It can be worthwhile to discuss what other locations can be the perfect settings for a new Silent Hill game, especially if it’s from a movie. Now that we have formally established that the games are going beyond the physical location of a town called Silent Hill.
The newest entry in the penultimate psychological horror franchise takes us to the remote countryside of Japan. This cements the fact that Silent Hill can be any location, even if it is someone’s personal hellscape.
In the list below, we will take a look at some iconic horror movie locations that can be the perfect setting for a Silent Hill game.
Perfect Silent Hill Settings Inspired By Horror Movies
Blair Witch Woods (The Blair Witch Project)
The Blair Witch Project is definitely one of the most influential films in the horror movie genre. It was one of the movies that established the legacy of found footage horror films as a genre, made with a shoestring budget.
Suppose we consider the fact that Silent Hill, as a concept, is always the manifestation of the player character’s own personal hellscape. But still distinct enough to be an imaginary planescape. The Blair Witch Woods would be the perfect setting for a new Silent Hill game.
Some aspects, such as the ambiguity around the horrifying noises made by the stickmen or the witch herself, are incredibly Silent Hill-coded.
Outpost 31 (The Thing)
Based on the novel titled ‘Who Goes There ?’ written by John W. Campbell Jr. The Thing is one of the best sci-fi horror films from the 80s. Set in an era of competition and the Cold War, a bunch of scientists find themselves stalked by an unexplainable nightmare.
Which brings us to the setting of the movie, in the chilling Arctic pole, in an eerie research outpost. It is hard to come across life, and isolation can be pretty evident. Hence, it can be the perfect setting for a Silent Hill game.
Especially if the game is set in the old era of the early 80s with limited technology, everything points towards the perfect recipe for a new explorable hellscape for the Silent Hill franchise.
Midnight Train (The Midnight Meat Train)
The idea of experiencing haunting in a moving vehicle is pretty horrifying and not something that has been explored. Previous Silent Hill games have had segments with subways and trains, but none of them explored the idea throughout.
The Midnight Meat Train is a movie based on a story written by Clive Barker in 1984. It follows a photographer trying to track down a serial killer, leading him to a subway. What he finds there is a one-stop right to something horrifying.
A Silent Hill game that fully explores horror through a train ride could be the perfect setting for the next game. If you haven’t checked out the film yet, make sure you do, and also read the source material, which is a great short story book.
Agua Dulce (Nope)
Usually, horror movies set around the idea of aliens and interplanetary threats tend to end up looking mostly like sci-fi media. Nope was one of the best films from recent years that tackles the idea of extraterrestrial horror.
Directed and produced by the amazing Jordan Peele, the movie shows us how a regular location can become a place of dread. This is the film that kick-started Jordan Peele’s involvement in the world.
It’s almost poetic how the location of the film, Agua Dulce, and the aesthetics could work perfectly in a Silent Hill game. The legendary game director, Hideo Kojima, was working on a Silent Hill project before it got canceled. But now he is involved with Jordan Peele in another horror game anthology project.
Ashecliffe Hospital (Shutter Island)
The idea of a medical institution being someone’s personal hellscape has not been left unexplored in Silent Hill before. But we haven’t seen such a location explored extensively. The only things fans remember are the unusually attractive nurse enemies from the games.
If we take a look at movies like Shutter Island, which explore the idea of horrifying haunted asylums, they have an untapped potential. Especially if it is set on an isolated island, you are landlocked with a community of mentally insane inmates.
That is kind of what the setting of the movie is about, if you haven’t checked it out yet. Which you definitely should, and will help you realize how perfect it is as the horror setting for the next Silent Hill.
Antonio Bay (The Fog)
If you don’t know about this movie, then the movie you were too young for when it was released. But, The Fog, as the name suggests, is a movie that is deliberately Silent Hill-coded. It was directed by the legendary John Carpenter, who was also behind The Thing.
The plot of the movie is set around the founding of Antonio Bay, which was the location for a deliberate accident. One hundred years later, the location is hit by a cursed fog that appears to be haunting the residents filled with vengeance.
If you haven’t checked out The Fog yet, then make sure you do because it is a brilliant horror movie. It is also the perfect setting for a Silent Hill game, which does make us wonder one thing. John Carpenter would’ve been a great Silent Hill game director.
Transylvania (Nosferatu)
Bram Stoker’s Dracula is one of the greatest horror novellas ever written. It has led to the creation of further horror media starring vampires, as well as countless films. The most famous of all of them is 1922’s Nosferatu.
In 2024, director Robert Eggers, who is well known for his works in gothic horror, released his own rendition of Nosferatu. While the story of Dracula, as well as the movies, is not particularly set in Transylvania.
It did bring us to the idea of a Silent Hill game set in the Victorian era with Transylvania as the setting, which would be perfection. It would not have dawned on us, unless we came across Robert Eggers’ rendition of the location. The idea of the mysterious Count living in an isolated castle in Transylvania was best explored in this film.
