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- This article is for Midwich Elementary School seen in Silent Hill and its film adaptation. For the school in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, see Midwich High School.
Midwich Elementary School is a school located on the southwest side of Old Silent Hill, on Midwich Street.
Midwich is an important location in the first Silent Hill game. Midwich Elementary School was also featured in the film and comic series. It is also the setting of The Silent Hill Experience.
Alessa Gillespie was a student here for about a year or two when she was a child. Alessa was rejected and bullied by her classmates for possessing witch-like powers and told to go home and drop dead.
Symbolism
Midwich is very much symbolic of a hellish school which no sane parent would want to send their child to. It has a very toxic environment where children bully others and the teachers seem to condone it, where kids who are "different" are ridiculed and teased, and children are forced to wear uniforms and aren't allowed to express individuality and must conform. To add onto this, in the film adaptation, Midwich is shown to have a pedophilic janitor who acts on his desires.
Midwich and religion
A crucifix can be seen in the first game.
A painting of "GOD" in the film.
It is heavily implied that Midwich is a religious school. In the first game, crucifixes of Jesus can be found in the classrooms, implying that Midwich is a Christian or Catholic school. It is possible that Midwich is run by the Order since Dahlia Gillespie, an Order member, specifically chose Alessa to be a student at Midwich. In the film adaptation, Midwich is partially run by a religious cult and there is a painting that says "God" on it.
Midwich seems to indoctrinate and force religion onto children despite that children are unable to consent and make serious decisions on their beliefs or non-beliefs. Children are especially vulnerable and susceptible to religion because most children are unable to critically think or question God, religion, prayer, rituals, tradition, etc. In religious schools, children are taught to read religious texts and recite religious prayers, and if they refuse to do so, they can be suspended, especially in schools where religion is a mandatory part of the curriculum. In this sense, Midwich could be viewed as a systematic brainwashing indoctrination center.
Appearances
Silent Hill
The school appears as the first major building in Silent Hill that Harry Mason explores, in a bid to find his adopted daughter, Cheryl Mason, who left clues to her next possible location in the form of scrawls from her sketchbook.
During Harry's visit to the school, he encounters the Grey Children (or Mumblers in the non-North American versions), as well as an assortment of various riddles and puzzles. These include burning a hand with a chemical and playing a piano (in this order). After collecting a Gold Medallion and Silver Medallion, Harry places them in the clock tower in the courtyard. He then goes to the boiler room and starts a boiler to unlock the clock tower doors. Back at the courtyard, Harry enters the clock tower and traverses to the Otherworld version of the school.
Midwich Elementary is the first building Harry visits that undergoes a complete Otherworld transition, though this is done during Harry's travels through the clock tower, so the transition itself is subsequently unseen. In the Otherworld, the school is covered in rust and blood, and there are corpses everywhere. Creepers, which resemble huge insects, also appear. Harry must find a way to enter the basement boiler room and defeat the Split Head. To do this, the player must follow this list:
- Get the Rubber Ball in the storage room (1F).
- Get the Picture Card in a classroom (1F).
- Use the Picture Card in the room behind the reception room.
- Visit the boy's bathroom (1F) to get the shotgun.
- Go to one of the teacher's room (1F) and attempt to leave one of the doors. This will result in a phone call from Cheryl.
- Using the staircase, go to the roof. Look in a drain to see a key, put the rubber ball in the hole, and use the valve.
- Backtrack to the courtyard (1F) and get the Classroom Key.
- On 2F, go to the locker room. Examine the locker, leave, but get the Library Reserve Key.
- Still on 2F, go to the library reserve and pass through to a locked classroom. Unlock it using the classroom key.
- From here, you can make your way to the boiler room. Complete the Valve Puzzle.
The Split Head opens its mouth.
After the Split Head's defeat, the Fog World returns and Harry hears bells ringing in the distance, leading him to the Balkan Church.
Alessa's classroom is revisited in Nowhere.
Midwich also served as an integral part of the Silent Hill demo, which was dubbed 'battle mode'. In this mode, Harry would simply need to escape the school by finding the Lobby Key; an element that would later be replaced with the Split Head boss battle, as well as a few other minor alterations.
Silent Hill 3
Heather in Alessa's classroom.
In Silent Hill 3, Heather Mason does not physically enter Midwich Elementary School; however, the chapel has a room that resembles Alessa's classroom. This is the manifestation of Alessa's memories and emotions. It is also learned that Claudia Wolf was a friend of Alessa's, and possibly attended the school with her.
Silent Hill (film)
Midwich's sign.
In the film, the school was abandoned after the great fire of Silent Hill, West Virginia. 30 years ago, in the 1970s, the school was run by the local religious cult, and its headmistress was Christabella, the cult's priestess. Religious symbols and quotes are found in every part of the school, representing the firm beliefs of the Brethren.
Instead of Alessa's desk being pushed to the center, like it was in Silent Hill 3, Alessa's is put in with everyone else's, but is in very poor condition. The word "WITCH" has been etched into the wood multiple times by other students, and are shown to often surround Alessa and tease her at her desk.
The Otherworld school in the film.
The film initially follows the first game by having Rose Da Silva enter the school looking for her missing daughter, having been led there by a drawing of the school she finds in Sharon's sketchbook, only to find clues as to Alessa's life. There, Rose learns that the child she has been chasing is Alessa, not her own, and she sees Dark Alessa's handprints etched into the dirt on Alessa's desk. After chasing Dark Alessa into a bathroom on the second floor, the school shifts to its Otherworld version. However, Rose is unable to deal with the Otherworld's environment and creatures, Red Pyramid and the Creepers, and later escapes with the assistance of Officer Cybil Bennett.
Alessa being teased by her classmates in a flashback.
During a flashback depicting Alessa's suffering at the hands of the cult, Rose learns that Alessa was sexually assaulted by a school janitor while trying to hide from her teasing classmates. It is also in the bathroom that Christabella convinces Alessa's mother that her child must be "purified", which later turns out to mean "burned alive".
A real world version of the school is seen when Christopher Da Silva and Thomas Gucci visit there, in search of Rose. While there, Rose and Chris pass through the same space at the same time, but neither can see or hear the other, due to the two of them being in different versions of reality.
Dying Inside
Lauryn LaRoache is drawn to Midwich Elementary by her sister's evil spirit. Once there, she is forced to help her sister fight in a struggle for control of the darkness covering Silent Hill.
Students
- Alessa Gillespie
- Claudia Wolf (unknown, however, because Claudia was raised with Alessa, it is a strong possibility)
- Emilie Anderson
- Lisa Garland
Teachers
- K. Gordon - K. Gordon was one of Alessa's teachers, as revealed in her notebook in Silent Hill 3. In the first game, Harry finds her house key and uses it to enter her house to progress through the town.
- T. Moore
- L. Ranaldo
- S. Shelley
Trivia
Dean Koontz's Phantoms.
- In one of the bathrooms in the Otherworld version of the school, a corpse can be found close to some writing on the wall. Written is "Leonard Rhine 'The Monster Lurks.'" This is a homage to Dean Koontz's Phantoms, specifically "Timothy Flyte 'The Ancient Enemy.'" The novelization of the game says Leonard Rhine is an author who focuses on the occult.
- The design of the elementary school was heavily based on the school in Kindergarten Cop.
The "Hell is coming" sign, seen to the right.
- The teachers, listed on a memo in the reception area, are named for the members of Sonic Youth.
- The school shares the same name as the school from the film Village of the Damned.
- In the reception area of the school, there is a health cabinet that bears an obscured sign which reads, "NOTICE: Hell is coming."
- Harry can hear crying in the Fog World 2F boy's bathroom.
- The Otherworld girl's bathroom has magical teleportation abilities which teleport Harry to 2F.
- The Otherworld school roof is one of the locations needed to unlock the UFO Ending. The Channeling Stone must be used on the roof.
- In the film, a symbol similar to the Seal of Metatron can be seen in the Otherworld version of the school when Dark Alessa appears at her desk.
- The corpse found in the bathroom in the game inspired the janitor monster seen in the film.[citation needed]
Gallery
- For a complete list of images of Midwich Elementary School, see Midwich images.
Silent Hill
Silent Hill 3
The Silent Hill Experience
Silent Hill film
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| v · e · d |
|---|
| Characters |
| Major Characters |
| Rose Da Silva - Christopher Da Silva - Cybil Bennett - Dahlia Gillespie - Thomas Gucci - Anna - Christabella - Sharon Da Silva - Alessa Gillespie - Dark Alessa |
| Other Characters |
| Sister Margaret - Eleanor - Adam - Colin - Lisa Garland - Jennifer Carroll |
| Monsters |
| Armless Man - Colin - Creeper - Dark Nurse - Grey Child - Red Pyramid |
| Locations |
| Brahms - Brookhaven Hospital - Church - Da Silva House - Gans County - Grand Hotel - Midwich Elementary School - Nathan Drugs - Pete's Bowl-O-Rama - Sacrificial Chamber - Silent Hill, West Virginia - Smitty's - Toluca County Archives - Toluca County Mining Museum - Toluca County Orphanage - Toluca Lake |
| Terms |
| The Brethren - Monster - Flashlight - Manifestation - Otherworld - Fog World - Real World - Siren - Great Knife - Welcome Sign - Brethren Symbol |
| Archives |
| Soundtrack |