Silent Hill has all sorts of cinematic influences it's reasonably easy to trace. Besides Kindergarten Cop which is a definite outlier the influence of the cinematography, design, themes and plot of Davids Cronenberg, Lynch and Fincher are evident. Whilst each of the games in the series have elements of all of those filmmakers in the mix, the franchise overall owes a considerable debt to one particular film. Which it totally ripped off. Jacob's Ladder is a mostly forgotten psychological horror movie from the early nineties. Starring Tim Robbins and directed by Adrian Lyne who otherwise helmed erotic thrillers like 9½ Weeks, Fatal Attraction and Indecent Proposal it follows Robbins' traumatised Vietnam vet as he starts to see terrifying visions of monsters in his day-to-day postman life. Visions which look remarkably like...almost all of the horrifying monstrosities that have haunted Silent Hill down the years. And which represent parts of his own violent life, since at the end it's revealed that he's having these visions as he lays dying in 'Nam. All of the set design during his nightmares are of Silent Hill's grubby, rusted aesthetic, too. There's even an extended episode in a hospital, for crying out loud. There is one key difference between Jacob's Ladder and Silent Hill, admittedly: one of them doesn't feature Tenacious D guitarist Kyle Gass in a minor role... Are there any we missed? Let us know in the comments what your coolest Silent Hill facts are!
Tom Baker is the Comics Editor at WhatCulture! He's heard all the Doctor Who jokes, but not many about Randall and Hopkirk. He also blogs at http://communibearsilostate.wordpress.com/
