Silent Hill is a series full of webs, strings, tight knots, loose ends, and pyramids. The series is filled with fantastic stories led by some of the richest characters in video game history, but some of the narratives get too caught up in the rules of Silent Hill, or they just simply get forgotten about.
Though the series’ multi-stranded narratives would make for a great TV show, with every new installment, whether it's a console game or a mobile game, the lore of the series becomes more clouded than the town of Silent Hill itself. Here are ten things that don’t make any sense about the Silent Hill series.
Updated May 1st by Russ Boswell: The Silent Hill series is one of the most beloved Survival Horror franchises to ever grace consoles throughout the early-2000s. Unfortunately, there hasn't been a new game in the franchise for some time but players are hopeful that there's something supremely creepy on the horizon. Those that are hungry to experience Silent Hill's special brand of fear can load up any of the past releases, all of which have their fair share of scares and terrifying moments. That said, some of them feature some scenes and mechanics that don't make much sense. To get a better idea of the moments in Silent Hill that don't make much sense, the following list has been updated with more entries.
13 Harry's Magical Shotgun In The Original Game
When Silent Hill first hit store shelves back in 1999, it was a welcome change of pace for the Survival Horror genre. Players were all too familiar with the Resident Evil series and its droves of zombified enemies but Konami went a different direction with its scares. Rather than face the undead in a virus-ridden mansion, players were thrown into a truly terrifying fog-filled town. Harry's journey seemed much darker by comparison, with a lot of psychological horror filling Silent Hill's world, alongside an abundance of strange and grotesque monsters.
But things get a little too imaginative for some gamers when they first locate the Shotgun in the survival horror classic. It's clearly a sawed-off double barrel, which should only be capable of holding two rounds at a time before it must be reloaded. Regardless, the game's description of the weapon boasts that it holds six rounds at a time.
12 The Mystery Mailman in Silent Hill: Downpour
In Silent Hill: Downpour, a mailman appears and drops a lot of knowledge about Silent Hill, but then vanishes. Nobody knows who he is and there are no clues as to his history in the game, but some have speculated that he was also in a holding pattern, which wouldn’t be surprising as Downpour introduced a lot of new lore that was left unexplained. However, the mailman also appeared in the canon graphic novel, Silent Hill: Past Life, which was set in the 1800s, so there is no way he can possibly be alive and he must be a monster or a ghost, but there is no way of knowing.
11 Harry’s Decisions in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Harry was ranked as the best playable character in the series in the original, but Shattered Memories reimagines the face of the Silent Hill universe for the worst. For every entry in the series, the main character up to this point has been a troubled adult male searching for answers in a world where his head is being messed with, but none of the characters have been as dumb as Harry in Shattered Memories, not even himself in the original.
Harry tries to run from characters that can help him, including Cybil and Dahlia. Though he might be acting impulsively as he’s searching for his missing daughter, Harry’s irrational running from civilians requires a huge suspension of disbelief to buy into, even for Silent Hill.
10 Dahlia Gillespie Murdering Her Daughter
With Dahlia Gillespie being the god fearing (or loving, it’s hard to tell) lunatic of the series, she believes that through hatred, she will produce a more loving god... for absolutely no reason whatsoever. There is no method or logic behind this, and to make matters more confusing, she believes that her daughter, Alessa, is the mother of the new, more loving God. Only Alessa isn’t given a chance to do that as Dahlia tries to murder Alessa by setting their house on fire. The reason for Dahlia trying to kill her daughter makes no sense, especially as she believed her daughter was going to give birth to a god.
9 Travis’ Parents In Silent Hill: Origins
For a game called Origins, there is a significant lack thereof. What was never explained in Origins is what the catalyst was for Travis to visit Silent Hill in the first place. And even when he did visit, why did he stay, because why would anybody want to stay? Just like any Silent Hill protagonist, Travis in Silent Hill: Origins has a sketchy past that involves a delusional mother and suicidal father, and the game briefly touches on some kind of disturbing aftermath when he was a child, but Origins never once followed up on this narrative. This could have made the highly convoluted prequel much more grounded.
8 Heather's Weird Flamethrower In Silent Hil 3
There are some pretty cool weapons that players can unlock during their journey through the trippy and terrifying Silent Hill 3. Although the third release wasn't as game-changing as Silent Hill 2, it still had its moments, and many look at the title fondly thanks to its strange story and interesting protagonist. Unfortunately, like the original Silent Hill's shotgun debacle, Silent Hill 3 also suffers from a unique "weapon issue."
During the game, players will come across a handy flamethrower, but using it on enemies is a strange experience. The fire won't actually light the creatures ablaze. Instead, it acts like a strange melee weapon with extended range, causing the monsters to stagger and bleed.
7 The Otherworld Poses No Threat in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
Shattered Memories is known as one of the worst games in the franchise, not only for its ignorance of the continuity, but also for the reason that it barely features the tropes that make a Silent Hill game.
Call it a survival horror game, but in this reimagining of the original game, Climax Studios completely removed monsters from Silent Hill. Monsters only appear in the Ice World, which means hesitantly edging in to the mist in Silent Hill doesn’t induce as much paranoia or terror as it should, as the player knows there is nothing there.
6 The Otherworld’s Existence in Silent Hill: Origins
A lot of great things come from prequels. Not only do they signify a return to the roots of a series that might have become derailed, but it also excites enthusiasts of the game by delivering major fan service. However, Origins is highly contradictory and further muddled Silent Hill’s lore, most notably with the history of the Otherworld. In the original Silent Hill, the Otherworld didn’t exist until Cheryl arrived back at Silent Hill, but in Origins, which is set before the original, the Otherworld already exists.
5 The Dog Ending (Silent Hill 2)
Perhaps one of the most surreal and hilarious parts of Silent Hill 2, the Dog Ending is quite the shock for anyone who managed to stumble across it by accident. It lives in infamy among Silent Hill 2 and it's definitely one of the cooler Easter Eggs to come from the survival-Horror genre over the years but it surely belongs on this list due to its absurdity. Not only is getting the Dog Ending quite convoluted, but it will also cut the game short and it really just doesn't make much sense at the end of it all. It definitely doesn't fit the theme and tone of Silent Hill 2's deeply disturbing narrative and dark world.
But that's one of the reasons it works so well. It's perhaps the last thing players would expect when skulking through Silent Hill 2's macabre mist-filled adventure.
4 The Mysterious Orphanage Girl in Silent Hill: Downpour
In Silent Hill: Downpour, a little girl randomly appears, either in a dream or in reality, but it is never explained why. It isn’t out of the ordinary for random things to appear in the Silent Hill franchise either as part of the protagonist’s delusions or as something more physical (and it’s for this reason that Silent Hill has scarier monsters than Resident Evil), but the little girl is never explained and to shrug it off as something random in a dream isn’t very Silent Hill-like. The little girl even appeared in the trailer and on promotional material, which means she may have had a more important role that was edited out.
3 Charlie Pendleton’s Murder in Silent Hill: Downpour
There’s a reason why Downpour is ranked the worst in the series according to Metacritic. With Downpour retconning everything that stands in the plot’s way of making sense, there are still significant points that are left unexplained despite several different endings, mainly being the reason why Charlie was murdered by his own father, Murphy.
In one of Downpour’s endings, it is explained that Charlie’s mother wanted full custody of him after the divorce, but why would that make Murphy want to murder Charlie? If anything he would want to murder Charlie’s mother. In another ending, it shows that a pedophile kidnaps and kills Charlie, but this is too shoehorned in and doesn’t add up from what played out previously.
2 Pyramid Head’s Appearance in Silent Hill: Homecoming
In 2008, at this point in the series, Silent Hill was in dire need of some serious mythology treatment, but the developer, Double Helix Games, was more invested in paying attention to the combat elements of the game. Though that’s important for most games, Silent Hill is all about the aesthetic and the story, and the series’ best games don’t even have great combat. One of the most iconic villains in video game history, Pyramid Head, arguably the series’ scariest villain, appears in Homecoming. However, when the angular villain was revealed to be a figment of James’ imagination in Silent Hill 2, the Pyramid Head’s presence makes no sense when James had nothing to do with Homecoming.
1 Worst Vacation Ever In Silent Hill 2
It might be far and away the greatest and the scariest game in the series and one of the greatest survival horror games ever made, but Silent Hill 2 might have the biggest plot hole of the series, and once you read it, you can’t unread it. Silent Hill is the mistiest town in the world, which is what makes the horror game so scary, not being able to see anything more than two inches in front of you. But the reason why James is there in the first place is because it’s his and his wife’s favorite vacation destination. The town has been that misty since 1970, and as the game is set 23 years later, the character would most likely have never seen the place before it was the most horrifying town in the world, making it a strange holiday destination.