Let's Play Silent Hill Part 2

When we last left off in Let's Play Silent Hill Part 1, I somehow managed to run away from the murderous dogs and pterodactyls roaming the streets of Silent Hill and quickly made my way up the steps of the front entrance of Midwich elementary school.


Schools are always unsettling at night. If you have ever stayed after school for a function (in my case it was play practice) you would know that once the school has been vacated of children and teachers alike, it turns into a different, more sinister, place. In Silent Hill, an empty school at night turns into a hellish nightmare haunted by demonic children.


Midwich elementary school is named after the novel "The Midwich Cuckoos"  by John Wyndham. The same book was also the inspiration for the classic horror film, "Village of the Damned."

For those of you that don't know what the allusion is between "The Midwhich Cuckoos" and "Silent Hill," "The Midwhich Cuckoos" is about supernatural psychic children that manipulate people into doing what they want, which usually ends up with  people committing suicide. "Silent Hill" is about a girl who can supernaturally control the landscape and the monsters that now inhabit it with her subconscious mind.

The title of the book "The Midwich Cuckoos" is also a nod to the cuckoo bird, which lays its eggs in other bird's nests and gets them to raise its young; much like how Harry found Cheryl as an infant on the side of the road and raised her as is own daughter.

Something that is even more remarkable than the connection to "Village of the Damned" is the fact that Midwich elementary school's layout is based on the school in the Arnold Schwarzenegger movie "Kindergarten Cop." It is so surreal for me to learn this because I never really realized it until just recently, even though I saw "Kindergarten Cop" back when it first came out.

"Kindergarten Cop" is about a tough as nails cop (Schwarzenegger) who goes undercover at an elementary school to bust a drug dealer. There are hints of a large drug ring existing in Silent Hill as well. Interesting...

Arnie looks how I felt when I learned the truth about Midwich Elementary School being based on his movie.

Check it out, even the entrance is the same!

Someone at Konami must've decided to use the school from "Kindergarten Cop" as a model for Midwhich elementary school because they weren't familiar with the layout of American schools. Even some of the posters on the walls of of the school are from the movie. Weird...

Do you see it?

The dog. The crazy faced dog with its mocking smile. It's everywhere.

The poster either reads "Dog Kill Me," "Dad Kill Dog," or "Dog Hell Out" as in this artist's interpretation.

Upon entering the school lobby, I picked up the school map that was hanging on the wall.  Yet again, the map is a crucial tool to use during game play, as it is easy to get turned around when you step out of rooms and into the labyrinthine hallways. This trick of changing direction may not be intentional, but it certainly  makes it harder to avoid the demon children when you are trying to figure out what direction you are facing so that you run the right way down the hall to get to the next open door.

Like all of the buildings in Silent Hill, Midwhich is a labyrinth of locked doors. The few open doors are used to funnel you through the school in a haphazard manner so that you are forced to confront the demon children lurking in the darkness.

The steel pipe is the best weapon to use against the demon children and unlike "Silent Hill Zero," the weapons don't degrade during use and break on you during game play.

(I of course, forgot that there are certain weapons that can only be picked up at specific times during game play and missed picking up the better pipe. So I'm stuck with the rusty pipe for my play-through. *sigh*)

The demon children, aka grey children, were replaced in the PAL and NSTC-J (Japan region) versions of "Silent Hill" with the sewer dwelling Mumblers. The replacement probably had something to do with having to kill children (albeit evil undead children with a penchant for murder) in a video game.

The skins of the Mumblers are different, but they're still the same stature as the demon children. I suppose that the Mumblers could be considered evil midgets with knives for fingers. But come on, we all know that they're the same size as the demon children, which means that Mumblers are just another form of evil children in Silent Hill. Silly censors.

This is a Mumbler. It's scarier in the game than depicted here. Trust me.

Once in the main hallway, Harry comes across the front desk and the infirmary of the school. On the reception area  of the front desk is a book with a list of teachers: Johnson, Keith and K. Gordon-- which are members of the band  Sonic Youth. My bet is that Cheryl liked to listen to them and that is why there are listed.

Here Harry comes across books dripping with blood.

This clever riddle is just one of the many clues that help you solve the puzzle and open the foreboding door located on the front of the school's clock tower.

From the reception desk, you can enter the infirmary, where you can save your game and find a health drink and a first aid kit.  In the room adjacent to the infirmary  is a huge coffee table and a disturbing painting on the wall which foreshadows the change in scenery that will occur later on when the school enters the Nightmare Realm. Here I grabbed a few handgun bullets, stared at the awesomely creepy painting for a few moments and then left the room.

I don't know Harry, I rather kind of like it.
But, then again, I live in the House of Horror, so it would match my decor.

A search of the rest of the hallway reveals that only one more set of doors is open-- the double doors that lead through the courtyard.  It's still night time in Silent Hill, which makes it difficult to see the three demon children that are hiding in the courtyard, waiting to strike.

You can kill them, but they will respawn so it's best to use the pipe than to shoot them, as you will run out of bullets faster than you'd think. Me, well, I just ran around them and made my way to the clock tower in the courtyard.

At the far upper left corner is an ominous clock tower with a door on the front. Similar to the item puzzles in "Resident Evil," Harry must find two medallions; a silver moon and a golden sun which will be inserted into the holes on either side of the clock tower.

Also like "Resident Evil" there's a lot of backtracking in the buildings during game play and you will find yourself running back and forth several times through Midwhich elementary school while solving the clock tower puzzle.

After inspecting the clock tower, I made a hasty retreat out the nearest door and then across the hallway through the next set of double doors, which leads to yet another locked exit. The lobby here has the first squeaking black ghost that makes weird little chirps as it walks. It sets off the radio alarm, but doesn't attack you. You can't kill it either. It's just there to scare the crap out of you. Which it does. Every single time I come across it.

After picking up the handgun bullets, I left the back entrance of the school and tried all of the other doors in the hallway. The only other door that's open is the boy's bathroom. Which has a demon child lurking in it. Yay.

Let's kill it!

And I did.

After searching the first floor, I ran over to the stairs and went up to the second floor.  The first classroom on the right has a door that's open and two demon children waiting for Harry. Thankfully, they're easy enough to run around, so I ran over to pick up the health drink on the teacher's desk and then went through the side door into the next classroom.

The side doors of the classrooms come in handy as they allow you to bypass certain sections of the hallways and avoid coming into contact with the demon children that are there.

I've played through "Silent Hill" several times now, however, this time around I got a better look at the posters on the classroom walls because I was playing on a big screen HDTV. Because of the superior TV technology, I noticed something disturbing that I missed before by playing the game on a cathode ray TV; a lot of the posters in the classrooms have eyes on them.

Someone is watching Harry's every move. I wonder who that could be?

From the second classroom, exit into the hallway and go to the next door on the right to enter the boy's bathroom. Once inside, you will hear a disembodied voice of someone crying on the other side of the wall. Upon entering the girl's bathroom next door, you will find two demon children and some handgun bullets.

I killed the demon children and then picked up the ammo and left the bathroom.

Then, passing through the double doors in the hallway by the stairs, I entered the lab equipment room. Searching the dark shelves of the storage area, I came across a large purple bottle of "lab chemical" and picked it up. If you inspect the item in your inventory, you will learn that the label says that it's hydrochloric acid, which is needed for the next puzzle.

In the laboratory next door, there are the old style black-topped lab tables. I don't know about you, but they bring back memories of biology class and dissecting insects. (Which may have been intentional. There is a huge insect theme going on in "Silent Hill" that is made more apparent later on in the game.)

On one of the tables is a statue of a large pink old man's hand grasping an oval shaped plate with a gold medallion mounted on it.

The first riddle is used to solve this puzzle.

I used the "laboratory chemical" (the "sage's water") on the hand statue to dissolve it and then picked up the golden medallion. 

I then returned to the first floor and re-entered the courtyard. At the "a golden sun" hole on the side of the clock tower, I used the gold medallion to set it in place. There is a clicking sound of something unlocking, signaling that the next part of the puzzle is unlocked.

From the clock tower in the courtyard on the first floor, I headed back up to the second floor and over to the short hallway with the locker room and the music room. There are three demon children in this hallway that need to be killed because it's hard to avoid them and if you don't kill them, they'll kill you.

I know this because they killed me. Twice. Oops.

Yeah. It turns out that I'm fine dealing with two demon children, but add one more to the mix, and the damage they deal somehow seems to increase to the point where a few attacks will be enough to kill Harry. Strange that.

A thorough man, Harry always stomps on their heads once the demon children are down to ensure that they are dead.

Speaking of strange, there's a cat scare in the locker room on the second floor that's completely out of place for a spooky school setting. 

Upon entering the locker room, there's a rattling sound. Investigating the rattling locker door will cause a cat to leap out at you. The cat runs out of the room and is then killed by a demon child. 

Poor kitty.

This scene is a total cliche if there ever was one to be found in "Silent Hill." I mean come on, what's a cat doing in an elementary school that's been overtaken by demon children? 

If it was anything like my cat Skittles, it would've skedaddled and found the smallest, darkest spot of the building to hide in and not make a peep until the danger is over. Skittles certainly wouldn't be caught dead in a locker. Of course, he's probably too fat to fit in one. 

The room next to the locker room is the music room with a grand piano, where the next clock tower medallion, the silver moon, is stashed.  The piano keyboard cover is unlocked once the gold sun medallion is set in place in the clock tower.

When the keyboard cover is lifted, it reveals blood stained ivory keys.

Gee, I don't know Harry. What do you think?

On the chalkboard there's sheet music with another riddle written in blood.

Unfortunately, this riddle is so dense that even someone familiar with a piano keyboard will find it difficult to solve, which is why I looked it up in my trusty strategy guide. It's "Totally Unauthorized." 

On a funny note, Prima's "Official Strategy Guide" for "Silent Hill" is utterly useless. It omits crucial details such as secret endings, weapons, item locations and gave incorrect directions for solving puzzles. Relying on their information makes players utterly lost and unable to finish the game. I don't recommend it. 

Heck, I remember picking up a copy of the Prima version and the BradyGames version to compare them when I was out shopping for the strategy guide. Prima's official strategy guide struck me as being incomplete and useless, so I bough the BradyGames version instead. And I was right. It is better.

Once the silent piano keys are pressed, the silver medallion is released. I picked it up and then returned to the clock tower and set it into the silver moon slot.

Doing so however, does not immediately unlock the door on the clock tower.

There is still one more piece to this puzzle.

The answer is found in the last riddle from the books on the reception desk.

It reads:

5:00"Darkness that brings the choking heat"Flames render the silenceAwakening the hungry beastOpen time's door to beckon prey.

So, "Darkness that brings the choking heat" refers to the school's boiler-- which is used to heat the elementary school. In order to get to the basement, where the boiler room is located, I had to run back through the school, up to the second floor to the double doors and across the short back hallway to where there is a stairwell on the northeast side of the school. From there, I went down the stairs to reach the school's basement.

Entering the storage room, I picked up the shot gun shells and the ampoule, which completely heals all of Harry's health and is a life saver during the later boss fights.

The boiler room is next door to the storage room. Inside the boiler room is a large boiler (duh) with a bright red light. Pushing the light opens the door on the clock tower.

Entering the clock tower Harry finds a short walkway and a hole in the floor with ladder rungs on one wall.

At the bottom of the ladder, there is an entrance with a large "Keep Out" sign posted overhead. Yeah. That's not ominous and foreboding at all.

From this point on, it's obvious that Harry is about to venture into the Nightmare Realm version of Midwhich elementary school.

But, it's too late to chicken out now. Cheryl could be there and we have to save her!

Next Up: Let's Play Silent Hill Part 3: Midwhich School Nightmare Realm!

'Silent Hill: Revelation 3D' Nurses Revealed

The first clip from Silent Hill Revelation 3D has surfaced, and boy am I impressed. It is a scene from the hospital, complete with creepy demon nurses.

A statement by the director, Michael J. Bassett from an interview with Shock Till You Drop gives me a really good feeling about the movie because it's going to be an R-rated film.  During filming, Bassett worked with the French producer Samuel Hadida who produced the first "Silent Hill" movie and is a big fan of "Silent Hill" himself, which gave him the freedom to make a psychological horror movie that was as true to the games as he possibly could make it.

Like the first "Silent Hill" movie, CG was used mainly to create effects that were enhancements to the set, the monster costumes and the puppets. Bassett said during an interview  at Comic-Con that he is a "big believer in real monsters on the set."

According to Comic Book.com, Basset's intent was to create a real world with monsters as real as they could make them. The only monster in the movie that has not been done with practical effects is the Mannequin, which has been remade into some sort of unholy spider monstrosity for the movie. A spider made up of mannequin parts. I love it.

There aren't any shots of the Mannequin from the movie yet, but here are two preview pictures from the set.

Is it just me, or is that Pyramid Head standing in the center of the shot?

But the best part, by far, is that Silent Hill series composer Akira Yamaoka made the score for the movie. The sound design is one of the core elements from the game series that is used to great effect to scare the bejeezus out of you. The fact that Bassett acknowledged this and knew that there was no way he was going to do the movie without Yamaoka speaks volumes about his passion for the series, and the thought that he put into directing it.

"Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" is the continuation of the first "Silent Hill" movie. It's plot is similar to the plot from "Silent Hill 3," with Cheryl being raised as Heather by Harry Mason. In "Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" it's Sharon Da Silva (from the first movie) that has been raised as Heather Mason.

In the movie,  Heather and her father are running from dangerous forces that are after her. On her 18th birthday, she learns why and soon finds herself trapped in the hellish landscape of Silent Hill.

"Silent Hill: Revelation 3D" will be in theaters October 26, 2012.

Top 13 Alien Movies

There are alien movies that are strictly in the fuzzy, feel good Sci-Fi Star-Trekkie sickeningly sweet category and then there are alien movies that scare the living crap out of you because the aliens are ALIEN-- their actions motivations that drive them to kill, maim, consume, abduct and experiment upon our fragile flesh are inconceivable and incomprehensible to our logical, pattern seeking human minds.

For horror buffs that are xenophiles, it's the scary alien movies that matter.

So, here's my list of the top 13 scariest alien movies of all time.


13. Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County (1998)

"Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County" aka "Alien Abduction: The McPherson Tape" is a made for TV movie based off the short film "The McPherson Tape" that appeared on the internet in the late 1990's. The movie aired on the now defunct TV channel UPN (United Paramount Network) in 1998. This controversial little film is thought by many to be real footage of an alien abduction.

When this first aired on TV it was called a mockumentary, a type of movie genre that is now called a found footage film. While it is a low budget movie, "Alien Abduction: Incident in Lake County" more makes up for it with some very tense scenes that still make me cringe in fear and hold onto my cat like a little girl whenever I see it.

12. Invasion of the Body Snatchers (1956)

Dr. Miles Bennell's patients are becoming paranoid, and more people are coming to his office, telling him that they believe that their family members or friends are impostors. Is this sweeping mass hysteria, or is something far more sinister actually replacing the townsfolk with duplicates?

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" has been remade several times over the years, but the original is by far the best, with it's ability to create mind numbing paranoia in the viewer. In some ways, it's claustrophobic tone makes it the forefather to the classic alien invasion film "The Thing." This is the movie that invented the term Pod People- you know, the doppelganger copies of people that have all of their memories but just don't act quite right. Those Pod People.

"Invasion of the Body Snatchers" is a classic alien invasion movie and definitely a must see.


11. Signs (2002)

"Signs" is the only M. Night Shyamalan movie that I like. And it has a great soundtrack to boot.

"Signs" is several movies wrapped up into one-- it's a parable about a priest who lost his faith when his wife dies and manages to regain it, and it's about what happens to a small town in the middle of farm country when aliens invade.

Between the quirky (and at times hilariously funny) characters and the pulse pounding, nail biting climax where the aliens enter the Hess' homestead, this movie covers everything from aliens making mysterious crop circles as a form of communication, to UFO sightings and contact with mysterious alien invaders.

The filming style is breathtaking and clever with the alien's never quite fully coming into view until the very end. Which I just absolutely love, because it heightens the suspense and doesn't ruin the movie with terrible over-done CG.

10. Aliens (1986)

James Cameron's 1986 masterpiece "Aliens" is one of my favorite horror movies of all times.

What makes "Aliens" so great is that it takes the spooky atmosphere of a desolate planet wracked with storms and the panic inducing claustrophobic setting of the terraformer's colony to create one heck of a scary ride. Even better, "Aliens" started the whole concept of space marines in pop-culture, which has been the darling of Sci-Fi video games for many years now.

"Aliens" has a strong female lead character, Ellen Ripley, who manages to find her own place among ;a rag-tag crew of misfit marines and survive yet another encounter with the xenomorphs. This time, Ripley takes on the big momma of the aliens herself, the Queen.


9. Prince of Darkness (1987)

John Carpenter's "Prince of Darkness" is a gem of a Lovecraftian Horror film that covers everything from the nature of evil to the existence of alternate dimensions, atomic theory and theoretical physics.

After the last of an ancient secret order of Catholic priests dies, Father Loomis discovers that they had kept an ancient alien artifact locked up in the basement of an old abandoned church. Concerned with what he has found, he contacts Professor Birack and convinces him to bring some of his graduate students over to the church to investigate it. While staying at the church the students start sharing the same dream; a vision of the future and a dire warning of things to come.

During their investigations, the mysterious neon green protoplasmic substance that is swirling ominously in the artifact begins infecting and possessing them. It is soon revealed that the cylinder contains a dark slumbering alien god that has awoken and is going to bring about the end of the world.

While they may call the evil entity "Satan" or the "Anti-God," the themes present in this film are taken directly from pages of H.P. Lovecraft's stories. There are prophetic dreams of a looming disaster, mirrors used as portals to other dimensions and ancient alien artifacts that drive people mad and turns them into monstrous zombies that collapse into insects. The imagery in "Prince of Darkness" is so surreal and alien, if you haven't given John Carpenter's most under-rated horror movie a try, you certainly should.

8. Super 8 (2011) 

"Super 8" is one of those kid's growing up over summer vacation movies that is sort of in the same vein of "Stand By Me" and "ET," except a lot darker. It's an alien invasion film full of action and suspense, and at the same time a movie about kids that are learning about life and each other. It's also the first movie in quite a while that I've seen that has actually had kids cast to play kids, as opposed to 20 year olds posing at high school students.

It's the summer of 1979 and a group of kids have gotten together to make their own zombie movie, called "The Case" on Super 8 film. While filming on location at a train station, they witness a train crash caused by their science teacher. Scattered all over the ground are weird white cubes, which later are revealed to be sections of an alien spacecraft. Unfortunately, the cubes weren't the only thing that escaped the train during the crash, and now a giant alien is out to recapture the parts of its spaceship in a desperate effort to return home.

The alien in "Super 8" is both menacing and sympathetic at the same time. All it wants to do is go home, but the evil government refuses to let it leave.

This movie not only smartly deals with the movie being filmed within a movie motif, it also has characters that  are well fleshed out and very believable. 

7. Fire in the Sky (1993)

"Fire in the Sky" is based on a novel of the same name by Travis Walton.  

Travis and his logger buddies are working in the forest, cutting trees to clear the area for development. One night while driving home from a long day of work, a strange fiery glow appears in the sky. Travis, compelled by the sight of it, steps out of the truck and is hit by a beam of bright white light. His friends, terrified, drive off, leaving him for dead. 

They report the incident to the local authorities but no one believes them and they are suspected of murdering Travis and dumping his body in the woods.

Five days later, Travis appears at a gas station-- he is naked, deyhydrated and out of his mind with fear. 

The flashbacks to Travis' alien abduction are pretty intense, and there is an awful eye-scare in one of the scenes that to this day makes me cringe. 

6. Alien (1979)

The Nostromo, a commercial towing spaceship, is heading home to Earth with a nice haul of ore. The ship picks up an emergency transmission from a nearby planet, which causes the computer to wake up the crew and bring them out of stasis. 

They land on the desolate planet and several crew members head out to investigate the signal. Before long they find themselves walking up to a long abandoned alien space ship with a chamber full of eggs. As they walk through the chamber, one of the eggs hatches and a face-hugger leaps out and attaches itself to crewman Kane, who passes out. Attempts to remove the face-hugger from Kane reveal that the creature has corrosive acid for blood. Yikes.

Soon, it's revealed that the face-hugger implanted an alien larvae into his chest- well, the alien actually reveals itself when it bursts through Kane's chest and kills him. The alien runs off, and the Nostromo crew is stuck fighting an alien creature without any real weaponry. 

"Alien" is a brilliantly filmed Sci-Fi horror film that uses light and shadow to great effect to build up suspense and dread in the viewer while the xenomorph picks off the crew one by one. 

5. Undead (2003)

"Undead" takes place in the Australian fishing village of Berkley. The sleepy village suffers a barrage of meteors that turn people into the hungry undead. A group of survivors is left to fend for themselves as the ravenous zombies attack them at every turn.

While "Undead" is a zombie movie at heart (and a pretty scary, yet hilarious, movie at that) it is, ultimately, an alien invasion movie. Yep. The aliens made the zombies. Way to go E.T. 

This movie apparently recieved terrible reviews, but I think that it is a wonderfully campy gore fest that has both zombies and aliens in the same film. The characters are stereotypes, but the kick-ass fisherman steals the show, providing both John Wayne-like swagger and highly inventive weapons to two genres that are over-run with trite weapon cliches.

4. The Blob (1988)

Ah yes, "The Blob." Never before has strawberry jello been so terrifying.

This alien creature feature starts out with a meteor crashing near a small town in California. An old old hobo comes across the crash site and finds a strange smoking rocky sphere. The sphere cracks open and a thick pink slime engulfs his hand. Terrified, he runs for help and encounters three college students, who take him to the local hospital. Unfortunately, it's too late for the man and the pink slime grows over him and dissolves his body as it consumes him.

The giant amboa from hell then goes on a killing spree/eating binge as it begins to devour the entire town's enhabitants, growing larger with each person it consumes.

Walking Dead fans will find it interesting to learn that Frank Darabont co-wrote the screenplay for "The Blob" and that Jeffrey DeMunn (Dale) plays Sheriff Herb Geller in the movie. How about that? (Of course, now I have watch "The Blob" again so that I can spot DeMunn in action.)

3. Communion (1989)

"Communion" is based on a book of the same name by Whitley Strieber. 

Whitley Strieber is played by Chrisopher Walken, whose family experiences run ins with aliens during their vacation in the woods. Whitley is abducted from the cabin by aliens and his life changes forever. Tramatized by the events, he goes to a psychiatrist and undergoes hypnotic regression where he has flash-backs of his abduction that are absolutely horrific. 

"Communion" is one of the most trippy, and at the same time terrifying, alien movies I have ever seen. 

2. Altered (2006)

"Altered" was directed by Eduardo Sanchez, the co-director of "The Blair Witch Project."

15 years ago, five teenage boys went on a hunting trip that they would never forget. While in the woods, the boys were abducted by aliens and became the subjects of cruel experiments that killed one of the boys.

Wyatt distanced himself from his friends and now lives in constant fear and paranoia away from civilization. Unfortunately for him, two of his friends have taken it upon themselves to hunt down the aliens that tortured them, and they've just caught one.

"Altered" is a suspenseful, scary horror movie that does well with a small budget. This movie is definately a sleeper hit that will one day be a cult classic.


1. The Thing (1982)

John Carpenter's "The Thing" is a remake of "The Thing From Another World" that was based on the novella "Who Goes There?" by John W. Campbell. And is a more faithful interpretation of the pulp fiction alien story than "The Thing From Another World."

"The Thing" is a movie that is just oozing paranoia and dread. Between the desolate Antarctic landscape, the eery minimalistic soundtrack, and the utterly alien Thing that transforms into creatures that Should Not Be, this movie is one of the best alien movies ever made.

Although it was filmed in 1982, "The Thing" has aged quite well, and the recent Blu-Ray release has brought new features on the Thing back to life. There are details on the monsters that were lost in the low resolution VHS and DVD versions of the movie (such as all of the eyes that open up on the Thing after it assimilates the dogs and becomes that towering monstrosity in the kennel. I didn't even know they were there until I saw it on Blu-Ray), and the new HD digitally remastered version of the movie on Blu-Ray reveals the monster in all it's unearthly glory. If you get a chance to watch "The Thing" on Blu-Ray, you really should.