Gaming’s biggest horror series are more vital than ever

For the third year in a row, I’ve been scared out of my wits by a new Silent Hill game. First it was the modern remake of Silent Hill 2, then the Japan-set spinoff Silent Hill F. Now I find myself slowly crawling through a quaint Scottish town in Silent Hill: Townfall, trying my best not to get brutally murdered by demonic creatures chasing me through the streets. It’s been a remarkable turnaround for a franchise that once seemed like it was on life support. And when you combine it with a strong run from Resident Evil across games and film, you have gaming’s two biggest horror franchises both at the height of their powers.

For Resident Evil, it’s been a steady buildup, but it really started with Resident Evil 7 nearly a decade ago. It jolted the series back to life with a first-person perspective that made its scares feel more visceral. Since then, Capcom has settled on an effective strategy of alternating between bottom-up remakes of classics like Resident Evil 4, and new spins on the formula, like the vampire-tinged Village. This has allowed the studio to be more experimental with the mainline titles; this year’s Requiem, for instance, was a bold attempt to merge two types of Resident Evil games together, mixing straight-up action with first-person terror.

Resident Evil has always had an uneven track record when it comes to adaptations, like the largely forgettable live-action Netflix series. But that may be changing. Last week a reboot of the film series premiered, called simply Resident Evil, helmed by Weapons director Zach Cregger. It explored the zombie franchise from a new viewpoint: Instead of following iconic characters like Leon or Claire, it was centered on a hapless delivery driver who served as a stand-in for a player who is terrible at survival horror games. Like the Exit 8 movie, Resident Evil explores its source material through the lens of the player. The result was equal parts hilarious and horrifying — there were scenes where gore dripped from ceilings, and a particularly terrifying long-limbed baby — and it also had the best box office opening in franchise history.

Silent Hill has followed a similar trajectory, albeit on a smaller scale. After lying largely dormant following the 2015 cancellation of Silent Hills, a reboot led by Hideo Kojima and Guillermo del Toro, Konami signaled a return for the franchise with a series of announcements in 2022. Not everything has been a winner — a film came out earlier this year with little fanfare, and the less said about the bizarre interactive TV series Ascension the better — but when it comes to games Silent Hill has been on a roll. The Silent Hill 2 remake set the stage, introducing arguably the most beloved title in the series to a new audience, while Silent Hill F offered a freshly horrifying experience through its setting and more RPG-focused gameplay.

Townfall likewise expands the idea of what a Silent Hill game can be. It launches this week on the PS5 and PC, and is developed by Screen Burn, an indie studio known for games like Observation. You play as a man named Simon who arrives at a small Scottish town where it’s immediately evident something is wrong; it seems completely deserted and is shrouded in the classic Silent Hill fog. Oh yeah, and screeching creatures ripped out of Hellraiser stalk the streets. From there you have to figure out what actually happened, and try your best not to die at the hands of a mutated monstrosity.

What’s most notable about Townfall is how it plays. It has much in common with “walking simulator” games like Firewatch and Everybody’s Gone to the Rapture, where the experience is about exploring a space and uncovering a story organically. Here that means poking around in abandoned homes and medical centers, reading through files and listening to phone messages that reveal the extent of the town’s horrific history. The game then layers on more traditional horror elements.

There’s some light combat, but mostly there’s a big focus on stealth: to get where you need to go you’ll often have to sneak past unpredictable monsters, who hunt mindlessly while screeching and writhing in pain. This plays out a little like Alien: Isolation; you have a handheld device that tells you where enemies are, and you can hide in closets and sheds in hopes they don’t spot you. It’s incredibly scary, and still feels intrinsically like a Silent Hill game, despite the shifts in gameplay and setting.

The triumphant return of Resident Evil and Silent Hill is coming at a particularly exciting time for horror, with breakout successes at the box office and a promising wave of streaming series. The genre is having a moment — and despite being around for decades, both series are hitting a fresh stride at just the right time

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