Quick Links
An iconic horror franchise that crept onto our consoles way back in 1999, Silent Hill arguably set the bar when it came to symbolistic horror and thematic storytelling. The cursed, quiet town that we frequent so often in these games had a massive cultural impact, and you can often find references or full-on crossovers popping up with this doomed burg in countless modern games.
Though the narrative and protagonist usually change in each game, the primary location is almost always set completely in or briefly around the town of Silent Hill. It's a timeline that spans a decade and can often get convoluted. But for those looking for a breakdown of what happened in this cursed place, and all the poor souls that unfortunately got lured into it, here's the entire timeline of Silent Hill, explained.
Warning: Spoilers Below For The Plot of Every Major Silent Hill Game
The Silent Hill Timeline, Explained
Strap yourselves in, because this is going to be long. The Silent Hill series spanned an entire decade, with games released almost yearly between the first one in 1999 and Silent Hill Downpour in 2012. Though Silent Hill: Book of Memories was the last official game on the Vita in 2012, it featured a player-created protagonist and was a dungeon crawler. It also doesn't impact the main timeline in any particular massive way, so it's safe to consider it not connected.
We'll be sticking to the main games to keep things relatively organized. There's a different protagonist in each one, but there are a few connection points in some like the cult and their dark god, Alessa, Pyramid Head, and some of the locations that tie it all together somewhat. Here's a rough breakdown of each game in the series so far.
Silent Hill - 1999
The first journey into the eldritch interdimensional nightmare town fell on Harry Mason. Who decided to take a family vacation to Silent Hill with his adopted daughter Cheryl. But after their car crashes when Harry swerves to avoid a girl in the road, he finds himself alone in the spooky town, and his daughter mysteriously missing. So he sets off and explores the town, finding allies and other lost souls whilst dealing with twisted and abhorrent creatures that stalk the streets.
Harry stumbles onto the remnants of a cult in the town that worship a dark entity. Which is slowly transforming the town into the reflection of someone's nightmare. It's revealed that Cheryl is one part of a soul split into two and the other is Alessa, a young girl that was used as the vessel of the cult's deity and who was painfully immolated during an occult ritual but survived.
Her new parasitical demon friend rendered her immortal but stuck in agonizing pain forever. Her mother Dahlia-with unintentional help from Harry, manages to combine the two and the dark entity within Allessa/Cheryl finally takes over. It's at this point one of five different endings start depending on your choices throughout the game.
In the "bad endings", the demon is defeated but Harry either flees with Cybil or is shown to be dying in the car wreck from the beginning, implying that it was all a dream. Whilst in the "good endings" Harry leaves the town alive with an infant reincarnation of Cheryl that has none of Alessa's darkness.
Or Harry gets abducted by aliens.
The first Silent Hill featured multiple endings, including joke ones involving a dog and aliens. A feature that would appear in more of the games in the series going forward.
Silent Hill 2 - 2001
Next up to bat in this cursed burg is everyone's favorite widower, James Sunderland. This game was set in a separate area of the town and spent more time on the backstory than the previous one did. James's excuse for going to Silent Hill was that he received a letter from his deceased wife Mary telling him to meet her there, and of course, after arriving there things start to go very bad pretty quickly.
Whilst exploring the town, James meets two young teen runaways, an eight-year-old girl and a woman that resembles Mary who's called Maria. It's revealed that everyone has a dark secret related to them killing someone and that this version of the town seeks to manifest punishments for them. Though whether that's caused by their own psyches turning on them is left purposefully ambiguous by Konami.
In James's case, he previously smothered a sick and dying Mary in a hotel before arriving in the town and was apparently subconsciously seeking punishment. The multiple endings are also a lot more varied this time around.
Either James leaves the town with Laura and some closure, or Maria who coughs implying that the cycle is going to start all over again. Or, he drives his car into Lake Toluca with Mary's body in the back. There's also a dog and ufo ending again, plus one called Rebirth which is available on replay and involves James using arcane objects to perform a revival ritual on Mary.
Silent Hill 3 - 2003
Shifting gears slightly, Silent Hill three followed Heather the daughter of Harry Mason. After a nightmare of being trapped in a derelict and demon-infested theme park, Heather awakens in an abandoned mall in seemingly the real world. After a few shifts in the nightmare realm, she finally manages to make it back to her apartment where she learns Harry has been murdered by agents of a woman named Claudia, who taunts her and says she'll be waiting in the town of Silent Hill.
Heather travels to Silent Hill and after dealing with demons and Claudia's abusive father who planned on dethroning her, it's revealed that Heather is in fact the reincarnated infant Cheryl from the first game that Alessa created. Claudia was Allessas childhood friend and intends to use Heather to bring about the resurrection of the cult's god to remake the world into a "paradise".
Heather confronts Claudia, and after using a cleansing liquid left to her by her father she's able to vomit up the dark deity fetus that was parasitically inside her. To her horror, Claudia then swallows it whole before running off to a chapel of the cult. Wherein it's found she gave birth to the dark god and either died herself or just disappeared, it's a bit unclear. Heather then battles the creature and wins, leaving the town alive after taking time to mourn her father.
There are only three endings this time. They're “Normal”, "Possessed" which sees Heather kill her only friend Douglass and "Revenge" which has Heather abducted by aliens and reunited with an alive Harry who orders the aliens to destroy Silent Hill.
Silent Hill 4: The Room - 2004
The Room was the first Silent Hill game in the series to step away from the town. It followed Henry Townshend who was locked in his apartment in the city of Ashfield. Strange events then unfold for everyone in the building, especially Henry who finds himself battling with an undead serial killer called Walter Sullivan as he visits different nightmare realms through a strange hole that appears in his bathroom.
On his journey, Henry encounters other people, but they all end up gruesomely murdered, with the exception of Eileen Galvin. Each one is killed by Walter as part of a ritual that involves murdering 21 people in a specific location, in this case, the apartment complex Henry lives in. Which is also revealed to be the birthplace of Walter Sullivan, quite a horrible coincidence.
The supernatural events in the apartment slowly worsen over time. But thanks to the ghost of a kid called Joseph, who is a child manifestation of Walter, Henry and Eileen are able to retrieve Walter's umbilical cord. This odd item is then used to weaken Walter and kill him in a climactic showdown.
What follows after is one of four possible endings.
In one, Walter and his child ghost are seen in Henry's apartment whilst a radio describes how Henry and Eileen are dead. In another Henry wakes up in his apartment, but hears Eileen is dead. Finally, in the last two both Henry and Eileen are alive, but either Eileen goes to visit the apartment which is demonically possessed or she leaves and finds somewhere else to live whilst the apartment is shown to be completely fine.
Silent Hill Origins - 2007
Origins takes things back to good old Silent Hill. Set several years before the first game, it follows trucker Travis Grady who ends up in the town after driving past it whilst taking a shortcut. He swerves to avoid a mysterious ghost girl (sound familiar?) and ends up saving a girl from a burning house. It's revealed this was Alessa and the town's cult was burning her as part of a ritual to impregnate her with their dark god. Travis passes out, wakes up in the town, and decides to find out what happened to Alessa while also trying to escape Silent Hill.
On his travels, Travis encounters the local demonic denizens whilst unlocking repressed childhood memories and fighting monstrous representations of his parents with which he didn't have the best relationship. After receiving guidance from a spirit manifestation of Alessa, Travis is able to assemble a device known as the Flauros. An odd artifact that houses a demon and is able to amplify the thoughts of those wielding it. Alessa uses it to enhance her power and it is relevant to the ending you unlock.
Travis defeats the cult and imprisons the demon they summon within the Flauros. Alessa, whilst also burnt and incapacitated during another ritual, uses it to split her soul. This creates the baby Cheryl who's taken to the outskirts of the town by Alessas's spirit form and later adopted by Harry Mason. Whilst Travis happily leaves the town in his truck. Whilst surviving members of the cult hatch a plan to lure Cheryl back to Silent Hill one day.
In an alternate "bad ending", Travis awakes strapped to a medical gurney. He's then injected with a strange substance as he convulses and has visions of himself killing people as his outline briefly shifts to the monstrous form of The Butcher. A demonic creature that appears throughout the game and regularly kills other monsters. There's also the alien abduction ending because Konami likes a running joke.
Silent Hill: Homecoming - 2008
We’re back in Silent Hill again and this time around it’s with Alex Shepard, a special forces soldier who returned to the small town of Shepards Glen from overseas with a bag full of post-conflict trauma. Arriving home Alex finds his father and brother are missing whilst his mother has become catatonic. As he searches his town which seems deserted and filled with fog, he passes into Silent Hill periodically before phasing back into Shepards Glen.
The town itself is empty apart from a few survivors like Alex’s childhood friend Elle Holloway, the Mayor, and others. Though most are killed by supernatural creatures that have manifested in the town from the “Otherworld”. As the story goes on, it turns out people, especially children, have gone missing from Shepards Glen, abducted by a Cult known as The Order which is the same group from previous games.
The reason they’re here is that 150 years ago, four founding family members of the Order broke away and settled in Shepards Glen. The cult did allow this, on the condition that once every 50 years they would sacrifice a child in a specific ritual for their dark god. Whilst this did happen, when it came to Alex’s Father’s turn-as his ancestors helped found the town (Shepards Glen), he backed out.
So The Order returned, to set things right.
Members of the cult try to kill Alex regularly, but they’re unsuccessful. During these events, it’s revealed that Alex was never in the military, but was in fact in a mental asylum for years. The reason, when he was younger he took his younger brother Josh out on the lake in a boat, and accidentally drowned him when they jealously fought over a ring their father had given to Josh instead of Alex.
Unable to accept his brother's death, Alex was sent to an asylum, taking him out of the sacrifice rotation and causing everything up until now. After a final boss fight that involves a demonic-looking manifestation of Josh, Alex finally has the chance to apologize to him and get closure.
From there one of five endings play out depending on your actions up until that point. They range from Alex reuniting with Elle and leaving Shepards Glen, Alex getting drowned by his father, Alex waking up back in the asylum under shock treatment, becoming a monster known in the game as The Bogeyman, the UFO ending and a secret post-credits ending if you beat the game on Hard.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories - 2009
Shattered Memories we can skip through a little as it's a reimagining of the original Silent Hill. The story follows Harry Mason again as he searches for his missing seven-year-old daughter Cheryl. A lot of the same characters from the first game reappear like Dr. Kauffman, Dahlia, and Cybil but with different roles and there's no cult this time.
Through trips into and out of the Nightmare world which is frozen in ice this time, Harry struggles to find Cheryl, and side characters can get killed off depending on your decisions as you go through. In the finale, Harry makes it to a lighthouse, which is revealed to be the same name of Dr. Kauffman's therapy clinic that the game repeatedly dips back into between story beats. It turns out that this entire time Harry has been dead.
He died in a car crash a long time ago and the events of the story have been a now-adult Cheryl recounting a story about a fictitious idealized version of her father whose death she's been in denial over, with the therapy acting as an attempt at closure. There are four endings, one has Harry tell Cheryl she's not to blame for her parent's separation, another has a drunk Harry blaming his alcoholism on Cheryl, in another Harry acts sleazy with some of the female cast, another has Dahlia slapping Harry and of course, there's the bizarre UFO ending.
Silent Hill: Downpour - 2012
Last but not least in the mainline Silent Hill games we have Silent Hill: Downpour. This time around Murphy Pendleton is at the reins. A prisoner on a bus that crashes in Silent Hill whilst being transferred to another penitentiary. The story rotates around Murphy, his dark past in prison, and his connections to some of the corrections officers, for good and bad.
As the plot kicks off, Murphy murders another inmate in the showers called Patrick Napier. A man that molested and then drowned several children, including Murphy's son. Through a deal with a corrupt prison guard called George Sewell, he was able to get some one-on-one time with Patrick. But it's then revealed later that this came with a price, Murphy had to also "deal with" a corrections officer named Frank Coleridge.
Someone that believed in the good parts of Murphy, but was also just about to testify in a corruption case against George.
As Murphy explores the town, dipping in and out of the Nightmare World like so many before him he manages to find friends and foes. One of which is Corrections Officer and fellow bus passenger Anne Coleridge, who reveals as the story plays out that Frank Coleridge was her Father and that he lived in a vegetative state in a wheelchair after Murphy assaulted him.
Anne had arranged Murphy's transfer all along as she wanted him in her prison where she would arrange for the inmates to "deal with" Murphy as revenge for her Father. Murphy then transforms into a figure known as the Bogeyman and attacks Anne. Depending on choices made up until this point one of six endings plays out.
If Murphy doesn't kill Anne, the "good endings" show that Murphy didn't kill Frank and was framed by Officer Sewell for the attack on Anne's father. Anne and Murphy then leave Silent Hill together and Anne reports Murphy's death to allow him to escape and disappear. Anne also either does or doesn't set off on a mission of vengeance against George, eventually confronting him about his crimes in his office.
If Murphy kills Anne the "bad endings" show Murphy committing suicide out of guilt because he actually did assault Anne's father, or Murphy waking up in a prison in the Otherworld, or Murphy being executed. If Anne kills Murphy, she wakes up in prison as an inmate and Murphy in George's position as the roles reverse. There's also a gag ending involving Murphy escaping the prison via Shawshank-esque tunneling where he ends up at a surprise party in his honor featuring characters from throughout the Silent Hill series.
Are They All Connected?
Short answer yes, long answer, kind of but only just a few games. Whilst a few followed returning groups like The Order and their dark god rebirth shtick, the Masons and Dahlias friends, plus the multiple appearances of Pyramid Head, there are others like Downpour, The Room, and Silent Hill 2 that went off and did their own thing.
They focused on concepts like grief, guilt, self-punishment, and a whole treasure trove of psychological sub-text. Whilst Silent Hill, Silent Hill Three, Homecoming, and Origins all rotated back to the Cult. So you can't pin it down to a solid yes. The connecting fiber that holds them sort of together is that they're based in, around, or involve periodically traveling to Silent Hill. An otherworldly nightmare realm that takes your innermost demons and desires and then manifests them to taunt, torment and teach you.
Are The Movies Canon?
Worth a brief mention in closing is a question a few have about the Silent Hill movies and that's if they're connected to the games. In general, they're considered by most Silent Hill fans to be non-canon. Though there are similarities in that they use the same setting of everyone's favorite town and some character names might make an appearance, like Harry, Heather, Cheryl, and of course, the strange cult worshiping a bizarre dark god. They don't share any meaningful connection outside of retreading a story that's done much better in a different format.
There's also the occasional reference or appearance of a character from the games like Travis Grady in his truck from the start of Silent Hill: Origins and the bus Murphy rides on in Downpour at the end of the second Silent Hill movie, but they're more throwaway easter eggs than connections. Something to point at and say how you remember it. At a push, they should generally be considered alternate universes or spin-offs.