The ancient Greeks may not have had stories about haunted Raggedy Anne dolls or serial killers in hockey masks, but they sure as hell had equally chilling legends about bull-headed monsters and supernatural fates worse than death. After all, humanity has been crafting scary stories since the dawn of time, and the very best of these yarns manage to tap into universal fears and anxieties that are just as frightening today as they were back in pre-history. That’s why it makes sense that so many of our favorite genre narratives from modern times are still based on ancient source material.
With Christophe Gans’ long-awaited big screen adaptation of Konami’s Silent Hill 2 finally hitting theaters this month, I think this is the perfect time to look back on the existing tales that inspired both the original game and the new movie. So gather your health drinks and ammo, as we’re heading back to 1999 to find out how Russian literature and Greek myths served as the basis for one of the greatest video games of all time.
While the first Silent Hill game was built over a cocktail of diverse influences ranging from Stephen King novels to cinematic classics like Eraserhead and Jacob’s Ladder, Konami’s Team Silent wasn’t content with simply recycling their work when the time came to develop a sequel. Led by director Masashi Tsuboyama, the group soon realized that, since they already knew what Silent Hill 2’s world was supposed to look and feel like, they could spend more time developing an in-depth narrative this time around.
It was ultimately the game’s cinematics director, Takayoshi Sato, who suggested looking at Fyodor Dostoevsky’s 1866 novel Crime and Punishment for inspiration. The book’s musings on guilt and attempting to justify terrible deeds through good intentions seemed to him like an appropriately dark setup for a psychological horror experience – especially when you take into account how Team Silent itself faced thoughts of social isolation and even depression while working long hours on both the original game and its sequel.
If you’re somehow unfamiliar with the Russian classic, Crime and Punishment tells the story of a former law student who comes up with a scheme to escape poverty by murdering and robbing a wealthy pawnbroker. While the protagonist initially justifies his terrible plan by thinking of all the good that he could achieve with his newfound fortune, his lofty ambitions are soon crushed by the harsh reality of living with guilt and regret after killing another human being.
With gaming being a uniquely interactive art form, Team Silent thought that it would be interesting to put players in the shoes of a morally grey protagonist who would force them to deal with complex moral/ethical issues in a non-passive manner. That’s how the character of James Sunderland was born – a flawed and unconventional hero trapped in a psychological prison of his own design.
Of course, this was only the starting point for the project, as several members of the relatively small team (which ultimately consisted of about 50 developers) ended up contributing to the story. And once the emotional core was set in stone, the team then decided to restructure this complex tale of guilt and remorse by borrowing from something a little more universal.
That’s how we get to Silent Hill 2’s parallels with the tragic romance of Orpheus and Eurydice. Since players require a clear goal to connect them to the protagonist’s main quest, the idea of a Greek hero venturing into the underworld in order to rescue his deceased wife seemed like the perfect setup for a horrific experience that almost anyone could relate to. However, the connections to this ancient myth are more than mere surface-level references.
Some scholars have interpreted the original myth as a meditation on the nature of grief, with Orpheus’ trek into the underworld being more about coming to terms with the death of his lover than actually defying the will of the gods and bringing her back, much like how James’ quest is more about battling his own demons than finding Mary. While Orpheus is a more traditional hero than James (with the Greek figure using the power of music to overcome the challenges of hell instead of sticking his hand up dirty toilets and beating everyone up with a lead pipe), both characters ultimately fail their respective missions because of their own regrettable actions (unless you count SH2’s bonus Rebirth ending).
There are obviously many other influences that helped to make Silent Hill 2 the masterpiece that it is -such as David Lynch’s Lost Highway and even The Cure’s Bloodflowers album – but I’d argue that this elegant combination of Dostoevsky and Greek tragedy is what ultimately makes this beloved story tick. That’s why I think it’s safe to say that both of these elements will almost certainly show up again in Gans’ Return to Silent Hill.
Judging from the trailers, the live-action incarnation of James Sunderland seems just as hell-bent on finding Mary as the Orpheus-inspired original, and the brief snippets of a more game-accurate Pyramid Head (not to mention the fan-favorite Eddie) suggest that there will be plenty of guilt-driven storytelling as well. While plenty of fans are worried about whether or not Gans will get the aesthetics of Silent Hill 2 right, I’m of the opinion that, so long as the filmmaker commits to telling a deeply introspective tale about a man willing to travel to the depths of hades to save his soul-mate only to lose her all over again when confronted with his own flaws, Return to Silent Hill has everything it needs to be the faithful adaptation that we’ve all been waiting for.
I just hope that there are fewer locked doors this time around!
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