs]]: In the story supplement "Book of Lost Memories", pretty much every aspect of the town and the characters are associated with Tarot cards - Heather is The Fool, The Sun is the games' bonus features, Pyramid Head is Judgement, The Eye of Night (created specifically for the third game, as no Eye of Night appears in the tarot) is {{spoiler|The God}}, and so on.
* [[This Is a Drill]]: You can unlock a rock drill as a weapon in the [[New Game
* [[Through the Eyes of Madness]]: Silent Hill's primary method of [[Mind Rape]]. Several times it is hinted that the "monsters" you're killing may actually be innocent human beings.
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* [[Tomato in
** [[Silent Hill 2|James]], {{spoiler|you killed your wife}}.
** [[Silent Hill 3|Heather]], {{spoiler|you're the reincarnation of Cheryl, who in turn is the reincarnation of Alessa}}.
** [[Silent Hill Origins
** [[Silent Hill Homecoming|Alex]], {{spoiler|you were never in the army, the whole game was just a delusion}}. But this assumes that [[Villains Never Lie]] and that you get the Hospital Ending.
** [[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
** [[Silent Hill: Downpour|Murphy]], {{spoiler|you are the Bogeyman.}}
* [[Too Awesome to Use]]: Weapons in general, especially the bigger guns with more limited ammo.
* [[Tortured Abomination]]: Many of the monsters can be interpreted this way.
* [[Uncanny Atmosphere]]: The beginning of almost every game in the series.
* [[Uncanny Valley]]: Purposely invoked in the monster designs, but the characters themselves seem a bit unreal given their [[Dull Surprise]].
* [[Updated Rerelease]]: The Greatest Hits Playstation 2 version and Xbox version of [[Silent Hill 2]] were released not too long after the original, adding a new playable scenario and several other extras.
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* [[Variable Mix]]: Most of the games feature dynamic music which seamlessly changes according to the action, such as the number or proximity of monsters in a room, entering or exiting a room (eg. going back through the clock room in the apartments, jumping down the final hole to the labyrinth), activating a switch (eg. the Alchemilla Hospital generator), or completing some other objective.
* [[Video Game Remake]]:
** ''[[Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
** Before that, stories of a ''[[Silent Hill]]'' remake called "Silent Hill: Original Sin" featuring the movie continuity arose, but it turned out to be ''[[
** An RPG-style cellphone game remake of the first game did emerge [[No Export for You|in Japan]] called ''Silent Hill: Mobile''.
* [[Violation of Common Sense]]: Jump down this possibly bottomless hole? Stick your hand in the toilet? Reach into a dead guy's pocket? Wander around an old insane asylum filled with monsters? Sure, why not!
* [[Visual Novel]]: ''Silent Hill Play Novel'', as the title might suggest.
* [["Wake
* [[Walls of Text]]:
** The reams and reams of information you get from reading stuff picked up in Silent Hill get quite wordy.
** One [[Let's Play|LPer]] made fun of the use of blacked out words in [[
** Mostly averted in ''Shattered Memories'', in that while you do get text messages on the cell phone, few of them (the exception being ''The Experience'' in the mall) are overly wordy.
* [[Where the Hell Is Springfield?]]: The games never explicitly spell out where Silent Hill is, other than somewhere in New England. Circumstantial evidence strongly implies it to be in Maine, but this is never confirmed in-game.
* [[Womb Level]]: The boss battles of the first and third games and Nightmare level of the third game are composed of pulsating flesh. Arguably, the entire fourth game applies as well.
* [[Yet Another Stupid Death]]: Besides the generic death animation, several games feature unusual means of getting horribly murdered.
* [[You Wake Up in
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[[Category:The Nineties]]
[[Category:IOS Games]]
[[Category:Survival Horror]]
[[Category:Konami]]
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[[Category:Akira Yamaoka]]
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