Silent Hill: Past Life – Review and Analysis

30 Oct, 2010

Silent Hill: Past Life, the second venture into the illustrated realm of gamings most famous home town of nightmares and dillusion from IDW Comic’s, Tom Waltz serves as an appetising prelude to the hotly anticipated ‘Silent Hill 8′, due 2011. Past Life introduces us to the characters of Jebediah “Hellrider” Foster, who in typical Silent Hill fashion appears to be a man tormented by an implied history of misdeeds, his charming new lady wife Esther and their unborn child as they are on the road to take residence in Silent Hill. Whilst on their trails they encounter postmaster named ‘Howard Blackwood’ (who bares a striking resemblance to one of the characters showcased in the teasing Silent Hill 8 trailer), a polite well mannered gentleman that is surely not quite what he seems.
Upon arrival at their once lavish estate, to find that it is in a state of decline from neglect, the ‘Hellrider’ and his wife are startled to discover a mysterious Native American woman, who creates a rather disturbing spectical on herself via self mutilation, with a knife she is ‘returning to it’s owner’ and a frightening amount on insight into the muddy past of Mr Foster.

The artwork in Past Life is truly spectacular, beginning the issue with a simple earth colour pallet, while slowly depleating a drained black and white scape which only serves to accentuate the deep reds and oranges that illustrate the characters decent into their own personal hell. But hey, isn’t that what Silent Hill is all about? Preempting a videogame release with a graphic novel seems to be a fun little novelty that is slowly gaining in popularity. This last autumn we saw the release of ‘The Sacrifice’ online comic, giving us some teasing snippets of what to expect with the release of Left 4 Dead’s DLC pack of the same name, which while drumming up some anticipation for it’s release also shed some interesting contextual information on our key characters.

Silent Hill: Past Life seems to be following in this growing little tradition, acting as a prelude of sorts to Silent Hill 8 and richly embedded in the lore of our beloved series. So in addition to simply reviewing this introductory issue I will also be discussing some of the references both to what we know about the up-and-coming title, and to Silent Hill’s rich mythology. As an opportunity to stretch my legs a little, I will also be including a cultural analysis of the series in realtion to the nature of horror as a genre as the series has gone from East to West.

Howard Blackwood:
Perhaps the most obvious reference to the new game is the character of Howard Blackwood, the African American postmaster who stops to greet the newly weds on there travels, and who’s doppleganger appears briefly in the E3 promo for Silent Hill 8. His intentions are inclear at this stage, though his introduction in the novel implies that there is certainly more to him that initially appears.

The Sacred Line:
Originally the name of a song featured on the soundtrack to Silent Hill: Homecoming, theorised by fans to be relating to the ‘line’ Alex crossed out of jealousy that led to his brother’s accidental death. However in this graphic novel, it is being applied to theme of Manifest Destiny, or the line crossed to reach ‘an other world’.

‘The Place of Silenced Spirits’:

Referenced in the opening passages of the graphic novel, but also relates back to Silent Hill 2 and ‘The Book of Lost Memories’. The book is an important ceremonial piece used in the ritual of ‘Rebirth’ (one of the possible outcomes to Silent Hill 2), but also talks about the origins of the town. This is mentioned in the monologue spoken by the Native American woman as the Foster’s come into town, significant as the book references ‘the people whose land was taken from them’. Jeb Foster is implied to have been involved in the slaughter of Indian Tribes on behalf of those who wished to aquire the land for their own purposes.

Shepherd’s Glen:
The setting for Silent Hill: Homecoming built along Toluca Lake, and the neighbouring town to Silent Hill. Homecoming suggests that the town was founded by 4 pilgrim familes relocating from Silent Hill after their dissasociation with ‘The Order’. The Shepherd’s, Holloway’s, Barlett’s and Fitch’s founded the neighbouring town to practise their own brand of ‘The Order’s’ faith, exploiting the new American principles of religious freedom in the ‘new world’.

Criminal Past:
Silent Hill 8 features a protagonist by the name of ‘Murphy Pendleton’, a man shown being on a prison transport convoy throughout the E3 trailer, and is speculated to be spending the duration of the game as an escaped convict. The character of Jeb Foster in Past Life is implied as having an extensive criminal history, and as such this potentially meant to suggest an ancestral link between both characters.

‘The road to hell is paved with good intention’- A very American horror

Since Origins, through to Homecoming and Shattered Memories, we have seen a cultural shift from the Japanese roots of the series, and have encountered a more Western flavor in Silent Hill. While this has been met with resistance and an undercurrent of cynicism (not without reason, of course) from those who have grown disillusioned with the creative brains behind a lot of American developers within the entertainment industry, Silent Hill certain can lend it’s setting to tell of a horror story that has it’s foundations deep within America’s history. A history written in the blood of it’s fallen foes.

Horror, like so many other genres is rich in cultural significance, reflecting upon the inner anxieties of masses. Horror at it’s best uses the genre as a platform to explore taboo subjects, exploit our values, fears and culture in order to say something about us as people, either on a mass or individual basis. It can often draw upon religious values, especially in terms of the presentation of ‘Good and Evil’, which is the core theme of a lot of Western horror and could be said to be rooted in Christian belief- the eternal battle between good and evil, with the force of good always combating and triumphing over darkness. Classic Western horror stories involve the literal presence of a/the ‘Devil’ and a divine force of good, such as with ‘The Exorcist’, ‘The Omen’ or ‘Rosemary’s Baby’, all of which carry this deeply Christian interpretation of spirituality. These kinds of values begin to manfest in the Western developed Silent Hill games, with the presence of a ‘God’ of dubious intention being the sole cause of the chaos in Shepherd’s Glen.

Asian horror tends to take a slightly different approach, with the antagonising force often being a vengeful spirit (and nearly always a woman, the avenging woman is a staple point of Asian folklore), the spirit of someone who has died a wrongful death and seeks retribution. While a spirit world is present, the absolute forces of good and evil are not so clearly defined or present, the resolution coming from the retribution of those who have been wronged. This is evident throughout the early Silent Hill series, with the restless spirit of Alessa in the first and third games, Mary in Silent Hill 2 and Walter in Silent Hill 4. The otherworld shifts are also a significant point in Japanese mythology, with the Japanese believing that there portals between the mortal and spirit realms possible on earth. ‘The Other World’ is often quite literally presented as a malevolent and hellish environment, with all contained within being hostile towards the player. However, there is also the possibility from Silent Hill 2 as with the character of Laura, that this ‘Other World’ can manifest as a place of closer to the vision of a ‘heaven’, but this is to be left entirely to interpretation when on the subject of the parallel and alternative dimensions.

The newer Western approach to Silent Hill draws it’s influences from the founding history of America, especially evident in the Past Life graphic novel with it’s references to Manifest Destiny. Here we see the evidence of Christian values, with Manifest Destiny being summarised as the divine will of God for the Europeans to colonise the American plains. This belief was executed ruthlessly on behalf of the early homesteaders who came into conflict with the Native American’s who already populated the land, and the character of Jeb ‘Hellrider’ Foster is implied in flashback pannels of the novel to have been involved in these purges. However this is not the first time we have seen the influence of the Native people in the series, as referenced in the book of ‘Lost Memories’ in Silent Hill 2 used to conduct an ancient ritual and contains information on the origins of the town. The book makes reference to ‘the people whose land was stolen from them’, and also refers to Silent Hill as ‘The place of the silent spirits’, not only spirits of the dead but those that inhabit the environment itself.

The presence of the Native American woman in the final section of Past Life creates a sense of genuine unease, and has been illustrated to have black eyes, suggesting perhaps that she is not of this world. With the eyes being traditionally thought of as ‘The windows into the soul’, and for this woman’s to be entirely black gives the reader the impression that this woman is in fact a vengeful spirit tormenting the Fosters. Past Life is using the torment and shame of those involved in the slaughter of the natives as catalyst, something that is likely to resonate with American audiences, who like some many cultures have a dark undercurrent running beneath a proud history.

It seems that a lot of people have been quick to dismiss the Western influence on the Silent Hill series, and while it is impossible to deny that the strength of the series in terms of it’s nerve shredding heyday lay with it’s Japanese parents, Past Life is evidence that there could yet to be some interesting work to be done on home soil! So if you are a Silent Hill fan you have probably already picked up a copy of this comic and are neck deep in discussion as to what to expect in the forthcoming title. But anyone out there who just enjoys a good horror story, or has an appreciation for good story telling, this looks to be shaping up to be a very worthwhile series to watch. Curious? Go and see for yourselves!

I would just like to add a special thanks to Hell Decent for the images, and the very useful Silent Hill Wiki for clarifying the exact quotations I have included in this article.