History YMMV / SilentHill

** 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.

** TheMovie.

* AcceptableReligiousTargets: The cult of the games worships several dark gods, and uses the trappings of mainstream religions as a cover. Meanwhile, the cult in the movie is straight-up, puritanical Christian (though the script says they're Manichaeists; a hint is how God is mentioned constantly but never Christ).

*** The game itself is rife with [=ACI=]s. Dahlia [[spoiler:becomes Harry's lover and later claims to be his wife]] and Kaufmann [[spoiler:is Cheryl's therapist.]] Lisa and Cybil are both largely the same, although their circumstances differ from [=SH1=].

* BrokenBase: The film over whether or not it's a good enough adaptation of SilentHill1.
* BittersweetEnding: Even the good endings are this because Silent Hill has left all those affected permanently scarred.

** Also Doctor Kaufmann. It's mighty satisfying when they get their [[HoistByHisOwnPetard just deserts]]. It's interesting to note that Dr. Kaufmann was [[spoiler: at least involved in planning Alessa's birth]], and may in fact be her father.

** Subverted with Claudia. She was a piece of work but [[spoiler:was abused by her father, lost her best friend, and ''still'' considered herself not "Paradise"-worthy.]]

** The nurses in the second and third games, especially on Hard difficulty and higher. They have long attack range and some in the third game carry guns, 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. Worse, in [=SH2=] James also has to protect Maria from them or else it's Game Over.
** The first game has the infamous Grey 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 with one grabbing you while the others slice and dice. Then you tend to get grabbed by another after getting free and the cycle repeats. 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. See for example the basement corridor in "Born From A Wish". Get bitten by one spider too many, cue CriticalExistenceFailure.
** Slurpers. They [[DeadlyLunge lunge]] at you and knock you down, then when you are getting back up they may ram you again. Lather, rinse, repeat, throw controller.

** 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.
** Rawshocks, which makes sense given that [[spoiler:they are preventing Harry from realizing the truth]].

* FanDisservice: The faceless nurses if they aren't FetishFuel.

* HighOctaneNightmareFuel: Oh Xuchilbara, where to start? The entire series embodies this trope, particularly the appropriately named "Nightmare" version of the world.

** There's 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.]] And all the corpses that James runs into [[strike: use the same character model]] look like him, except for one that looks like Harry Mason.

** James' revelation that [[spoiler:he killed Mary]].

** ''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 still complained 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.
** Pretty much any post-Team Silent entry will get flak from fans for being too "Americanized" despite the fact that a couple of the more recent dev teams originate from Britain (Climax Studios) and the Czech Republic (Vatra Games) respectively. Even Silent Hill 4, the last Team Silent game, was polarizing due to the radical gameplay changes.
*** Still more baffling is the very accusation that the series has shifted toward "American" horror -- as WordOfGod states the the series was intended as an homage to American horror in the first place and draws most of its inspiration from it, hence the town's streets being named after various Western horror writers and directors.

* MemeticMolester: Pyramid Head. "Good heavens, look at the time!" [[spoiler:It's rape o'clock.]] And to complete this, monsters run away if they so much as hear the Great Knife scraping across the floor in the dark. Considering James can USE the Great Knife, this comes in handy for avoiding confrontation.

* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:
** Akira Yamaoka's scores run from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_r2ozeKBG20 hauntingly beautiful]] to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liJfyxmzkMQ OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP]].
** On that same note, this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKwRm4SYu68 HOLY CRAP MAKE IT STOP]] song from Shattered Memories, 'The Devil's Laughter.'
** The exception to this is [=SH1=]'s soundtrack, which wasn't done by Yamaoka alone. It was done by the Konami Kukeiha Club. Doesn't stop the music from being any less awesome.
** The Shattered Memories trailer music is a cover of 'Always on my Mind'. An awesome cover that is also played during certain parts of the game.
** The opening and closing theme songs, especially those created by the holy trinity of Yamaoka/Romersa/[[MaryElizabethMcGlynn McGlynn]].

** 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]]?
*** I think, canonically, James is a normal man [[spoiler: who did a horrible thing.]]

*** I think, canonically, James is a normal man who did a horrible thing.

** Akira Yamaoka's scores run from [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=til3dA-vzZ4 hauntingly beautiful]] to [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mLNpDHNPQS0 OH MY GOD MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP MAKE IT STOP]].

* CharacterDerailment: The Dahlia Gillespie of the game and the Dahlia Gillespie of the film share ''nothing'' apart from a name.

** TheMovie, though YourMileageMayVary.

* UnpleasableFanbase[=/=]TheyChangedItNowItSucks:

* [[{{DarthWiki/Ptitlew9bltta3dv6n}} So Bad It's Horrible]]: Tbe comic books, with the exception of ''Sinner's Reward.'' Not only to they [[DidNotDoTheResearch have a lame grindhouse slasher movie vibe that doesn't even vaguely resemble the games,]] but they introduce us to [[TheWesley Christabella.]]

* VisualEffectsOfAwesome: While some of the symbolism really didn't belong, and AdaptationDecay in general abounds, there is very little dispute that the film's visuals are a perfect representation of what a Silent Hill movie should look like.

* AdaptationDecay: Besides the setting and some rather ham-handed references, all the comics written by Scott Ciencin have very little in common with the games.

* [[DarthWiki/Ptitlew9bltta3dv6n So Bad It's Horrible]]: Tbe comic books, with the exception of ''Sinner's Reward.'' Not only to they [[DidNotDoTheResearch have a lame grindhouse slasher movie vibe that doesn't even vaguely resemble the games,]] but they introduce us to [[TheWesley Christabella.]]

* SoBadItsHorrible: Tbe comic books, with the exception of ''Sinner's Reward.'' Not only to they [[DidNotDoTheResearch have a lame grindhouse slasher movie vibe that doesn't even vaguely resemble the games,]] but they introduce us to [[TheWesley Christabella.]]

* 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 still complained 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.

* FetishFuel:
** The Nurses and [[MemeticMolester Pyramid Head]].
** 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 first fought in. The moving pistons in the walls are a phallic symbol.
* FoeYay: RuleThirtyFour means that the fanbase reads quite a bit of subtext into certain character interactions.

* 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!
** Completely averted in Alex's case, who reacts with the appropriate (and usually [[ClusterFBomb sweary]]) exclamations and [[OhCrap facial expressions]]. ("Oh, you gotta be ''shitting'' me!")

* 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.

* HotterAndSexier:
** Dahlia gets quite the makeover in SilentHillShatteredMemories. WordOfGod says this was done on purpose to cue players in that [[spoiler: things are not what they seem]].
** Cybil may be a {{Stripperific}} cop depending on what choices the player makes.

* 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 still complained 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.

** On that same note, this [[http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iKwRm4SYu68 HOLY SHIT MAKE IT STOP]] song from Shattered Memories, 'The Devil's Laughter.'

** Subverted with Claudia. She was a piece of work but [[spoiler:was abused by her father, lost her best friend, and ''still'' considered herself not "Paradise"-worthy.]]* CrowningMusicOfAwesome:

** The exception to this is SH1's soundtrack, which wasn't done by Yamaoka alone. It was done by the Konami Kukeiha Club. Doesn't stop the music from being any less awesome.

* EpilepticTrees: Enough to cover the entire globe and then some. Go check the [=WMG=] page if you're really curious.