Silent Hill: 10 Terrifying Jump-Scares That Scarred You For Life
If there's one franchise that knows how to get inside your mind, it's Silent Hill.
You may argue that a standard jump scare is a pretty cheap tactic in virtually any medium. Using sudden sounds or images, these unexpected moments have started to become mundane and are played out by movies and video games in search of a simple shock.
Well, at least that's what you might say, if you've never experienced a truly good one. Well-played jump scares can leave your heart racing and your head spinning as you try to recover.
In movies, these are easy enough to move on from, since all you're tasked with is sitting down and watching the events unfold. In video games, however, such an ask is much tougher, as there's a good chance you'll need to act very quickly to stop being finished off by whatever just got the drop on you in the first place. Few gaming series' have been as adept at employing these as Silent Hill, and some of these iconic moments have left gamers truly reeling over the years.
So, let's take a look back at ten of the very best jump scares from the Silent Hill series. Be warned; traumatic flashbacks may be invoked over the course of this list...
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10. Silent Hill 3 - The Mannequin Decapitation
Exploring the mannequin storeroom in Silent Hill 3 is a creepy moment in its own right, thanks in large part to the synthetic bodies that inhabit it. Mannequins can be truly terrifying, as evidenced by the fact that even a relatively light-hearted TV show like Doctor Who managed to make a menace out of them.
Amidst the shelves and crates of the mannequin storeroom is one obviously posed body that immediately draws the player's attention. Stationary on its wooden stand, this one won't actually do anything when you first look at it. Move across between the next row of shelves, however, and a sudden scream and thud will have you panicking in the horribly confined space.
Moving back around to find that the mannequin you saw earlier has now been bloodily beheaded is comforting at first, since it's a happy sign that you're not in immediate danger. As the pulse re-slows, however, you'll start to consider just what happened to the creepy thing and the shivers will ensue once more...