10 Lies About Famous Video Games You Probably Believe
7. It's Based On A Real American City - Silent Hill
There are countless fan theories and rumours about the Silent Hill franchise, but one commonly cited "fact" is that the series' titular locale is actually based on the real American town of Centralia, Pennsylvania.
Centralia has famously had an unstoppable coal mine fire burning underground since 1962, ultimately prompting the majority of its residents to move away over the years. As of 2017, there are only five people left living in the town.
The comparisons between the remote Rust Belt town of Centralia and the eerie hellscape of Silent Hill are self-evident, not least that smoke and steam continue to rise out of the ground in Centralia, not unlike Silent Hill's own nightmarish fog.
But Centralia absolutely wasn't an influence on the video game version of Silent Hill, and it was only during the 2006 film adaptation that any overt link between the two was made.
Screenwriter Roger Avary researched Centralia while penning the Silent Hill movie, even explicitly stating in the film that Silent Hill was abandoned 30 years prior due to a coal mine fire.
But accepting the games as their own delineated universe, they don't appear to owe anything to Centralia at all.
Given how accurately the movie captures the tone and aesthetic of the games, though, it's understandable to get their individual lore confused.