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Cool and Scary Things

This section throws back to an original idea I had on the GameFAQs Silent Hill 2 message board in 2002, to create a topic of "Cool and Scary things" found throughout that game, including various sounds, sights and general trivia.

The idea took off and it went through 1500 posts of discussion and findings. While making walkthroughs for the Silent Hill games I decided to carry on the tradition with a section of trivia using the same admittedly quirky title I chose then as a young teenager.

- Andrew Haffenden aka Conquerer (Silent Hill FAQ/Walkthrough)

Old Silent Hill

  • Cafe 5 to 2 is a reference to the 1994 film "Natural Born Killers" with a cafe of the same name
  • The "Study, Dammit!" poster in the cafe is a copy of a real poster created by Stephen King in university, featuring King himself on it
  • The restaurant Queen Burger on Bachman Road is a play on the fast food restaurant Burger King
  • The three keys for Eclipse (Scarecrow, Lion, Woodman) are all in the theme of "The Wizard of Oz"

Midwich Elementary School

  • Midwich Street and Elementary get their names from a village in the 1960 and 1995 films "Village of the Damned", based on the 1957 book "The Midwich Cuckoos" by John Wyndham
  • Midwich's general appearance and art design is modelled directly after the 1990 film "Kindergarten Cop", down to identical but pixelated posters and cabinets

Nightmare School

  • "Leonard Rhine The Monster Lurks" is an allusion to "Timothy Flyte The Ancient Enemy" written on a mirror in the Dean Koontz novel and film "Phantoms"
  • If you don't read "The Monster Lurks" note in the 1F Boy's Washroom, Harry says "No useful books" when you check the later book in the Library Reserve, which can be read if you saw the note
  • If you don't kill the Creeper before trying to leave the top left Teacher's Room, it'll stalk Harry when he answers the nearby phone
  • Creepy knocking is heard in the Library Reserve

Old Silent Hill Part 2

  • "REDRUM" can be seen in red writing on a garage on the north side of Bloch Street on the way to the bridge, a nod to Stephen King's "The Shining" (also prominently featured in the 1980 film by Stanley Kubrick)
  • Beside the "REDRUM" marking is a store called Jim Beam, an alcohol brand, although sadly they do not sell rum, which would've been a funny one (but perhaps it's still meant to be an alcohol store)

Central Silent Hill

  • There is a restaurant called Konami Burger on south Crichton Street

Alchemilla Hospital

  • Alchemilla likely gets its name from the genus of herb from the Rosaceae family of the same name
  • 4 is an unlucky number in Japan since it sounds like the word for death, making the brief presence of the secret 4th floor even more terrifying

Nightmare Hospital

  • If you re-enter the stairwell and try to return to the 4th floor, a wall prevents any access
  • A banging sound, possibly falling bricks, is heard in the Director's Office
  • A crash is heard in the 1F Storeroom
  • The plates found in the hospital are all themed with characters from "Alice in Wonderland"
  • The Lighter Harry finds is a Zippo, with the logo clearly legible on the bottom just as it appears on all Zippos
  • The Blood Pack can be used anywhere inside the Bloodsucker room, provided you've moved from the door
  • There's a crash sound as you leave the 3F Men's Washroom
  • Sound of repeated glass smashing is heard in the first left room of the second hallway in the secret second floor basement

Sewers (to Resort Area)

  • The Radio doesn't work in the Sewers, likely due to the signal being blocked while underground

Silent Hill Resort Area

  • The restaurant MEC Burger has very similar yellow arches to the original design of McDonalds restaurants
  • There are boxes labelled "Fedy-X" inside Indian Runner, a play on the Fedex shipping company
  • There's a Playboy style magazine underneath the newspaper article in the motel office lounge
  • If you examine the sexy poster on the wall of the motel office lounge, Harry comments "Don't look at that now"

Lakeside Amusement Park

  • The Unknown Liquid can actually be used on the first Larval Stalker in the area, skipping ahead to the post-Cybil fight scene, albeit with the cutscene completely broken

Nowhere

  • Alessa's ghost can be seen running through the first Nowhere hallway, along with the sound of her laughing
  • Alessa's ghost also appears in the third floor foyer and also in the graffiti room cutscene
  • The botany book in the right 3F room, which contains a blurb about White Claudia, can only be read if the player checked the police station chalkboard
  • A newspaper article explaining the fire in the Gillespie household can sometimes be found in the right side 3F room (only in PAL and Japanese versions) but its appearance is random

Miscellaneous

  • Harry's wife is first seen in the opening movie with Harry holding Cheryl but is forever replaced with Cybil after receiving the Good+ ending
  • The roads in Silent Hill are incredibly wide, especially for a small town
  • Street names are based off the names of authors who were inspirational to the creators of Silent Hill
  • Dahlia is barefooted (her spiritual successor Claudia later follows suit)
  • There is sometimes a glitch where Air Screamers or Night Flutters can be shot on repeat without dying, surviving 10-15+ Rifle shots
  • Silent Hill residents must love burger joints as there's no fewer than three of them, including one in each travelled section of town