One of the most iconic scenes from Silent Hill 2 is arguably its very first. James Sunderland, the game's protagonist, approaches a filthy restroom mirror and takes some time to solemnly gaze at himself before starting out on a horrifying search for his wife in the town of Silent Hill. However, it seems that Silent Hill 2 has been keeping a secret in this scene for nearly 20 years.
Silent Hill 2 released on the PlayStation 2 way back in 2001, to widespread fan and critical acclaim. The sequel took the original Silent Hill's terrifying nightmares to the next level with vastly improved graphics, and while the series has become stagnant in the years that have gone by since, the game is still frequently upheld as one of the best survival horror games out there.
The new Silent Hill find was discovered by a Redditor, who shared their findings online. u/ZombiePizzas1999 was tinkering with screenshots of James looking into the mirror when they noticed something disturbing: James was looking right at them.
When actually playing the game, it's impossible to make out this detail due to the dramatic lighting's dark shadows hiding James' eyes. However, by taking their own screenshots and brightening them, multiple users have confirmed what ZombiePizzas1999 initially discovered: when James approaches the mirror, he's actually looking right at the player, or the game's 'camera.' Then, as he lifts his hand to touch his face, his eyes shift to look at himself, instead.
Upon turning the brightness up of this intro scene, one can see that James is initially looking directly into the ‘camera’ as opposed to his reflection at first. This is never noticeable in-game but suggests James is gazing at us as the player. from silenthill
In any other game, this might be just a strange small detail, but Silent Hill 2 is rife with psychological horror and unusual minute details that can dramatically change the outcome of the game, like looking at Angela's knife one too many times. Some fans have pointed out that approaching a save point for the first time triggers a thought from James that it feels like someone is 'groping around' in his skull, which is followed by an image of James' reflection. While there's no way to be sure without a confirmation from Silent Hill's developers, it's possible that these are faint hints that James is somehow subtly aware of the player. It makes a bit of sense, considering that both the player and James himself are struck by the same revelation about the story near the end of the game.
Silent Hill's developers would keep up the spookiness surrounding mirrors with Silent Hill 3, which saw a horrifying transformation and special game over sequence trigger if Heather gazed into a certain mirror for too long.
Although the series' fate is currently unclear, with rumors of a next-gen Silent Hill still swirling, only time will tell if there are more secrets that have been hiding in the fog of Silent Hill to this day.
Silent Hill 2 is available now for the PC, PS2, PS3, Xbox, and Xbox 360.