Sunday 7 November 2021

Silent Hill - Aglaophotis

Fog was inserted into PS1 classic to mask hardware's inability to render the area around player all at once.

Ironically, low visibility proved advantageous and helped Team Silent create one of the most tense survival horror atmospheres of all time.

Anyway, there's one or two things to cover.

Authors

Matheson St. - Richard Matheson
Bachman Rd. - Richard Bachman (Stephen King's pesudonym)
Bloch St. - Robert Bloch
Ellroy St. - James Ellroy
Bradbury St. - Ray Bradbury
Finney St. - Jack Finney
Levin St. - Iva Levin
Crichton St. - Michael Crichton
Koontz St. - Dean R. Koontz
Sagan St. - Carl Sagan
Wilson¹ St. - F. Paul Wilson
Simmons St. - Dan Simmons
Sandford St. - John Sandford
Craig St. - Kit Craig

¹Colin Wilson is also plausible.

Weaver St. in the Lake Side Area could be a nod to Sigourney Weaver, but wouldn't make any sense.

Brands

A mixture of product placement and parody.

Banner of Eight Convenience Store is suspiciously similar to 7-Eleven
Fedy-X delivers FedEx
Jim Beam
Queen Burger is the opposite of Burger King.
Jack Daniel's
Vestal Gigastore is a play on Virgin Megastore.
Film posters

Crusher Dan - Die Hard 2
Shoot - Raiders of the Lost Ark
Weird.

Demons and Angels

Nowhere Keys (Hagith, Aratron, Phaleg, Ophiel and Bethor) are named after five of the Olympian Spirits.

For whatever reason, Och and Phul were ignored.

Flauros (described by Dahlia as the Cage of Peace) is named after Duke Flauros, the 64th demon in the Ars Goetia. 
Incubus vs Baphomet


The Seal of Metatron is first seen in the courtyard of Midwich's Otherworld.
Where Masahiro Ito's inspiration came from (who also co-designed monsters with Naoko Sato) remains unknown, but I have a few ideas.

Fraternitas Saturni
And.

The Holy Mountain (1973)
Alejandro Jodorowsky's surreal fantasy is packed with fantastical imagery.
Characters

Alchemilla Hospital director Michael Kaufmann is named after Troma Entertainment founders Michael Herz and Lloyd Kaufman.
Dahlia Gillespie is an apocalypse cultist, very similar to Mrs. Carmody in The Mist.
Lisa Garland vs Nurse Keating (The Exorcist III)


Name is likely a combination of Lisa (Phantoms) and Dorothy herself Judy Garland.

Alessa vs Carrie


Both possess supernatural powers, were ostracised at school and have fanatical religious mothers.

Photograph vs Florence (The Legend of Hell House)


Pamela Franklin take a bow.

Midwich Elementary

John Wyndham's novel The Midwich Cuckoos was adapted for the screen in 1960 as Village of the Damned and remade in 1995.

Going completely against thematic grain, sinister place of education was modelled on Astoria Elementary in Ivan Reitman's action comedy Kindergarten Cop.

Storage room vs...


Even bus is lucky number 7.


Now that's attention to detail.

Jacob's Ladder

The influence of Adrian Lyne's psychological mind fuck is there for all to see.

Discarded wheelchair vs bicycle


Mutilated remains


Metal grating and fan


After Harry is 'killed' by Grey Children (Mumblers in PAL version), he wakes up inside Cafe 5to2.
Principle is extended to Tim Robbins.

While serving in Vietnam, unseen assailant stabs Jacob with a bayonet.
Film then cuts to him waking up in the subway.
And.

Bad ending
Post-credits scene shows Harry died inside his jeep.
Flashing back to 1971, military doctors declare Jacob officially dead.
Join me next time for more.

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