Silent Hill & "Elevated Horror": An Unexpected Connection and Potential Partnership
With the leaks of a new Silent Hill on the horizon and the rising power of "Elevated" horror in cinema, I wanted to take the time to explore how both can work with each other.
I fucking hate the term “elevated horror”.
It's hard not to get mad at it honestly. Whilst I adore the wide horror genre, I'm aware that my appreciation comes from a complete lack of shame surrounding it. With “elevated” horror, all it has seemingly done is given those who are afraid to list films like Malignant or Basket Case a shield to still see the genre largely as this immature beast with occasional diamonds in the rough. This idea is that as long as there are deep themes around it, you can look more sophisticated and your taste in film remains intact.
But, that’s the way of the world now. Despite my anger at the term, many of the films inside it are ones I've come to adore over the years. Hereditary, Midsommar and even your Blumhouse fare such as The Invisible Man and Get Out have all shown remarkable examples of why this specific breed of horror can be so effective. It's safe to say that for the film space, horror is in and shows no signs of stopping anytime soon.
In the video game space, the genre has had its ups and downs but has never exactly followed the trends of film. While there are outliers such as Outlast which utilised the found footage aesthetic or even those two random Saw games that were released when the series was on its deathbed, the trends of horror films and horror games have never followed each other. That said, there’s a certain game that may have got on board with a current trend without even realising it.
In 1999, Konami released Silent Hill for the PlayStation 1 to great success. As a competitor to Capcom's Resident Evil, it offered a bold new offering that took the genre in new directions by focusing on more metaphorical and psychological forms of horror. Whilst Resident Evil found joy in the bad voice acting and zombie dogs flying through windows to give you unexpected jumpscares, Silent Hill sought to create horror that would put itself deep inside your head. By thinking less about making you JUMP at something unexpected, the game made you afraid of both what you couldn't see and what you could barely make out in front of you, leaving you to make your own interpretations. Something that only grew when Silent Hill 2 was released in 2001.
Of course, Silent Hill is no stranger to film. As well as having two film adaptations that range from surprisingly okay (2006’s film of the same name) to a genuine war crime (2012’s Silent Hill Revelation), the bones of the entire series lie within many western horrors and surrealism. The works of David Lynch, Jacob’s Ladder and even Kindergarten Cop are all a major part of what made Silent Hill what it is today. Despite attempts to make the series as big as Resident Evil's fun vanity projects starring the director's smoking hot wife, Silent Hill has struggled to get outside of the games space. Hell, it’s struggled to stay active with games in the first place.
However, the influence and power of these games have never left. Despite the nightmare era of post-Team Silent games, the series has still maintained a reputation for creating genuinely frightening games that makes you think and make you scared in more impactful ways than other media in the genre of horror. In my view, I think this is largely because of the game’s commitment to the type of horror it wanted to represent. While a massive risk in the sea of jumpscare heavy horror, Silent Hill managed to carve out a niche for itself by focusing on its more “deep” horror that feels ripe for exploration in the current gaming horror space.
Hereditary by director Ari Aster is a drama about how a family carries around the generational trauma and family responsibilities of those who came before us, leaving us in a self-destructive cycle. The film also features decapitations and a Devil worship that’s pretty neato. Midsommar is a movie about a toxic relationship and the concept of manipulation that has someone get burned alive in a Wicker Man-style setting. The Invisible Man is a film about domestic abuse and how the trauma from it can always linger like a ghost around the tormented. Whilst these films wrap horror conventions around them, they largely serve as grander metaphors that work also as interpretational works with no right or wrong answers. Something that ultimately helped Silent Hill stand out from the rest in the game space.
At the core of Silent Hill 2 specifically is a story of guilt and sexual frustration. The character of James Sunderland enters the town searching for his supposedly dead wife while facing threats and other characters that bring him face to face with his insecurities and darkest parts of his own subconscious. While still a video game where you bash in the heads of various supernatural creatures in janky combat, the story took a monumental risk by forcing you to focus on who or what you were really playing for. As the game reaches its end and gives you an ending tailored to your own playstyle, it cements itself as a deeply personal piece of horror for anyone who has experienced it from beginning to end.
Part of why horror has cemented itself as a deeply influential genre is its ability to become relatable even in its most fantastical moments. Even if A Nightmare on Elm Street is ultimately a slasher about a guy who invades your dreams, there’s something in these movies that will always speak to at least one person. Elevated horror seeks out this same goal by making the metaphor it tackles or genres it attempts to add to itself in a more obvious way while still keeping some of it behind the curtain. While it had a slow start early in its beginning. the commitment from distributors like A24 to stick with it with films like Hereditary and The Witch helped bring it to a point of fairly big success.
With the new leaks regarding Silent Hill’s return to consoles, it seems like the series is coming back at a time when horror games are almost at a stagnant point. Although Resident Evil is a success, the AAA horror gaming space is one that’s ultimately slowed down massively over the recent years in terms of original gameplay ideas and concepts. That’s why Silent Hill when or if it returns could help reinvigorate the horror genre. By taking notes from the horror movies that have been successful in recent years while bringing back its original revolutionary style, Silent Hill has an unprecedented advantage that could lead to it being a massive success and the opening of more bold horror stories to be told through games. Stories that aren’t direct copies of what’s going on in cinema but rather, taking what makes those so strong in an interactive setting.