Youth Involvement in an Innovative Coconut Value Chain by Mwalimu Menza
Silent hill essay script 1
1. Silent Hill Essay Script
INTRO
Cut scenes from Indie Horror games sourced from YouTube (etc)
Non-diegetic Voiceover
NARRATOR
“Horror games, when you think about horror games you may automatically put your mind towards popular Indie titles such as Five Nights
at Freddie’s, Slender Man, Emily wants to play, Excreta. Although these games are fun mechanically and give some fright, over time the
gimmick gets repetitive and over done making it more of a mini game rather than a horror.
The horror genre became very repetitive following the same structures becoming just a game rather than a horror. As I was starting to
lose hope, Play Station released a short game that saved me from my boring life and gave me true fear that I’ve never felt before. This game
was ‘Silent Hills Playable Teaser’.”
Revolution of horror Silent Hill 2
NARRATOR
“Before I get into the depth of P.T, I want you to understand my appreciation towards the franchise; especially silent hill 2.The silent hill
series in my opinion is a revolution towards the darker side of games. Silent hill 2 is a good example of this as the story was more of a
minimalist personal level focusing more on the protagonist James Sunderland and his trauma. This breaks the trend at the time, as other
game protagonists such as Leon Kennedy, Master Chief and Nathan Graves were more of a simple hero archetype giving a plain motive for
the player to defeat the villain. James Sunderland’s motive on the other hand is to find his wife Mary after finding a note from her telling
him to go to silent hill. The strange thing about this is that Mary has been dead for three years, which summarises how desperate and
hopeless James is.”
Cut Scene (James monologue)
NARRATOR
“As seen here even the enemies are manifestations from his dark thoughts such as appearing as disturbing deformed versions of his wife
and creatures formed from his urges towards woman. This helps to make the game scarier as you aren’t playing as badass action man that
can gun down everything but as a sad man trying to survive his demons. The attack mechanics even conveys how inexperienced James is
with weapons as your attacks are much slower taking up more frames unlike games such as Zelda.
Found footage (slowed footage of silent hill and Zelda)
All this traps the player in a realistic tragic fragile man making the game much more real and intense.
What I’m trying to say is that silent hill broke down the restrictions of clichés inspiring other developers. The franchise and other games
sadly started to run out of creativity creating another cliché wall losing its core narrative however this leads me towards P.T.
How P.T could have re introduced silent hills true horror
The reasons why I had touched upon silent hill 2 as one of the best horror game, shows how impressive P.T has lived up to its predecessor.
It innovates the game in a minimalist fashion yet keeping similarities. This game similarly breaks down the cliché barrier and builds
something new. An example of this is the antagonist. Other games have monsters or ghosts helping the player to focus on one thing using
the environment to defeat the enemy. Although P.T has ghosts, the key antagonist is the actual environment itself. Much like the silent hill
town but confined to one small corridor toying and tricking the player.
Gameplay (First corridor loop)
Right off the bat you are in an uncanny hall way contrasted to secluded room prior. The furniture implies the hallway belongs to a family
which relates to the radios eerie broadcasting of a familicide crime scene making the player feel more vulnerable. As you continue through,
the homely hallway is challenged even more when you open up to same hallway. The use of repetition imprisons the player which plays
with the fear of loss of autonomy. The mystery is also developed when this happens.
Gameplay (door closing and opening)
The fact that something so unfamiliar occurs when you are in a familiar environment both scares and entices the player to look through the
gap of the door. Continuingly walking through this daunting cycle thing slowly start to become more unreal mixing both the familiar and
unfamiliar. The radio which somewhat acted as an escape goat becomes distorted and subtly starts twisting the reporters words. We then
see babies crying, cockroaches everywhere and woman crying or laughing until we see this…
Gameplay (ghost)
The fact that this is a game you have to decide for yourself if you want to brave through or back down and ponder what could happen.
Other ways the game provokes fear is when you witness a foetus inside the sink. It’s an obvious hint to the mysterious story as it relates to
the radio. Other than the creepy speech it has, the reason why it’s so scary is the fact that it triggers our primitive fear of our offspring’s
deformed in unnatural ways. Which one of the creators Guillermo Del Toro talks about this himself.
The whole game forces the player to use his own interpretation and imagination. An example of this when you see this…
Gameplay (fridge swinging)
It’s horrifyingwhat imagination wehaveof what is happeninginside. In fact throughout thegame, they splatterclues and
hints towards thestory. Thegamenever allowsyou tofully grasp anythingwithin thestrangeworld. Even when you
finish thegame it never justifies what happened makingyou question, howdid I escape, wheream I, whois theghost,
who am I. it’s unsatisfyingwith the unresolved resolved story which it so effectivelybuilt up. Straight after thegameI was
searchingfor theanswers throughout theinternet seeingeveryoneelse’s theoriesand ideas of what thehell we just
played. Even thecreators announced that thedemo had no relation to theactual gamemakingmeeven moreconfused
and now that thefull silent hills is cancelled I can’t but help scratch myhead in desperation until I realised.
Gameplay (iits just agame)
2. Thegame has grasped me, not only controllingmewithin thegame but mein real life. The bigreveal P.T stands for
PlayableTeaser. From psychologically effectingtheprotagonist in silenthill 2 to psychologically effectingtheplayer in
silent hills P.T. This is how evolveafranchiseand how you revolutioniseagenre.