Summary
Silent Hillis one of the household names of the horror genre, with the franchise’s lore spanning four mainline video games and two movies.Silent Hill 2 Remakeis set to release in October, and there’s a new movie in the works, so there seems to be no shortage of entertainment for fans in the near future. With Bloober Team taking the reins and following a nostalgic approach to move the franchise forward, it’s important to revisit the foundational blocks that made the series into the giant it is today. The first installment introduced players to the lens of Harry Mason in his harrowing search for his adopted daughter in the town of Silent Hill, New England.
The jumpscares and distinctive character designs from the first game madeSilent Hilla force to be reckoned with, and its ghost-town theme has been the source of many night terrors. The similarities between Centralia, Pennsylvania, and Silent Hill, New England, have led many to assume that the setting of the iconic video game series directly drew inspiration from the now-desolate town. However, while that isn’t the case, the parallels have continued to linger since their birth in 2006 after the movie series took Centralia as its official muse.
Silent Hill’s Creepy Environment Has a Real-Life Parallel
Once a bustling town with the majority of its revenue coming from mining and selling coal, Centralia was something of an industrial hub during the Industrial Age. The anthracite coal deposits beneath the town were a blessing, as they were the primary driving force behind the area’s development. However, its biggest boon would soon become something straight out of ahorror game. In May 1962, a great fire began to burn in the coal mines, and it’s still unclear why. Experts hold varying opinions on how the fire started, but the most commonly accepted lore was that it began when a landfill near the town was set on fire to reduce waste.
The fire presumably spread through unsealed tunnels in the ground and ignited the coal seams in the mines, resulting in a widespread sea of flames that have continued to burn for over six decades. Coal mine fires were not uncommon, but there had never been one of this scale at the time of its birth. Despite attempts to extinguish it, the fire still burns, releasing toxic fumes and rendering the town uninhabitable.
The Decline And Abandonment Of Centralia
With the underground fire came the threat of sudden sinkholes appearing in the ground, causing roads and other structures to deteriorate. The government decided that the residents needed to evacuate for their own safety. Although a few locals stayed back, the town would never be the same, taking onthe abandoned vibe theSilent Hillseries has recaptured in its games. In 2002, Centralia became officially recognized as a ghost town, as all roads leading into the city became barricaded, and the United States Postal Service suspended its postal code. With just five residents as of 2020, the location is now a husk of its former glory.
Silent Hill’s Centralia Doppelganger Can Easily Be Mistaken for Its Inspiration
Roger Avary, the film’s screenwriter, mentioned that he had looked into Centralia while working on the movie and decided to create his version based on that. Since movie adaptations of video games tend to stay true to the defined lore, it stood to reason at the time that theSilent Hillgameswere also inspired by Centralia. The urban legend caught on quickly, and despite Masahiro Ito — the original art director of the video games — debunking this rumor, the uncanny resemblance between the game’s location and Centralia was too much of a parallel to ignore. Contrary to pop culture knowledge, the fog-covered environment in the games is actually due to snow, not ash from the coal mine fire.
That also implies another central piece ofSilent Hill’s lorein its religious doomsday cult and the last standing church of Centralia are only happy coincidences, not a virtual rehash of history. However, this incident underscores how video games can take on a life of their own and influence pop culture and history at large.
Silent Hilland the town of Centralia are now essentially tied at the hip, and as one’s mysterious legend grows, so does the other. WithBloober Team, the developers ofSilent Hill 2 Remake, setting preservation of the original’s atmosphere as a priority, it is imperative to understand the birth of the Centralia rumors and its interwoven long-standing history with theSilent Hillfranchise.
