Silent Hill 2 vs. Blue Velvet

[nur_ein_tier]

Hairymason already mentioned some of these, but I went through and watched Blue Velvet again to catch a few more things that are similar to SH2.


Silent Hill 2: Maria is a woman who dyes/bleaches her hair (unnatural hair because color is changed), whose personality changes unpredictably, and who grows attached to James over the course of the game. She works as a performer in a bar.
Blue Velvet: Dorothy is a woman who wears a wig (unnatural hair because it’s a wig), whose personality changes unpredictably, and who grows attached to Jeffrey over the course of the film. She works as a performer in a bar.

Silent Hill 2: Heaven’s Night,. same stage/curtains as bar in Blue Velvet
Blue Velvet: the bar where Dorothy sings.

Silent Hill 2: Angela, a victim of sexual abuse whose family is missing, wields a large kitchen knife
Blue Velvet: Dorothy, a woman whose husband and child are missing and who is suffering sexual abuse from Frank, wields a large kitchen knife

Silent Hill 2: Blue Creek Apartments, where James first meets Pyramid Head.
Blue Velvet: Deep River Apartments, where Dorothy Vallens lives.

Silent Hill 2: Pyramid Head moves kind of drunkenly (Ito says movements inspired by drunk people in Making of SH2), abuses monsters and attacks James, and James shoots at him from a closet where he’s hiding. Represents a different side of James, and makes him realize his guilt.
Blue Velvet: Frank huffs drugs and sexually abuses Dorothy, beats up Jeffrey (also tells him “you’re like me” which underlines the idea of them as different aspects of the same whole, and in sh2, angela says this to james), and Jeffrey shoots at him from a closet where he’s hiding.

Hiding in the closet.

Shooting from the closet.

Additional crap:
-There is a great contrast between the 2 women in James’ life: Mary and Maria. Likewise, Dorothy (Isabella Rosellini) and Laura Dern’s characters are quite different.
-In the beginning of the movie, Jeffrey finds and ear (used to hear, important in communication). It leads him to go looking for Dorothy. In the beginning of SH2, James gets a letter, finds a radio, and later, a set of headphones, all tools of communication.

[Wren]

You get mad props and respect from me for putting this together.

I've now got more motivation to add it to my netflix list. The first time I watched it, I don't think I was old enough to understand what was going on, srsly.

Thank you for this. The primary scene in the second game that was modeled after a scene in this movie now has EVEN deeper meaning to me.

[nur_ein_tier]

I'm just going to quote hairymason again here, for ease of reference.

James is a man who has done something awful that he regrets,when he gets a letter(communication), he goes to Silent Hill to be reminded of the truth .
Jeffrey Beaumont discovers an ear (another tool of communication) and goes on a journey where he discovers awful and violent truths about himself.

Jeffery actually assaults Dorothy Vallens after witnessing Frank abusing her. She later becomes very attached to Jeffrey.
James had already murdered his wife, and ended up escorting Maria, a stripper or some sort of lounge performer(just as attached to James). Very similar to Dorothy(also a lounge performer).

Really if you watch Blue Velvet close, Frank is the dark and Jeffrey is the light, but they are part of the same. Similar to PH and James. Dennis Hopper is PH, except much more frightening, and real. Major difference is that Frank actually existed before Jeffery came along.Frank even tells him "You're like me!" before he beats him half to death.

Jeffery is simultaneously courting Sandy while trying to save Dorothy, two polar opposites, much like Mary and Maria. Who are the one he is searching for, and the one he is trying to protect, respectively.

I meant to do this with a couple of other movies, actually, but somehow I watched this one again first.

and furthermore...

I just couldn't help myself. Someone forced me to watch it. (Trapped in the Closet).

[Ratiocinator]

This is great stuff! I still can't get over how we find new influences such as this even after 9 years since the game's release. I hope you guys don't mind, but sooner or later I'll compile all of this stuff together and add it to LFSH. And of course, give proper credit to all who've brought this to light.

Sweet stuff all!

[nur_ein_tier]

Cool! It was hairymason that inspired me to compile this one, most credit goes to him. I'm going through my Jodorowsky DVDs right now and finding some strange things, more posts to come....

I never noticed the similarities with Heaven's night until I watched it again though, the stage and curtains.

http://silenthillchronicle.cjb.net/
For reference:

Twin Peaks would be fun to do, but I'd have to watch it all again.

[egosleep]

Just saw this movie over the weekend, and I must say that yeah, there are some pretty striking similarities (as very well illustrated above). Also noticed that one track of music, when he's pulling up to that warehouse/hideout where dennis hopper stays, sounds alot like a silent hill 2 track. The really industrial, clanking track that plays during the 2 pyramid heads murder of maria.

[Devoured]

Props! I've never considered the semi-doppelgänger theme of Dorothy before!

egosleep, Angelo Badalamenti's music has had a huge influence on a lot of SH music...

[nur_ein_tier]

I only considered it because I watched it again, specifically looking for possible similarities.

I still want to re-watch twin peaks, because people have mentioned all sorts of stuff elsewhere that I never noticed.

[Devoured]

Oh yeah, there's tons...picture of an owl in 1, drugs hidden in motorcycle and general small town drug trafficking in 1, the prison conversation between Maria & James in 2 is pretty much a composite of 2 scenes, the whole twisted version of a 'normal' room [the Black Lodge version of the Great Northern Hotel] concept and plenty more, I'm sure...

[nur_ein_tier]

Yeah, I listed some of them here:

Twin Peaks: Red curtains are seen in the Black Lodge of Twin Peaks, and similar curtains are seen in Silent Hill 3 around two sets of girls' legs. The Black Lodge has similarities with Silent Hill's Otherworld. Doppelgängers are often seen in Twin Peaks as well, such as Agent Cooper's at the end of the series, reminiscent of the Silent Hill 3 mirror room scene and the Mary/Maria duality. Characters like Mary and Maria have similarities with Laura and Maddy. Laura died before the series began, and the story revolved around solving her murder. Her cousin Maddy, portrayed by the same actress and looking very similar, comes to stay with the Palmer family. Laura was extroverted and blonde; Maddy is shy, dark haired, and wears glasses. She is eventually killed by the same person who killed Laura. Leland's recreating Laura's death through Maddy is similar to James witnessing Mary's death again and again by seeing Maria die multiple times. Drugs are hid in the gas tank of a motorcycle, like Kaufmann's Aglaophotis. An overturned wheelchair with a single spinning wheel is seen in Season 2; the same can be found in the Hospital Basement in Silent Hill 3.

But I need to watch again to find more.

[Spawn]

this PH scene is inspired from the Twin Peaks

~> Drunk Bobby dancing on the car (episode 1 pilot)

[HellFrozenJames]

I don't think there's any real resemblence between Dohrothy and Maria. I mean, the red dress wasn't anything like Maria's outfit, which, I think was modeled after Christina Aguilera. We all know the one.

Anyway, however, the character of Sandy, I though wore an outfit similar to Mary's.

[nur_ein_tier]

I don't think there's any real resemblence between Dohrothy and Maria. I mean, the red dress wasn't anything like Maria's outfit, which, I think was modeled after Christina Aguilera. We all know the one.

Anyway, however, the character of Sandy, I though wore an outfit similar to Mary's.

I didn't mean visually. I meant they both worked in bars. Blue Velvet wasn't the only influence on the game, it's just the only thing i was focusing on in this particular post. Likewise, Maria was visually based on C.A., but not so much in other ways.

this outfit from Con Air looks more like mary though:

[Wren]

^I thought that when I watched Con Air, too.
While I'm thinking of that movie, I'd like to say that Sweet Home Alabama is a great song.

[Dallow]

I got the connection between SH and David Lynch with the original game. The music was the giveaway.

The first thing I thought of was Blue Velvet when I saw the closet scene in SH2. It's a blatant nod to both scenes in BV: When PH/Frank is abusing the mannequin/Dorothy and then James/Jeffrey shooting PH/Frank. Another thing I noted was that James/Jeffrey relied on a radio to survive - Jeffrey used a police radio to divert Frank's attention in BV. Okay, they're different types of radios but radios nonetheless.

Then there's Lost Highway, another David Lynch film where the ending was revealed through the playback of a video cassette and very similar to SH2 in many regards.

I think I mentioned in another thread here that my friend once joked that Frank Herbert should sue Konami for the similarities between the sandworms in Dune and the Twinfeeler (which also burrowed in sand) boss battle from SH1. As most of you know, the film adaptation of Dune was also directed by David Lynch.

But you don't need me reiterating stuff you guys figured out ages ago. Just thinking out loud.

[reflect_eternal]

yeah Lynch was a huge inspiration on Silent Hill

[Heather'sLadder]

Sorry to bump this topic but I've discovered another reference to Lynch's work in Silent Hill. You probably have discovered this a long time ago but I just felt like posting this:

If you've seen Lynch's Eraserhead you'd know that it's about Henry Spencer, a lonely man living a miserable life in his own dark and nightmarish world. He lives in a crummy apartment and is later married to a woman who has given birth to their deformed child. Later, his wife abandons him, he stays alone and takes care of the baby, other crazy shit happens next, and the story ends tragically.

I'll just point out the references to this in Silent Hill 4. I understand that Eraserhead is personal (subjective) and the concept of pain and suffering in it is different from the concept in SH4, but there are few identical similarities between them:
-Both protagonists are named Henry.
-Both Henrys barely speak and never change their clothes.
-Both Henrys live in a cheap apartment that is stuck in a nightmarish world, and both are dragged to this world to witness the weirdest things.
-Both Henrys watch and fall in love with their female neighbors.
-Both Henrys are strangely nonchalant and apathetic towards their surroundings and never let their feelings show. They even display an odd adaptive behavior towards the strangest environments.
-Henry (movie) listens to a gramophone (phonograph) since it's from 1977. Henry (game) listens to a radio. It's their only way to contact the real world.
-Henry's apartment (movie) has weird things in it (a radiator with a woman in it, dirt, soil, dead tendrils and twigs, and a deformed, annoying, crying creature for a baby). Henry's apartment (game) also has weird stuff in it (ceiling fan with Joseph above it, weird hauntings, a lot of annoying, crybabies hauntings). Also, both apartments have eerie sounds in them. The lady in the radiator and Joseph almost have the same purpose; to give the protagonists an idea about what they are going through.
-"A dream of dark and troubling things." Says Lynch in explaining the meaning and nature of Eraserhead. Did you notice that every time Henry comes back from Walter's world, he seems like he is waking up? I'm pretty sure that we've heard something about a dream in the game, too.
-Henry (movie) dies eventually. Henry (game) dies in one of the endings.
-I also think that Cynthia looks like Henry's neighbor in the movie, but Henry's neighbor gave him the special favor eventually.
-Building and apartment worlds look like Henry's world in the movie.
-Hell, I even think Henry and Henry look like each other, too, only Henry (movie) has a weird hairdo.

It's true that SH4 is a mixture of various cinematic and literary works like Alfred Hitchcock's and Ryu Murakami's and others, but I think that Eraserhead's Henry was the main/direct inspiration for Silent Hill's Henry and probably the other SH protagonists.

PS: I know that this is SH2 thread, but if you look closer to Henry Spencer's story (married to a Mary, too), you'll notice that it's close to that of James even as much as the story of Blue Velvet's Jeffrey Beaumont's is, but Henry's personality is closer to that of SH4's Henry.
I'm pretty sure that if you see the movie you'll discover a lot of similarities between the characters, symbols, imagery and other things, and you'll see a lot of references to Lynch's works in Silent Hill in general.

[nur_ein_tier]

Bumped because I fixed the image links (because I had database problems and had to re-upload).

Sorry to bump this topic but I've discovered another reference to Lynch's work in Silent Hill.

Please do not apologize for bumping topics, especially if you have something useful to add. =)

But yes, there are many possible similarities with a lot of Lynch's work. I was meaning to catalog them individually, but I haven't gotten around to it.

[captain crowbar]

Good to see a spiffy thread revived. Someone mentioned this comparison to me a while back, but I had never seen the movie so I had no idea.

I'd like to say that Sweet Home Alabama is a great song.

You bet your sweet ass it is.

[NarooN]

I watched Blue Velvet for the first time a little over a week ago and it was a pretty good film. SH2 itself is pretty much Jacob's Ladder + Blue Velvet smashed into one with various other small references to other works.