Jane: I first became aware of the Silent Hill series by going to watch the movie with my first boyfriend in a theater. I was impressed by its interesting monsters and ideas, and only later did I find out that it was based on a video game series. To most fans, I would probably be considered less worthy of having an opinion of the series, since that was my first experience with it, but I came to have an appreciation for both the movie and the games. They were both wonderful in their own ways, albeit very dark. Because of this method of introduction to the series, I’ve grown very fond of the later games, particularly Homecoming. While I find all the games (excluding the mobile games) to be great, Homecoming just has a spot in my heart. I think it was the relationship Alex had with his parents that really struck a chord with me. His mother never seemed to care about him and his father was too harsh on him. It reminded me of my parents in certain ways.

Jane: I’ve made plenty of fan art of the series, but as far as true inspiration from the games, I think the most important thing I’ve learned from them is to have meaning behind everything. Even without a heavily psychological atmosphere, a piece of work is given far more interest with careful thought put into the design as far as an emotional meaning is concerned. I think this is probably why I’ll never have quite as much interest in other horror games which focus much more on biological and realistic monsters and situations.

Jane: Yes and no. The fact of the matter is that I get frustrated very quickly with most video games (first person shooters in particular) and generally don’t have the money to buy new or even old games. The few games that I do own are ones that I either like very much or were bought for me by my parents. This does not, however, mean that I have a limited knowledge of video games. I watch many “let’s play” walkthroughs on YouTube. Through those, I’ve seen Left4Dead 1 and 2, Portal 1 and 2, Amnesia: The Dark Descent, and many more. The games I do play are generally easy-going games like the Zelda series. Katamari Damacy is also a favorite. As far as a favorite console, however, I’d say the Nintendo Gamecube. The controller fits so naturally in my hand, I have many fond memories of games on it, and the graphics are great. (I don’t need to see every hair on a character) I own a PlayStation 2 also, but I’m still not completely sold on the controller design.

Jane: When I become a fan of a series, I generally go all-out. When I played Ocarina of Time all day, I’d draw my own comics based on Hyrule with original characters. When I started playing World of Warcraft, I drew comics, stand-alone pieces, and wrote fan fiction about my characters. The same thing happened with Silent Hill, but to an even further extent now that my horizons have broadened. I’ve drawn plenty of fan comics and other pieces, made a few animations, pieced together videos, and have been working ferociously on a Pyramid Head cosplay. I’ve had a lot of fun with the writing in particular. I’ve been able to let out my opinions and my own personal experiences through both of the fan stories I have going. The only problem with my own personal fandom is that I don’t feel like I can share opinions very well with other die-hard fans. As mentioned earlier, I was not introduced to Silent Hill by the games, but the movie. I’ve kept a very open mind about what a Silent Hill game or movie should be, which tends to divide me from other fans who take on more of a purist approach. (Just watch what happens when I say I like Homecoming more than 2) It makes me sad, really. So many fans seem to feel betrayed by Konami after witnessing the later installments after 4 (sometimes even after just 3), which basically turns every new game into a funeral for them. I feel sorry for them, but what can you do?

Jane: I’m nearly done working on it. It’s been kind of a cram at times to get certain things done before Halloween, on which date I plan on wearing it out for the first time, but well worth it. Up front, I need to give thanks to Nur_En_Tier for the ripped textures of Silent Hill 2 that helped me figure out the paint job for the helmet and spear. The rest of it, I need to give thanks also to the people of VisitSilentHill.com. Those reference images and written pointers were invaluable in tweaking what I could.

That being said, I’m working on a cosplay of Masahiro Ito’s original Pyramid Head design for Silent Hill 2. It’s not completely based on the game, though; there are certain parts of it that I decided simply weren’t up to par for realism due to the game’s original technical limitations, so I ended up turning to other sources for inspiration. For instance, the buckled straps that hang down from his neck bulge are, in the game, buckled with simple rectangular shapes. I chose instead to look at the official Pyramid Head statuette for guidance on those, opting for an open buckle look. The spear is another instance of this. I chose to design it after the spear shown in the graphic novelization of the game. Instead of a plain, conical look, it has what appears to be an almost bone tip to it and much more interesting base for the tip. The shape and implications excited me more than the game’s rather polygonal look, but I still referenced the game textures for finding out how to make the bloodied tip.

More work in progress shots are on her Deviant Art!

(SHHS: Check out the movable tongue!)

Jane: I figure the divide will get larger. The thing is that the supposedly die-hard fans always want to see Silent Hill go back to its roots and recapture the essence of what made the past games great. One problem with this is that these fans played the games when they were younger and will always look back with rose-tinted shades. There’s a certain magic in that that no one can recapture. One of the reasons I liked Homecoming so much is that it seemed to have elements of all the Team Silent games in it. Alex teleports after fainting like Harry did, he’s hiding his past from himself like James did, he was born into a terrible fate like Heather was, and it’s all a part of someone else’s plan the way Henry was yanked around by Walter. Obvious symbolism in the game (descending into the sewers, valve turning, the blue tone of the fog world and more hinting at a water fixation) was lost on the die-hards in favor of their assumption that it was all just some cheap cop-out. I see Downpour as getting similar treatment, though that’s not something I’m ever happy to report. The second Murphy shows signs of amnesia, they’ll howl that he’s just a knockoff of James. The monster in a raincoat bearing a huge hammer has already been called a Pyramid Head knockoff due to similar themes of design. Fans need to decide what Silent Hill’s roots are before they can decide on whether or not a game has successfully returned to them. If they decide the roots of the series are solely in Team Silent, then they’ll never be satisfied and will always hate a series that they’ve proven otherwise they love.

Jane: I didn’t find out about it until recently, and I only just now had a reason to watch it. As far as the Homecoming review goes, they just sound like angry fanboys to me. Sometimes they bring up good points, like the fact that the control scheme is far different from the previous games, but aside from that, they just sound like a couple of whiners to me. For being Silent Hill experts, they missed out on a lot of key points in the game. Alex’s traumatized mother is demoted to being stoned. Asking the same questions over and over ala Harry Mason (or Henry Townshend if you take his catchphrase into consideration) suddenly becomes an idiotic cliche. The plot’s big reveal at the end is inexcusable according to them, even though Silent Hill 2 did the exact same thing. Dialog choices used to learn more about the characters is relegated to some cheap gimmick.

They seem to think that the control scheme is out to get them. For some reason, they can’t grasp the concept of dodging, blocking, and attacking at opportune times. I blame the fact that they’ve basically conditioned themselves to sit in one place and shoot, which is the main tactic of all the previous Silent Hill games. To me, they’re just exemplifying the idea that die-hard fans are nothing but people who are afraid of change.

All of the game’s symbolism, design, and style seemed to go right over their heads. The game was obviously meant to be a companion of sorts to the movie, which was an American take on the first game. Therefore, it’s an American-styled horror game. It seems to me that they simply don’t like the genre, nor do a lot of Silent Hill fans. They like Japanese horror. This is the main reason I don’t have high hopes for their view of Downpour.

Don’t get me wrong, though. I’m a fan of these guys. When they want to be funny, they’re hilarious. However when they act as though they’re experts, their ignorance shines through.

Jane: Certainly.

The first Silent Hill fanfiction that I ever worked on was “Mother is God, Father is Guardian.” (or MiGFiG) It started out as a jokey sort of story, nothing too serious and without a very clear idea of where it was going. It started with a silly situation: Pyramid Head walks into my house and twists his ankle. I nurse him back to health and go back to Silent Hill with him so that he won’t murder me. A friend from college, Josh, also starred in it. Almost everything Josh says or does in the story is what he would actually say or do in those situations; I would give him the situation or a line of dialogue and ask how he would react. Eventually, however, he and I drifted apart, so his character was removed at his request. It’s an interesting read for me, mostly, since the more I write of it, the more I realize that I’ve sort of been leading myself with it. There are plots that I’ve thought up that I eventually realized related back to my own life and troubles. It’s started to become a rat’s nest of inner turmoil, which I think readers will really appreciate if they pick up on the leads.

While writing MiGFiG, though, I would end up with these long, horrid writing blocks. After the serious turn that MiGFiG took, I was determined to write something jokey, silly, and non-committal. I warned readers that it was just a side project and to not expect frequent updates, but it ended up becoming a big deal of its own. “Silent Hill Babysitting Squad Saga” (SHBS) has more reviews and favorites on FanFiction.net than MiGFiG. Comics and other artwork is also very fun to work on for this story.

Silent Hill Babysitting Squad

I personally really enjoy what’s going on with the characters, though. Red Pyramid Thing (Red for short) is a womanizer with a sharp tongue (pun intended), Bogeyman is the unloved pyramid who feels out of place, Valtiel is the serious one who’s just trying to do his job, etc etc. They’re more like actors than monsters, but I intentionally blur the line. For instance, the Silent Hill movie is stated to be shot on location in town rather than in the real world, but the real world somehow exists alongside the “game world” while Downpour is being shot over in Europe for some reason. It’s interesting how the monsters interact outside of Silent Hill. They end up getting startled by technology and thrown in jail.

The whole thing has a somewhat serious storyline, but I try to balance it out a lot harder than I tried with MiGFiG. Comedy actually takes a lot more balance than drama does. If you just let the story flow and take its own path, it becomes a reflection of self, and thus works well for drama. With comedy, you can’t just let it do whatever unless all the characters write for themselves. It has to have those serious times, but you have to forcibly rein it in, say “Okay that was depressing. Time for some LOLs,” and bring it back to a lighter note. (Or a darker note. Depends what kind of comedy you’re writing.)

So far, I’ve introduced Red Pyramid, Bogeyman, Valtiel, Alessa Gillespie (from Origins, specifically), Alex, Elle, Wheeler, Bubble-Head Nurse (SH2), Faceless Nurse (Origins), Arcade Nurse (Arcade), White Hunter (Silent Hill Zero comic book), James, Maria, and a second Red Pyramid (named Rusty to differentiate). I’ll soon be introducing Henry, Walter, and Frank Sunderland, too.

Jane: I’m personally excited about the HD collection. It’s a great way to keep the games relevant to a new generation of gamers. A lot of fans seemed to get hung up on the voice acting changes before the original actors agreed to sign waivers, saying all sorts of horrible things about the new VAs. Again, it’s a sad loss of trust in Konami, and all I can do is pity people who get so upset over changes that amount to a hill of beans.

Jane: As I said earlier, I really liked the movie. It wasn’t just an initial enjoyment before knowing the games, either. I continue to like it (I recently bought it off of iTunes), even though I still have to cover my eyes and ears at some parts. After learning of the series and reading up on it, I felt the movie was a really great middle ground between a standard horror movie and a supernatural horror game. Some people complained about how useless Rose seemed, but if they had made her into some gun-toting heroine, the sense of danger would have been lost. That sense of danger was lost on the fans anyways, though, since they had a pretty good idea that she would live either way. The movie, to me, balanced the series’ themes very well with an appropriate suspension of disbelief. To place it in a real world setting would be to tell the audience to believe that a little-known cult had existed without anyone knowing about it for generations. Witch hunters are much more readily accepted, since witch hunts did indeed occur in the United States. It’s really a matter of perspective. How this will be linked to Revelations, however, is what I’m really interested to find out. The story of Silent Hill 3 was so deeply rooted in the Order that it’s hard to imagine how it could be told any other way. I trust the producers know what they’re doing, though. I also trust it to be awesome.

Jane: The future of the series depends mainly on who they hire to develop the games. Konami sets the storyline and names the characters, but it’s up to the developer to give it that breath of life. I have no doubt that they’ll work hard to keep the series alive and well, so that’s really all the opinion I have of the series’ future. It’s their baby and I know they don’t want it to die. As I watch more of Downpour, I can tell that the developers are putting a lot of thought into it in terms of what’s scary, what’s not, what’s gimmicky, what people hate, etc. I like the atmosphere that they’re going for, and simply hope that they’re not trying to do too much with it. They want it to be a more expansive game than the others were, but we have yet to see how well that does with the themes of Silent Hill as a whole. The idea of Book of Memories seems like a strange idea to me, but as I said, I trust they’ll do something good with it. (In case you’re wondering, the Arcade hardly counts, since that wasn’t a widely-distributed game)

Jane: As far as I’m concerned, a true fan is someone who appreciates the story in their own way and isn’t going to freak out over minor changes. Someone who lets the game grow and flourish instead of wishing it would always stay the same. There’s no real litmus test to subject someone to in order to find out if they’re good enough to be called a real fan, and I think it would be bad if someone tried to figure out such a thing. You’re a fan if you see the series, enjoy it, and find a little bit of personal meaning in it. When you’re able to immerse yourself in the world, to freak out at the scary parts, and to care when a character is going through a tough time, you’re a true fan. No one can judge you for these things, though. We can just as easily say the game wasn’t scary or that the quicktime events pulled us out of the experience. Still, Henry Townshend notwithstanding, be patient with the characters. They’re going through a rough time that they can’t survive without you.