Fans of Silent Hill have been getting something wrong about the town for years. The art director for the original three Silent Hill games, Masahiro Ito, took to Twitter recently to clarify this detail. He further states how tiring it is to clear up this misconception constantly. Dedicated fans are working on a project to remake Silent Hill in Unreal Engine 5, so maybe this detail can be more apparent there.
Silent Hill is one of the most popular survival horror franchises of all time. The first game was released in 1999 and spawned seven more main entries in the franchise. The first four, and often the most widely beloved, were developed by Team Silent. Several spin-off games, comics, and two feature films were also released. Another game was in development years ago, tentatively titled Silent Hills, which Hideo Kojima would develop in collaboration with Guillermo Del Toro and Norman Reedus. A trailer for the game was accessed when players finished a playable teaser called PT. Ultimately, the project was canceled and scrapped, but Silent Hill fans still want a Hideo Kojima game.
According to Ito on Twitter, the white particles floating in the sky of the original Silent Hill are not ash. This effect is actually just snow. There is a line of dialogue in the game that clarifies this. Michael Kaufmann tells Harry how odd it is for it to be snowing during this time of year. The intent is to demonstrate further how weird and supernatural the town is. Some fans debate that ash makes more sense as it relates to the burning of one of the characters. However, a detail like this may be more befitting of Silent Hill 2’s psychologically manifested horror rather than the supernatural themes of the original Silent Hill. To better show the differences between the Fog World and Real World, a Silent Hill remake could learn a lot from The Medium.
The Falling “Ash” In Silent Hill Is Actually Snow
This mistake probably arose by conflating the details of the game with those of the Silent Hill movie released in 2006. In the film, the famous blanket of fog still shrouds the town, but falling ash also permeates the air. The backstory for the town in the film reveals that a coal seam fire is the reason why the town needed to be abandoned. It’s important to note that the film is only an adaptation of the source material. Therefore, it isn’t canon and shouldn’t be treated as such.
The series is often prone to rumors and leaks pointing to when a new game will be released, but none have come to fruition. It has been nearly ten years since the last major Silent Hill game. At this point, fans will be glad to take a new Silent Hill game even if Kojima and Del Toro never touch it. One of the series’ original creators, Keiichiro Toyama, is developing a new horror game called Slitterhead. While it may not be a Silent Hill game, it may be the closest thing eager fans can hope for.
