The Various Adaptations "Silent Hill" Has Under Taken

By Bob Garrison

“Silent Hill”… Few Horror Video Game franchises have the legs for adaptations. Even fewer of them are Horror Based I.P.s. Silent Hill is one of the most well-known games in the Horror Genre. The series has seen several entries and two feature film adaptations, with a rumored third along the way. Silent Hill has garnered the love of fans from all over. It’s been several years since an official entry in the series was released, but that hasn’t slowed, stalled, or stopped fans of the franchise from rooting for it to continue. With Hollywood’s sudden onslaught of video game adaptations, there are questions about whether the third film will materialize or if we get a different adaptation.

Silent Hill

Being a video game, the history of adaptations into feature films has been questionable at best. While we go through the video game adaptation renaissance, the jury is still out on how various franchise games are adapted. While most gaming franchises get transported to the silver screen with HBO’s The Last of Us on the horizon, there is hope for adapting these franchises more fittingly. Silent Hill has always been about the trauma and tragedy of characters with them forced to battle those insecurities. As each entry focusing on a new protagonist, players go through a different level of trauma with their characters. It is a perfect model for a television series.

Horror has begun to carve a place in pop culture, with the success of such series of American Horror Story, Lovecraft Country, and Stranger Things. Like the previously mention American Horror Story, Silent Hill could see the light as a Horror Anthology Series. It is adapting each game as its limited episode season. With no worry behind renewing contracts and telling isolated stories throughout the series, it leaves the door wide open with many fans clamoring for a proper adaptation of Silent Hill 2. With an anthology series, there’s also an opportunity to revive other projects in this adaptation, such as the Hideo Kojima developed Silent Hills.

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Even the lesser received games, such as Silent Hill 4 and Downpour, could get adaptations that use those stories appropriately. One of the benefits of adaptation involves fixing or improving some of the lesser worked material. The advantage the series has is so much material to explore. It makes it easy for any showrunner to walk in and develop. There is a bevy of avenues to take a Silent Hill Series. Many networks might even jump at the opportunity to host such a series. Silent Hill is one of the crown jewels of horror gaming, and fans have felt its absence.

“Silent Hill” Game

Silent Hill is a franchise deserving of the multi-media treatment. It is a series that faces fears; its survival is rooted in the player’s ability to move past their fears as their characters work past their issues. It is a story built around characters, perfect for creating exciting and gripping horror. The best horror stories, regardless of the medium, involve characters that the audience cares about. Silent Hill is almost magical in creating flawed characters that you can care for. Good horror tortures its audience by torturing its characters.

Silent Hill is a series with all the makings of becoming the next big fad as a horror series. Anthology horror series have existed almost as long as horror itself and remain memorable. Silent Hill is unique, iconic on its own merits. Adapting Silent Hill into a television series is the right step. It is long-form storytelling that cuts less of the fat and lets an audience get to know a character on a level much more profound than in films. Horror is on the way to becoming the dominant force in television, and Silent Hill would no doubt be vital in solidifying that control of the small screen. After having received so much exposure in film, maybe it’s time to test Silent Hill’s impressive storytelling through television.