[[quoteright:265:http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/SilentHill.jpg]]

-->''[[color:red:The fear of blood tends to create fear for the flesh.]]''

Silent Hill is a Konami videogame franchise in the survival horror genre consisting of the following:
*''[[SilentHill1 Silent Hill]]'' (1999)
*''SilentHill Play Novel'' (2001)
*''SilentHill2'' (2001)
*''SilentHill3'' (2003)
*''SilentHill4 : The Room'' (2004)
*''Film/SilentHill'' (movie adaptation) (2006)
*''SilentHillOrigins'' (2007)
*''SilentHill: The Arcade'' (2007, A [[NoExportForYou Japan and Europe only]] PipeShooter)
*''SilentHillHomecoming'' (2008)
*''SilentHillShatteredMemories'' (upcoming)

And a handful of para-game material such as artbooks, a making of DVD, and a cell-phone game.

The titular setting is an American lakeside resort town with a long history. American Indians called the area the "land of the spirits," and may have considered it cursed. The history of Silent Hill is rife with disappearances, murders, and mysterious activity, mostly owing to the existence of an unnamed demon-worshipping cult.

The Silent Hill games have largely dealt with the repercussions of that cult's actions, including the existence of multiple "layers" of the town itself. The normal town is an average American tourist attraction. On another level, it is long-abandoned and empty, save for the lost and damned who stumble onto its streets. On deeper levels, it is a crumbling ruin, or the full-fledged Otherworld: a burning, rusty hell.

Along with ResidentEvil, it is considered one of the defining examples of the SurvivalHorror genre, and is famous for the high quality of its story and background music.
----
!! This series provides examples of:
* AbandonedHospital (A staple of the series)
** Subverted in ''Homecoming,'' where the game starts in an AbandonedHospital that is also a ContinuityNod, but it's [[spoiler: just a dream.]] Later on, you can find an item or two on the grounds of the familiar Alchemilla Hospital and its labeled on the map, but you don't actually go inside.
* AbusiveParents: A lot of them, but Dahlia Gillespie takes the cake. Poor, poor Alessa...
** And who could forget Angela? [[spoiler: Her dad sexually abused her and her mother said that she ''deserved it''.]]
* ActionSurvivor: All the protagonists of the games and movie.
* AdaptationDecay: Besides the setting and some rather ham-handed references, the comic, ''Silent Hill: Dying Inside'', have very little in common with the games.
* AdvancingWallOfDoom - Pyramid Head in the alternate hospital basement in [=SH2=], and the infamous Advancing Red Light of Doom in the Borley Haunted Mansion in [=SH3=].
* AlienGeometries - Common in the lower levels of the DarkWorld, like the Historical Society and the alternate Hotel at the end of SH 2.
** The entire Labyrinth, really.
* AllJustADream: The "Hospital" ending of ''Homecoming''; the Bad (DyingDream) ending of the first game also falls under this.
*AllThereInTheManual: The Book of Lost Memories (1-3), Another Crimson Tome (4), the victim files (4), and the diaries (5)
*AlternateCharacterInterpretation:
** Is [[SilentHill2 James]] a CompleteMonster who [[spoiler: killed his wife]] because he didn't feel like taking care of her any more, an innocent man tortured by guilt, or a complex tragic character who was the instrument of Mary's [[spoiler: assisted suicide]]?
** In SilentHill3, Vincent offers one in game when he reacts with mock terror upon being asked about monsters in Silent Hill: "They look like ''monsters'' to you?"
*** It doesn't help that if you come back to the place where you killed your first monster in 2, it will be ''surrounded by police tape''. What exactly did you bludgeon to death with a loose board, James?
** There's a fan theory that runs that [[SilentHill4 Henry]] is in fact responsible for the murders throughout the game. See the WildMassGuessing page for details.
** Is [[SilentHillOrigins Travis]] really [[spoiler: the Butcher]]?
** Did [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex]] come back from [[spoiler: the Army or the nuthouse]]?
** Depending on how you answer the questionairre, you can give the player character of ''Shattered Memories'' a different set of characteristics and motivations every time you play through.
* AlternateUniverse (Silent Hill itself exists on multiple levels: the normal, unhaunted town, the snowy, demon-haunted, deserted town, and let's not even ''talk'' about the third level.)
** Although it worked like this in the movie, how many levels of reality there are in the game is the subject of much debate.
* AndYourRewardIsClothes - Starting from SilentHill3, you can earn alternate outfits for the player character (or Eileen in the case of SilentHill4).
* AwesomeButImpractical The heavier melee weapons(hammer, great knife, mace, etc) and the hunting rifle, particularly in the second game(can't move with it drawn, too slow to fire and reload, only useful for the last two bosses)
* AxCrazy - Walter; Travis looks like this whenever he has the fireman's axe equipped.
* BadassNormal: Until Homecoming, the series maintained its more cerebral, literary roots by casting its leads as people from incredibly mundane walks of life. A writer, a store clerk, a carefree teenage girl, a slacker, and even a trucker were the player characters. Of course, they also plowed through hordes of demons as per the regular video game experience, but they had to do so somewhat more slowly than normal. (Call it a balance trade-off. Too awkward and you've made a bad game. Too intuitive and the tension flies out the window.)
** The protagonist in Homecoming qualifies as well. Soldier does not equal SpaceMarine.
*** [[spoiler: Turns out even ''that'' is wrong, and he just thinks he's a soldier. [[MindScrew Or maybe he was.]]]]
*** The developers seemed to throw a lot of hints about Homecoming's TomatoSurprise and MindScrew right into the beginning stage, a nightmare where Alex is chasing Joshua through a hellish hospital. [[spoiler: Nothing about the hospital suggested it was a military hospital, despite all indications that Alex had just come off the battlefield. Alex is completely uninjured at the start of the game and wearing JEANS; he did not come off a battlefield despite his cries of, 'Where's my squad?' It seems some of those details would not be there if his experiences included visits or stays at a military hospital rather than a psych institution. Alex is wearing a Special Forces patch on a civilian jacket (something every SFer this troper has ever met would probably roll his eyes at). His demeanor doesn't fit an SFer. His outfit and speech do not suggest actual military, but ersatz. His hair could slide; lots of spec ops units let up on such regulations. The flashlight he carries in the nightmare is ubiquitous in Basic Training, but they wind up tossed as soon as that is over (or given to kids to play with.) The only thing that made it plausible he really was a soldier after all was the possibility of DidNotDoTheResearch, but it seemed more like the developer did a great job of making a fake soldier rather than a bad job of making a real one.]]
** Not all protagonists get to plow through hordes of demons. The hero of ''SilentHillShatteredMemories'' can't fight at all.
** Two normal citizens mow down the God's hordes, play keep away with Pyramid Head, and fill said boss with lead in ''The Arcade''.
* BewareOfHitchhikingGhosts
* BittersweetEnding: Even the good endings are this, because Silent Hill has left all those affected permanently scarred.
* TheBlank: The bubble-head nurses. Other examples include Grey Children, Lying Figures/Patients, Valtiel, and Lurkers.
* BottomlessPits: Usually used as an InsurmountableWaistHighFence, but you ''can'' fall to your death down them in harder difficulties in SilentHill3.
* BreadEggsMilkSquick: Done ''visually'' - some truly horrendous sights are scattered around Silent Hill (or whatever cheap imitation the developers are using this time) with such subtlety that you can pass right by them if you don't slow down and examine your surroundings.
** Such as the hospital rooms. [[spoiler:Why are there spikes in the cell-OH GOD THEY'RE DROPPING. Oh, they stopped. And whats in this roo- JESUS CHRIST A GIANT HEAD SAVE ME LORD]]
* BreakableWeapons (Origins and The Room)
* BurnTheWitch: Happens to [[spoiler:Cybil]] in TheMovie.
* CameraScrew - A major source of FakeDifficulty during {{boss battle}}s, especially the Dual Pyramid Heads in ''2''.
* CaramelldansenVid
* ChainsawGood (Usually a bonus weapon in the series, although its usefulness varies from game to game)
* ClosedCircle (Played straight most of the time except in 2 and Homecoming. In 2, the player can pretty much always backtrack to the starting area with James' car, but James himself refuses to leave until he finds out what happened to his wife. In Homecoming, you can backtrack almost anywhere, but occasionally you're trapped in an area until you find the exit)
**The developers stated that they made the path from the parking lot to the town in 2 "so long that you wouldn't want to go back". This troper thinks that after the first couple demented monsters they wouldn't care if their car was halfway across the state.
* CompleteMonster (Lots of them, but among the worst is Dahlia Gillespie. Just look at what she did to ''her own child''. Also Doctor Kaufmann. It's mighty satisfying when they get their [[HoistByHisOwnPetard just desserts]].)
* ContinuityNod - The third game makes references back to the first game while 0rigins is a prequel, while the second, fourth and fifth are standalone, but still has {{Shout Out}}s to the other titles:
** The SilentHill2 "Born From a Wish" extra chapter (which shows Maria's point of view just before she meets James), Harry's name is written on a dumpster as graffiti.
** In SilentHill3, Heather will stumble across Harry's notes (in the exact style of the SilentHill1 save points) just before the last section of the game.
** The UFO endings of each game typically have some nod to the previous games (see below).
** ''Homecoming'' has some interesting nods with its achievements. Beating a Feral is ''Eddie's Legacy,'' using health-enhancing Serum for the first time is ''Kaufmann's Handiwork,'' and beating the game on hard means ''The Old Gods haven't left this place.''
* CreepyChild: In this game, they're all creepy.
* CreepyDoll - The doll that Walter gives to Henry in SilentHill4, the various bloodied dolls scattered about Silent Hill in 1 and 3 and especially Robbie the Rabbit.
* CriticalExistenceFailure
* CrowningMusicOfAwesome: Akira Yamaoka's scores run from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=til3dA-vzZ4=PlayList&p=88D6437EB2390344&playnext=1&playnext_from=PL&index=13 hauntingly beautiful]] to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNpDHNPQS0&feature=PlayList&p=88D6437EB2390344&index=14 OH MY GOSH MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP]]
** The Shattered Memories trailer music is a cover of Always on my Mind. An awesome cover.
* CruelAndUnusualDeath: Happens fairly often, but one of the most notable is [[spoiler:Richard]] getting slowly electrified to death in ''The Room''. Also, TheMovie features [[spoiler:Anna]] getting skinned alive, [[spoiler:Cybil]] getting slowly burned alive (in full-on gory detail), and [[spoiler:Christabella]] being ripped in half with [[spoiler:Alessa's]] living barbed wire - after it has [[ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice punched through her crotch and come out through her mouth]]. ''Ouch''.
* CutsceneIncompetence - Henry [[BrokeYourArmPunchingOutCthulhu breaking his arm]] at the end of the Good ending or [[spoiler: getting possessed by Walter in the 21 Sacraments Ending]]; Harry's offscreen [[SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome death]] in the third game and a few of the instant deaths that happen to Heather qualify as well.
* DarkWorld (The alternate, dark and evil(er) Silent Hill with the air raid sirens and the (tougher) monsters and screaming and blood and the running and the huge gaping holes of fire and rusty steel grating... oi)
** And hot, demon-on-demon rape action.
** And breathing organic walls with heartbeats.
** And... many other things that haunts this troper. *shudder*
* DeadlyLunge (A favourite attack of the Simian-Type monster such as Rompers and mumblers)
* DeadAllAlong [[spoiler: Lisa. She was killed long before Harry met her, and is pretty much the same as the demon nurses that stalk the hospital, except that she ''does'' retain some of her humanity, as Alessa remembers her as an odd, yet kindhearted nurse.]]
** [[spoiler: Harry]] himself is one of these in the [[spoiler: worst ending]].
** [[spoiler: Also, a major part of TheReveal in ''Silent Hill V: Homecoming'', with your little brother, who actually died years ago.]]
** It is theorized by some that Angela in [=SH2=] may also be already dead and not knowing it. Maybe she died in the hotel fire.
** Inverted with [[spoiler: Mary, who was thought to have died three years ago, but in reality died very recently before the game.]]
* DegradedBoss (The Abstract Daddy, or Doorman of [=SH2=], is first fought as a miniboss and later becomes a common monster. The same thing happens to the Caliban from Origins and the Missionary in [=SH3=], which appears as a normal enemy in the Order's Church)
* DemonicPossession [[spoiler: Cybil late in the original game. Room 302 in the fourth game around the halfway point slowly becomes possessed with "hauntings", which will hurt Henry if he stays too close to them]].
**[[spoiler: Eileen at the end of The Room,]] making the boss fight harder.
** [[spoiler: Heather]] at the end of SH 3 depending on what actions the player took.
* DemonicSpiders The nurses in the second and third games, especially on Hard difficulty and higher. Limited visibility, clunky camera controls, narrow hallways; they have long attack range(and sometimes carry guns in the third game), attack in groups(so the rest will jump on you when you move in to stomp a downed nurse), and tend to respawn right in your face after you come out of a room. And worse, in [=SH2=], you also have to protect Maria from them, if she falls, it's Game Over.
** The first game has the infamous "gray children"; they appear in groups in the dark corridors of the school, sometimes right in your face when you enter, and gang up on you, one grabbing you while the others slice and dice. Then you tend to get grabbed by another after getting free, and the cycle repeats. [[SaveScumming Save early, save often]]. And later in the game, there's the shadow children, which are transparent and harder to see.
** The literal spiders in [=SH2=] can be demonic on Hard difficulty and if you're low on health. Example, the basement corridor in "Born From A Wish". :gets bitten by one spider too many:, cue CriticalExistenceFailure. "Oops, [[{{Unwinnable}} I should have kept an extra saved game]]".
** Slurpers. They DeadlyLunge at you and knock you down, then when you are getting back up, they may ram you again. Lather, rinse, repeat, throw controller.
** The Doormen in the hotel. Due to the near-total darkness and very narrow hallways, it's hard to see how far away they are or dodge them, resulting in James being head-raped repeatedly.
** Carrions. No matter how far away they are, they'll always get the first hit in (and dole out a huge amount of pain) thanks to a lightning-fast and incredibly accurate lunge. How does roadkill move so quickly?!
** Scrapers in [=SH3=], especially if you're low on ammo and/or health, in the narrow corridors they tend to block your path, including access to spare ammo.
** Numb Bodies, which would populate some rooms and keep bumping you. Yes, that's their attack. Bumping. GET OUT OF THE WAY!!
* DidYouJustPunchOutCthulhu: In the first game, although it's not until the third game that it gets punched out for good. Heather even hangs a dour [[LampshadeHanging lampshade]] over this one in the third game: "it must not have been much of a god if it could be killed by a human being".
** Slightly subverted in that the Gods are usually born prematurely, explaining their relative weakness.
* DifficultySpike: The hospitals, where the nurses are much tougher than previously encountered enemies, notably in [=SH=] 2 and [=SH=] 3 on the higher difficulty levels.
* DistressCall (James gets a letter from his dead wife to kick off the second game)
** He also gets calls from her on the radio after he picks it up, and after watching the tape in the hotel.
** In the first game, Harry gets a wall of department store televisions with the same image of his own daughter, asking where he is. She says the same thing on the phone in the alternate school. Likewise, early on in Homecoming, Alex receives a call for help on his radio intended for somebody else.
* DownerEnding - Just about all of the non-"good", non-wacky endings.
* DrivingQuestion - At least one per game, usually in the form of "What is going on?" and/or "Have you seen X?"
* DullSurprise - The voice actors sometimes don't emote very strongly compared to the horrors their characters are facing, and the animators often choose not to give the cast a wide variety of facial features. Henry from [=SH4=] in particular is considered the worst offender, as he reacts to his situation with nothing more than a mild [[CatchPhrase "What the hell?"]]
** The instruction manual for [=SH4=] [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] this quirk of Henry's: "he never shows his emotions," indeed!
* EldritchAbomination - The things that you have to fight or run from, and possibly the entire town itself.
* EmptyRoomPsych
* EnemyDetectingRadar - The radio is an audio version, but it's nigh-useless since it doesn't tell you how far away or how dangerous the monsters are.
*EpilepticTrees - Enough to cover the entire globe (and then some).
*EscapeFromTheCrazyPlace - The premise of the fourth game, and how the player feels in the others.
*EscortMission (Protecting Maria in 2, Elle in Homecoming, and Eileen in 4 - particularly since [[spoiler:the ending you get depends on how much she got attacked throughout THE WHOLE FREAKING GAME]] .)
*EverybodysDeadDave (Played straight)
* EverythingTryingToKillYou - Most obvious in the third game - Heather can fall to her death via ladders and holes, among other things - and in the fourth game, where apartment building walls harm you.
** Certain parts of the third game, especially on Hard, have living walls that drain Heather's health, and then there's the NightmareFuelUnleaded Bloody Mirror Room DeathTrap(almost, the door unlocks just in time), and the insta-kill red fog during the escape from the amusement park's haunted house. And the hallway that suddenly turns to meat in a NewGamePlus.
** It's hard to think of a better instance of this than ''an entire freaking town''.
* [[EverythingsBetterWithSpinning Everything's Better With Spinning]] - Industrial-sized fans are a recurring motif; the last battle against the BigBad of the fourth game takes place against the backdrop of a giant rotating death machine.
* EvilAlbino (Claudia)
* FanNickname (Abstract Daddy: The Doorman) (Lying Figure: Patient Demon)
* FanDisservice: The faceless nurses, if they aren't the trope below.
* FetishFuel: (The Nurses, Pyramid Head. [[spoiler: Mainly]].)
** The lying figures/patients, mannequin leg monsters, and Valtiel too(he does even more risque stuff with the nurses than PH).
** The Abstract Daddy monster, and the room it is fought in(the moving pistons in the walls are a phallic symbol)
*FetusTerrible [[spoiler: Heather/Alessa is pregnant with the cult's God]]
** Done ''bizarrely'' in ''Homecoming'' where Amnion is pregnant with [[spoiler: the corpse of Alex's dead little brother, Joshua. Whether this is ultimately a positive experience for Alex or very, very bad depends on the ending received]].
* FoeYay - RuleThirtyFour means that the fanbase reads quite a bit of subtext into certain character interactions...
** SilentHill1 - {{Fanon}} says that Kaufmann did unspeakable things to Harry on that pool table after Harry rescued him from the monster.
** SilentHill2 - Pyramid Head, Pyramid Head, Pyramid Head. [[MemeticMolester Good heavens, just look at the time!]]
** SilentHill3 - All of the characters pursuing Heather come off as a StalkerWithACrush. (Including Douglas.)
** SilentHill4 - Walter persistently stalks Henry, kills everyone around him, and addresses Henry as his "Receiver of Wisdom".
* FootprintsOfMuck - Stepping in monster remains results in the player character leaving a trail of bloody footprints; some games even keep track of the length of said trail.
* {{Foreshadowing}} - All part of the MindScrew, though most of it isn't obvious until subsequent playthroughs:
** "Know what you're shooting, and don't go blasting me by mistake!" Spoken by hot cop Cybil, who [[spoiler: gets possessed and will have to be killed if you don't have the red liquid to exorcise her]].
** The bits and pieces of what James gets about what happened to Mary before the PlayerPunch reveal.
** The recurring headaches and flashbacks Heather gets as the third game progresses.
** The numbers carved on the victims chests in the fourth game, before you realize their significance, and the corresponding increase in the bloody hand prints on the wall. Plus, one of the hauntings can be [[spoiler: Henry, with 21/21 carved in his neck]] staring through the eye-hole on the outside of the door.
* FreudWasRight - Hoooo boy... the short version is that plenty of the monsters from the second game are manifestations of James' repressed sex drive, the first from Alessa's fears and memories, and so on.
* GeniusLoci (The town itself is essentially alive. Well, you can thank a nearby God powering all that.)
* GettingCrapPastTheRadar: A popular theory states that the reason for the sheer void of implicit information in the first game is because the MoralGuardians would never have otherwise allowed the publication of a game whose plotline contained so many satanic elements.
* GiantMook - The Large Numb Bodies in the third game, may be other examples.
* GoddamnedBats: The Air Screamers in the first game, and the Pendulums in the third. The latter often get in the way while traversing narrow pathways or stairs, take copious amounts of ammo to kill, and make a NightmareFuel-ing screeching sound.
** And the InvincibleMinorMinion Victims in part 4, which can follow you through walls. The Hummers too, which look like a cross between a literal bat and a mosquito.
* TheGrays - The aliens that show up in the [[spoiler: UFO Endings]].
* GuideDangIt: While most of the puzzles have in-game clues, it's still nigh impossible to get some of the endings without consulting a walkthrough.
** ''SilentHill3'' and ''SilentHillOrigins'' try to avert this by having the canonical ending be impossible to avoid on the first play-through, but [[UnpleasableFanbase fans were still upset]] by the ButThouMust.
** Special shout-out to the hard mode puzzles in 3, which require you to have a working knowledge of Shakespeare's tragedies and know a specific fact about ''a particular species of bird''.
* HandInTheHole (A particular [[{{Squick}} disgusting]] version is present in the 2, and 4 is essentially this every level.)
* HappilyAdopted (Cheryl; [[spoiler: Laura in the "Leave" ending of the second game, perhaps.]])
* TheHeartless (Silent Hill's hideous Inhabitants)
*HellIsThatNoise - The radio especially, but every noise in that game had the potential to be NightmareFuel or ParanoiaFuel.
* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Oh Xuchilbara, where to start?
* HoistByHisOwnPetard: Silent Hill's #1 favorite method of dishing out a KarmicDeath:
** In SilentHill1, [[spoiler: Dahlia]] gets fried by the very god [[spoiler: she]] was trying to summon, and [[spoiler: Kaufman, if you saved him earlier]], gets dragged to hell by [[spoiler: Lisa]].
** Done rather bizarrely in SilentHill2 when [[spoiler: the twin Pyramid Heads]] will commit suicide on their own weapons once [[spoiler: James comes to terms with the truth]].
** In SilentHill3, [[spoiler: Vincent]] insults [[spoiler: Claudia]] at an inopportune moment and earns [[spoiler: a knife in the back]].
** And in SilentHill4, Andrew [=DeSalvo=] is locked into a cell of the prison where he'd acted as its sadistic warden, and later [[spoiler: brutally murdered by one of its prisoners, Walter Sullivan]].
* HolyHandGrenade: Aglaophotis.
* HotterAndSexier: In Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, depending on some of the choices the player makes, the game may turn Dahlia Gillespie from a creepy old woman, to a young stripper. TheyChangedItNowItSucks IfYouKnowWhatIMean.
* HumanSacrifice
* HyperspaceArsenal (Every protagonist in the series is capable of carrying an array of knives, holy swords, stamina drinks and keys with only the clothes on their backs.)
** And since ''Origins'' features breakable items, this means that Travis is often stashing quite a number of improbable weapons in his vests.
* IdleAnimation (every protagonist has one or two, Henry's will change depending on his equipped weapon)
** In the second game, James will strike a pose reminiscent of Ash in Evil Dead II if you're holding the chainsaw and--[[OrSoIHeard according to some]]--standing over a dead enemy. He'll laugh/yell, too. It's unsettling if you've had to set the controller down to concentrate on something else for a minute.
* [[{{ptitle1i2j3t8g}} I Don't Like The Sound Of That Place]] - Silent Hill never sounded like it would be a harmless, remote resort town to begin with, so once things start getting freaky you know for sure that it's a place you should run away from really fast.
** Ditto Shepherd's Glen from SilentHillHomecoming.
* ImpaledWithExtremePrejudice: Happens to [[spoiler:Maria]] - twice - in ''Silent Hill 2''. Also, [[spoiler:Christabella]] in TheMovie.
* ImplacableMan (the Red Pyramid, a.k.a. Pyramid Head, [[spoiler:until the end.]] As well as Walter.)
* ImprovisedWeapon (It'd be easier to list the melee weapons in the series that ''don't'' fall under this trope)
* InventoryManagementPuzzle: All games center around using the right Doohicky with the right Doodad at the right moment; the Fourth game exacerbates this by giving Henry a limited inventory slot.
* InfiniteFlashlight - Averted in ''0rigin''.
* InsurmountableWaistHighFence - Everywhere you go, you are balked by doors with broken locks, police barricades, and points where you can't proceed unless you have the right MacGuffin. (You'd think [[SilentHill4 Henry]] would attempt to use the Pickaxe Of Despair on his locked front door...)
** It was explained earlier in the game that, regardless of how much physical effort Henry [[spoiler:and Joseph.]] had put on breaking down the door or windows, they wouldn't even dent. The same goes for, among other things, [[spoiler:Joseph digging the wall between his room and Eileen's]]. Besides, when Henry finally gets the door open, it only leads him to [[spoiler:revisit Walter's twisted version of the apartment building.]]
** SilentHillShatteredMemories has used the relative lack of these as a selling point, though how well this is received remains to be seen.
* TheIshmael - All of the playable characters are at most nominal protagonists, while the real focus of the plot lies elsewhere.
** Not exactly the case in Silent Hill 2. [[spoiler: Considering, y'know, most of the game is caused by James' subconscious.]]
* JourneyToTheCenterOfTheMind - most obvious in SilentHill2 [[spoiler:(did you really think James is descending about five miles beneath the Silent Hill Historical Society?)]], but really one of the basic premises of the series. It's hinted that the town itself has the power to manifest people's personal demons (literally). So we're treated to [[spoiler:Alessa's]] mental landscape in the first game, [[spoiler:James']] in the second, [[spoiler:a weird mashup of Alessa's and Claudia's]] in the third, [[spoiler:Walter Sullivan's]] in the fourth, [[spoiler:umm...Alessa's again?]] in 0rigins, and [[spoiler:Alex and the parents of Shepherd's Glen]] in Homecoming.
* KatanasAreJustBetter (Crops up as a JustifiedTrope -- see ImprovisedWeapons above)
* LateToTheParty
* LetsPlay - Given the kind of game it is, lots of people have done Lets Plays and/or visual walkthroughs. Blind runs (i.e., playing through for the first time without a walkthrough or any idea of where to go) are also popular.
* LovecraftCountry (Or at the very least Stephen King Country)
* LoveItOrHateIt (TheMovie, as well as Homecoming, to a lesser extent.)
* MalevolentArchitecture (In addition to being alive, Silent Hill is quite the sadist entity)
* MarathonMan - All protagonists except for Travis (unless he's wearing the Sprinter outfit) can run full tilt all the time without tiring, though if they stop they will pant for effect.
** Not exactly. Most of the protagonists have a maximum speed which is based on being rested. As they run, a hidden variable for their stamina drops, causing them to slow down until they reach a jogging speed. This they can actually maintain pretty much indefinitely, but given the length of the game and amount of time they spend searching through rooms, a character really doesn't run an unrealistic distance. What's so strange about someone like Heather or Harry being able to sprint a hundred meters and jog a mile? [[spoiler: Heather/Cheryl also uses her stamina to fire her [[LethalJokeWeapon Heather Beam and Sexy Beam]].]] Alex, presumably the most fit of the protagonists, seems to avoid the issue by never moving past a jog.
* MemeticMolester "Good heavens, look at the time!" [[spoiler:It's rape o'clock.]]
* MindRape
* MindScrew (The major premise of the series)
* MonsterMagnet - The player character when the InfiniteFlashlight is on.
* MultipleEndings (some of which are pure comedy)
* {{Narm}} (TheMovie)
** Though YourMileageMayVary. Also a ''lot'' of dialogue from the games, particularly Harry's performance from the first.
***Dahlia Gillespie gives us the immortal line, "it was foretold by gyromancy!". Go ahead. Wikipedia "gyromancy". I'll wait.
** MagicalGirl Heather.
** Depending on which accolades you use (*coughcoughdogsuitcough*), the entirety of [[SilentHillOrigins Origins]] can be this.
* NarmCharm: The UFO Endings, purposely channeling old school sci-fi B movies for comedic value.
* NewGamePlus
* NightmareFuel + NightmareFuelUnleaded (The entire series embodies this trope, particularly the appropriately named "Nightmare" version of the world.)
* NonStandardGameOver Heather births the god if you try to shoot Claudia near the end of [=SH3=]
** Harry meets a gruesome death by tentacle if you fail to use an item before proceeding in the original. Heather, [[spoiler: keeping up the family tradition]], meets the same crossing a sewer without first dealing with the tentacle residing in the muck during Silent Hill 3.
** In [=SH2=], if Maria is killed before she's supposed to be, including during the chase immediately before her first PlotlineDeath cutscene, it's Game Over. And sometimes when James is killed during the Hanger boss battle, the creatures lift him into the ceiling.
* NothingIsScarier
* NoticeThis - Starting with the second game, the characters will look at any and all objects they can pick up in the area.
* OffingTheOffspring - In addition to all of the instances of attempted HumanSacrifice, [[SilentHillOrigins Travis']] mother becomes convinced that Travis has been [[ChangelingFantasy replaced]] [[GrandTheftMe by a demon]] and tries to commit murder-suicide.
* OldSaveBonus - Having a SilentHill2 save file on the same memory card as SilentHill3 gives you a couple of extra scenes:
** Inspecting a mailbox will net a joke about having no mail, not even a letter for a dead wife.
** Inspecting the rail on the top of the roof will get a comment about how unsafe the whole thing looks.
** A cutscene in which Heather will approach a filthy toilet to retrieve an item, but recoil and wonder out loud who would do such a disgusting thing.
** The nightclub in Silent Hill will have a poster advertising perfomances by Maria.
* OminousFog
* OurMonstersAreWeird Most of the monsters run on this trope, usually combined with HighOctaneNightmareFuel
* PapaWolf - Harry Mason. He'll go ToHellAndBack for his little girl. The third game reveals that he outright murdered a cult member in cold blood to keep his precious Cheryl safe.
* ParanoiaFuel - What's that lurking in the distance? What's with this radio? Will this thing kill me if I touch it? Should I shoot this monster to death or save my ammunition? Who keeps leaving these Health Drinks in the middle of nowhere?
** Not to mention a room in the mall in 3, where there's a sign that says you need to turn off the lights because the room becomes very noticeable if you don't. Even while watching a friend play the game, when they go to turn off the lights it's terrifying because of previous knowledge of SilentHill games. [[spoiler:Nothing actually happens either way,]] which really makes it ParanoiaFuel.
** In Silent Hill 2, while wandering around in the abandoned apartments you hear a noise coming from the north in a room you visited a few minutes before. When you go back into the previously empty room, [[spoiler:a man you haven't seen before is sitting dead in the chair in front of the TV, which has been turned on to static and has blood all over it. Just thinking about who might have done that made This Troper unable to sleep with the lights off that night.]]
*** Don't forget that the man in the chair has the exact same haircut as James.
* PerversePuppet (The Mannequins from the second game, and Ariel from Origins)
** As well as Scarlet from Homecoming.
* PipeShooter - Many outdoor areas, where the player is herded along a linear path from Point A to Point B by {{locked door}}s, [[InsurmountableWaistHeightFence impassable roadblocks]] and {{bottomless pits}}, as well as the AbandonedHospital in most games, and the alternate mall, sewers, and amusement park in the third game(made worse by dead-end rooms that don't contain anything important but ammo-consuming GoddamnedBats).
* PlayerPunch - The TearJerker moments in the various series definitely qualify.
* PointAndClickGame - The Cell Phone spinoffs
* RapeAsBackStory - [[spoiler:Angela]] in Silent Hill 2, [[spoiler: Dahlia (I think)]] in the momvie.
* {{RecurringRiff}}/{{Leitmotif}} Several of the riffs from the first game's opening theme recur throughout the series.
** Silent Hill 2 does this the most with its own soundtrack, eg Theme Of Laura, White Noiz, Forest (Angela's theme, also heard combined with Promise etc.), Null Moon( sort of Maria's theme, reprised in Fermata In Mystic Air), and Promise (itself based on the series' main theme)
** Dahlia (Claw Finger and Never Again) and Kauffman's themes from the first game. The music played when Lisa dies is a variation on the series theme.
* {{Reincarnation}} ([[spoiler: Alessa/Heather/Cheryl]])
* ReligiousHorror (The occult elements as well the cult)
* SoundtrackDissonance (Every game got one. Especially in the opening,when you can heard a somber, mellow tune, or even upbeat song... which can distract you from the fact that the games are fueled with HighOctaneNightmareFuel.)
* ScareChord (in some parts of SH 2, it takes the form of a high-pitched screeching or ringing noise)
* SceneryGorn
* SchoolUniformsAreTheNewBlack: Alessa Gillespie never seen in something other than her school uniform.
* SelfInflictedHell
* ShockAndAwe - Heather can use a taser as a weapon; Travis can earn [[spoiler: a freaking laser gun, the lucky bastard]] once the player unlocks [[spoiler: the UFO Ending]].
* ShoutOut (Every single street and most of the major buildings are named for horror/SF authors or famous stories.)
** The subway sequence in Silent Hill 3 echoes a scene in Adrian Lyne's film ''Jacob's Ladder'', which is cited by the development crew as a primary inspiration for the series - right down to the name of the street the protagonist is trying to reach. A street in Shepherd's Glen in Homecoming also bears Lyne's name.
** An apartment in ''Silent Hill 2'' is also called the "Lyne House". There's also the gurney sequence when James warps to the alternate hospital, another Jacob's Ladder reference.
** Heather can use a [[StarWars lightsaber]].
** There's a scene in Silent Hill 3 in the [[DarkWorld Dark Office Building]] where a lone wheelchair is visible from a great distance, illuminated by a single light. Word of God has confirmed this is a shout out to the memorably creepy "Hello...Gordon" scene from "Session 9".
** In ''Origins'', you can win the "Codebreaker" outfit ([=SH3=] Vincent's vest) by inputting the [[ClassicCheatCode Konami Code]]; additionally, the Collector outfit makes Travis look like [[HalfLife Gordon Freeman]] and the Explorer outfit is evocative of IndianaJones.
* ShrugOfGod - The creators are frustratingly coy about which of the endings are canon; a few of the [[ItsAllThereInTheManual additional releases]] [[NoExportForYou only available in Japan]] do shine some light on things, but real answers are as rare as ampoules.
* SinisterGeometry (Pyramid Head)
* SomethingCompletelyDifferent Bonus Endings are a ''Silent Hill'' tradition:
** SilentHill1 can end with Harry being abducted by aliens (after he asks about his daughter, of course).
** Harry makes a cameo in the UFO ending of SilentHill2 (complete with retro blocky graphics) to abduct James after a CatchPhrase exchange.
** Another alternate ending of SilentHill2 is [[spoiler: a shiba inu dog did it]].
** The UFO ending of SilentHill3 has Harry (and James) getting angry about Heather being picked on by the cult members and unleashing lasery death on the town with an entire UFO armada.
** SilentHillOrigins has an alien with a dog--[[spoiler: a suspiciously familiar shiba inu]]--offering Travis a ride in his UFO.
---> Travis: Can I drive?
---> Alien: You drive stick?
** SilentHillHomecoming can end with the Alex and his LoveInterest being abducted by aliens, while the TokenMinority watches with amazement.
** Silent Hill The Arcade can end with the BigBad flying away in a UFO, and one of the heroes giving chase in a [[ShoutOut Vic]] [[{{Gradius}} Viper]]...zoom out to Robbie, [[PaintingTheFourthWall playing on an emulator]].
* SoupCans (What the hell is up with the ''key'' in a ''soda can'' you can buy from a vending machine?)
** How about in SilentHill2 where you found a can full of LIGHTBULBS, taking one to light up a room too dark to see when the game near the end forced you to drop all your items?
** In [=SH3=], you have to solve certain puzzles by performing actions that are forbidden or deadly to the person in real life, such as mixing bleach and detergent to exterminate a roomful of bugs, and dropping a hairdryer in the water main to kill a monster.
*** There was a jewel of some sort in the walnut, this troper recalls. Figure THAT one out.
** Let's not forget the key found in a (sealed) bag of jelly beans in the first game.
** Screw all that, what about the key you found in the ''missing half of a body you found in an operating room'' in [[SilentHillHomecoming Homecoming?!]]
* SpringLoadedCorpse - Any corpse not properly given one last kick/stomp can stand back up and continue menacing the player character.
* StockSoundEffects The air-raid siren, some of the monster sounds, the sound of the fan in the first game, the demonic moaning sound and other effects heard in the ambient musics in the series, etc.
** The sound the sniffer dogs make when they die is the common "cougar roar" sound, the Insane Cancers use a guttural stock sound when awakening, Air Screamers and Pendulums make red-tailed hawk sounds(I think), Hummers make a "bee buzzing" sound, and the Numb Bodies use some of the zombie moaning sounds from the ''Resident Evil'' series.
* SuddenSequelDeathSyndrome - Poor [[SilentHill1 Harry]]. And according to Frank Sunderland in the fourth game, James never returned from Silent Hill, either, though WordOfGod is unclear on whether this means James just didn't ever contact his father or is In Water. Averted with [[SilentHillOrigins Travis]]: he's shown dropping Alex off at the beginning of ''Homecoming''. (Thanks a lot for nothing, Travis.)
* SurvivalHorror
** ''SilentHillHomecoming'' pulled a ''ResidentEvil 4'' and, according to some critics, somewhat switched to an Action Horror gameplay style by increasing the emphasis on, and quality of, the combat. TheyChangedItNowItSucks, some critics think.
** The upcoming ''Shattered Memories'', on the other hand, abandons combat altogether and forces the player to have to run, hide, and barricade entrances to defend oneself against monsters, heavily emphasizing the "survival" aspect.
* SuspiciousVideogameGenerosity - SilentHill2 and SilentHillOrigins (as a ShoutOut) both have an absurd number of save points arranged in a pattern as a very unsubtle hint that it might be a good idea to save right now.
** Depending on your interpretation, it's also [[WhatDoYouMeanItsNotSymbolic symbolic]].
** The town as a whole is also suspiciously "generous" with weapons, ammunition and healing items considering that everything else is trying to kill you.
* TarotMotifs (In the story supplement "Book of Lost Memories", pretty much every aspect of the town and the characters are associated with Tarot cards--Heather is The Fool, The Sun is the games' bonus features, Pyramid Head is Judgement, The Eye of Night(created specifically for the third game, as no Eye of Night appears in the tarot) is [[spoiler: The God]], and so on)
* TearJerker: Lisa's revelation that [[spoiler:she was DeadAllAlong]], Maria's many deaths, James' revelation that [[spoiler:he killed Mary]], Angela's immolation, Harry's StuffedIntoTheFridge death in [=SH3=], and Cynthia's death in [=SH4=]. All accompanied by sad music pieces.
* TheyChangedItNowItSucks: ''The Room'' and ''Homecoming''. They're going back to the true survival horror roots with ''Shattered Memories'', though.
** It still isn't being made by the original Japanese development team, however. There's a section of the fanbase who dislike ''Origins'' and ''Homecoming'' because of the "outsourcing", so to speak.
* ThisIsADrill: (You can unlock a rock drill as a weapon in the NewGamePlus of the original game, and Judge Halloway wields a nasty looking drill in ''Homecoming''.)
* TomatoInTheMirror:
** [[SilentHill2 James]], [[spoiler: you killed your wife]].
** [[SilentHill3 Heather]], [[spoiler: you're the reincarnation of Cheryl, who in turn is the reincarnation of Alessa]].
** [[SilentHillOrigins Travis]], [[spoiler: you're a sociopath serial killer]]. (But only in the Bad Ending.)
** [[SilentHillHomecoming Alex]], [[spoiler: you were never in the army, the whole game was just a delusion]]. (But this assumes that VillainsNeverLie, and that you get the Hospital Ending.)
* TooAwesomeToUse - Weapons in general, especially the bigger guns with more limited ammo.
* UncannyValley: Purposely invoked in the monster designs, but the characters themselves seem a bit unreal given their DullSurprise.
* {{Understatement}} - "There are violent and disturbing images in this game", warns the obligatory disclaimer every time you load the game.
* UnpleasableFanbase - ''Silent Hill'' fandom is notoriously vocal - particularly concerning sequels that haven't yet been released. Fans complained about the supposed overemphasis on combat in ''Homecoming'' six months before it hit the shelves. ''Shattered Memories'', on the other hand, has no combat at all - and people are already complaining about ''that''. There's also a great deal of grief being voiced over the fact that the protagonist has a [[FanDumb touch-screen cell phone]] to represent the menu commands.
* UrbanLegendOfZelda - A persistent rumor abounded about a supposed "Ambulance Ending" in the first game where Harry rampages through Silent Hill GrandTheftAuto style; also, a common fan art sight gag is to make or draw fake screenshots of the "lost" [=SH4=] UFO Ending. (It doesn't have one.)
* VariableMix: Most of the games feature dynamic music, which seamlessly changes according to the action, such as the number or proximity of monsters in a room, entering or exiting a room (for some scary examples, when you go back through the clock room in the apartments, and when you jump down the final hole to the labyrinth), activating a switch (eg the Alchemilla Hospital generator), or completing some other objective.
* ViolationOfCommonSense - Jump down this possibly bottomless hole? Stick your hand in the toilet? Reach into a dead guy's pocket? Wander around an insane asylum filled with monsters? Sure, why not?
* WakeUpCallBoss: The first boss in each of the first three games, all of which have an instant-death attack that will catch inexperienced players off guard.
* WallsOfText: The reams and reams of information you get from reading stuff picked up in Silent Hill get quite wordy; one LetsPlay made fun of the use of blacked out words by pretending to play Mad Libs with the blanks.
* WhereTheHellIsSpringfield (The actual location of the towns of Silent Hill, South Ashfield, and Shepherd's Glen are somewhat fuzzy, though some of the [[AllThereInTheManual extra material]] makes special mention of the founding of the state of Maine)
** In the movie, Silent Hill is very obviously modeled after Centralia, Pennsylvania, where a long-burning coal fire has caused most of the residents to be relocated elsewhere.
* WombLevel - The boss battles of the first and third games and Nightmare level of the Third game is composed of pulsating flesh; arguably, the entire Fourth game applies as well.
* YetAnotherStupidDeath - Not surprising with EverythingTryingToKillYou and just about every building has NoOshaCompliance.
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<<|SurvivalHorror|>>
<<|TropeOverdosed|>>

''Some games were meant to be scary''