Otherworld
From Silent Hill Wiki
The Otherworld is one of the alternate dimensions of the town of Silent Hill. Originally localized to Silent Hill, this phenomenon has begun to extend into neighboring towns, such as Shepherd's Glen. Most games portray the protagonists shifting back and forth between this world and the less dangerous Fog World, which exists between the Otherworld and the "real world". Shifts to the Otherworld often occur very suddenly and with little warning.
The members of The Order appear to have a connection with the other worlds, and certain members such as Judge Holloway could possibly have some control over the shift to a degree, though this seems unlikely. Instead, the Otherworld is a sort of "holy land", in which their God dwells. Creatures such as Valtiel play roles in their mythos. As such, their "God" gives The Order a certain degree of protection while in the Otherworld.
Contents
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Qualities
| “ | It's being invaded by the Otherworld. A world of someone's nightmarish delusions come to life.
- Harry Mason | ” |
The Otherworld is a darker, more disturbing reflection of the "real" areas of the town, usually having (roughly) the same physical build and outline. However, many doors that were locked or unlocked in the "real" world are the opposite in the Otherworld. Also, many new objects and puzzles appear in the Otherworld, essentially entering the protagonist into an entirely new area.
The Otherworld is depicted as a rusted, ruined dimension. Much of it is composed entirely of rusty brown metal floors and walls, which are often bloodstained as well. Grating, fencing, barbed wires, or entire sections of wall made from flesh and other organic material are also common. Elements like chains, hooks, industrial fans, cages and corpses are also very common.
Certain moments that present the streets of the town during the shift of the Otherworld show fenced floors with nothing beneath. However, the outside appearance of buildings don't change. Rather than fog, the Otherworld is obscured by pitch blackness, both inside and out. However, in Silent Hill: Homecoming an orange/red glow can be seen in the sky or from windows looking outside.
Another quality of the Otherworld is the ability to reflect a character's psyche, to twist the environment into their own hell. As the monsters are twisted into personal nightmares for a current inhabitant of the Otherworld, the environment too is shaped to suit the needs of the current "victim"; this is touched upon in Silent Hill 3, when Father Vincent asks Heather Mason "They look like monsters to you?" However, after she becomes thoroughly shocked at the spectacle of murdering hundreds of people, he informs her that he was just joking; his lying nature puts this "joke" under question. When the Fog World shifts to the Otherworld in games 1, 2, Homecoming and the film an air-raid siren can be heard in the background.
Appearances
Silent Hill
In the original Silent Hill, the Otherworld appears first in an alleyway, where it becomes increasingly dark, it stops snowing and begins raining, and the area shifts to a rusted, blood-drenched area with chains and corpses littering the area. When Harry Mason tries to backtrack through this area he will come to a dead end, with a collasped wall blocking the rest of the way. The next shift occurs in Midwich Elementary School as Harry searches for his daughter. The shift occurs while investigating an underground area beneath the clock in the garden of the school. Here it is depicted as a dark place with fenced floors, rusty and blood stained walls, and corpses hanging from ceilings and attached to walls. Most of the bodies have ceremonial robes and arcane symbols (most notably, the Seal of Metatron). Also, many of the hallways are blocked off by a wall of fencing and the school becomes similar to a labyrinth. This is arguably the most "iconic" depiction, as it gives the viewers the first glance of the "rust and blood" appearance that becomes the common visual effect for the Otherworld. This "personal hell" is tuned to Alessa Gillespie's mind, representing her fear of the cult and hospital employees. Dahlia Gillespie refers to this game's Otherworld as "The Darkness."
Throughout the game the Otherworld appears to be heavily industrialized. For instance, when Harry leaves the Silent Hill Town Center, windmills can be seen along Wien Street. Most of the buildings in Silent Hill during the Otherworld appear to be closed down, furthering the notion that the town is abandoned, or that its inhabitants are deceased.
Near the end of the game, Harry will find himself in an even more twisted version of the Otherworld known as "Nowhere." This place resembles many familiar places in Silent Hill (mostly Alchemilla Hospital). It reflects Alessa's memories of the town.
Silent Hill 2
Silent Hill 2 shows a different variant of the Otherworld. It shows a slightly more depressing and less hellish environment, with many of the visuals using somewhat darker colors with more blues involved. It is often wet with water dripping down the walls and from the ceiling, and the dead bodies littering the area appear to be more mundane than they are in the first game. Hospital gurneys are common, regardless of scenario, and the bloody walls and doors are often coated with plastic sheets. The overall appearance of the Otherworld as James Sunderland sees it is based on James' gloomy behavior and his feelings of guilt for the death of his wife, as well as her hospitalization and the decay that she supposedly felt she was going through. In the Lakeview Hotel, after discovering the truth, the Otherworld takes the form of the burnt out version of the real world hotel with a flooded basement. The Otherworld then embodies cage like stairs to lead James to Mary Shepherd-Sunderland, at the open top of Lakeview Hotel.
Silent Hill 2 shows other forms of the Otherworld when James encounters the others, Angela Orosco and Eddie Dombrowski, who like James have been "summoned" by the town because of their strong psychic energies/emotions. Eddie's version of the Otherworld appears to be a dark, cold place similar to a freezer, with mist and hanging bodies as if they were in a slaughter-house; he is almost always found near a dead, partially-eaten corpse, and some fans believe that the same bullet-ridden room that the handgun is found in Eddie once visited. It is a common theory that Eddie was often picked on, and he is in Silent Hill, not because of guilt, but to release his life of suffering at the hands of bullies; as such, he informs James during the prison cafeteria scene that he enjoys killing the monsters. It is possible that the bullet-ridden room was tainted by Eddie, and once he entered, he saw many faces, laughing at him and teasing him, causing him to shoot crazily before escaping the room.
Angela's Otherworld is sexual, like James', with the walls being draped entirely with flesh. The walls in one of her rooms are filled with either pistons or sphincters; either way, they move with a thrust, similar to sexual intercourse, referencing her rape and sexual anguish. She reveals this with her attitude towards men, viewing them all as misogynistic filth with their only interest being sex. James later encounters her on a burning staircase, which is a psychological reference to her feelings, as she explained to James she always felt like she was in Hell. Again, sexual abuse is referenced, with Angela being found observing a painting showing a corpse draped in a white sheet with a bloodstain at the crotch.
Silent Hill 3
In Silent Hill 3, the Otherworld is frequently a throwback to styles used in the first game. The Otherworld shines with reddish to orange and ochre tones, and industrial-sized fans are prevalent. Arcane symbols and the Seal of Metatron are commonly seen again. Also, many walls seem to be made of flesh and actually burn or bleed as they are passed. Many references to Claudia Wolf and Alessa Gillespie are seen, such as dolls and religious items (A doll can be seen sitting in a wheel chair in the room ahead of the storage room with the bloody tub) (. Also seen are references to Alessa's hospitalization, such as wheelchairs, bandages and medicine flasks. A recurring theme from the title are vein like effects that start to spread and corrupt the atmosphere, which occurs when Heather Mason beholds the shift to the Otherworld through a bathtub, turning the whole building into a mental clinic (the second time in the series a shift to the Otherworld can actually be observed, the first time was in Silent Hill 1 on the road turned into a metal mesh). Here, shifts to the Otherworld are also commonly accompanied by Valtiel, who is seen turning a valve. In the Otherworld, stairs and entrances may lead to holes, for example in the Central Square Shopping Center, the two escalators lead to an open pit where the front entrance was. Unlike the other games of the series, the Otherworld shifts here directly affect Heather, causing her pain as the transition occurs.
Silent Hill 4: The Room
- For the main article, see Walter's Otherworlds.
The Otherworld is presented in a different manner, and it is not entirely clear if all of Walter Sullivan's nightmare worlds are actually connected to the Otherworld. Most of these worlds appear quite mundane, with the exception of monsters, and are more akin to the Fog World that is more frequently visited. However, South Ashfield Heights Apartments appears to be very similar to the Otherworld of previous installments, with rusty walls, grating, and corpses littering the area. They are also coated in a fleshy substance in many areas, particularly hallways. It is also littered with dangling cages, bars, and entrails. Walter's Otherworlds are all connected by long descending spiral staircases where human figures, and convulsing babies can be seen. At the bottom of the staircase lies a manifestation of Room 302. Throughout Walter's worlds, there are some aspects of the Otherworld that appear such as in the subway where an underground corridor has a pulsating flesh-like appearance covered with wire mesh and the derelict trains have masses of wire blocking them up with melted floor. In the hospital, many rooms have bizarre features like wheelchairs and sticky floors. Also at the very beginning of the game, Room 302 looks very much like the Otherworld with blood and rust covering everything.
Silent Hill: Origins
In Silent Hill: Origins, the Otherworld is triggered by Travis Grady interacting with mirrors. This is due to his mother, Helen Grady, believing that there was a hidden world behind mirrors filled with demons. Unlike other entries in the series, the player can transition between realities whenever a mirror is present. These transitions are important to puzzles, as actions taken in one world affect the other. The Otherworld takes the traditional form of blood and rust in most areas with a few exceptions. The sanitarium appears more rotten and decayed and less bloody with the cabinets and furniture covered with webs and dust. The stage in the theatre Otherworld takes the form of the play 'The Tempest' with a rotten library, a garden made entirely out of blood and corpses and a similarly blooded cave. Also in the Otherworld, the monsters' appearances change, such as the nurses in the sanitarium looking greener and more rotten and the theatre monsters being covered in blood. Many of the items strewn about the Otherworld are corpses of monsters and lumps of rotting meat, which are almost certainly nods to the Butcher monster.
Silent Hill: Homecoming
In Silent Hill: Homecoming, the Otherworld appears much like it did in the first game, being a rusty, industrial place. The industrialized aspects of the Otherworld are more pronounced in this game with objects such as gears, steam vents, and fans being more common. In Homecoming the Otherworld's sky is a blazing orange and cloudy rather than an absolute black. During the game, the shift between dimensions is witnessed, in a similar manner to the film. The Fog World's structures, such as walls and floors, all "flake" from the surfaces and reveal a rusted fence underneath. When returning, the textures of the Fog World just grow back over the Otherworld's environment.
In Homecoming, the Otherworld is openly hostile to even the members of the Order that live there, as they react very much as they do in the film, panicking and running when the Otherworld begins to take over, and the monsters are visible to the other heroes, though it is still unknown if they see exactly the same ones as the player.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories
The re-imagining of the first Silent Hill game features an entirely new Otherworld, one of ice and snow. It is described as being glacial, with at one point Harry Mason being confronted by a giant wall of ice. Everything is covered in deep snow, and the buildings are covered in frost. The Otherworld, itself, doesn't change depending on how the player plays or how he answers the Psych Profile questions, but the creatures inhabiting it, Raw Shocks, can subtly change to reflect the attitude the player displays. Harry first encounters the Otherworld after a phone call from Cheryl where she begs him to run as he "can't fight them," and from this point on, the Otherworld almost invariably intrudes upon the Fog World when Harry is about to learn something important from another character, typically Cybil Bennett or Dahlia Gillespie. This could mean that the Otherworld is Cheryl's reaction to the therapy she's receiving, putting up self-inflicted blocks to prevent Dr. Kaufmann from pushing her to the truth.
Silent Hill: Orphan and Orphan 2
In both games, the Otherworld is covered in blood and rust. In Orphan, items like teddy bears, bed frames and toys are strewn about to symbolise the children's suffering. In Orphan 2, there are more hospital like items such as scalpels, dishes and corpses. In one particular room there is a lump of meat hanging from a ceiling that looks very similar to the sacks in Silent Hill: Homecoming during the Sepulcher fight. In these games the transition to the Otherworld is triggered by touching a symbol. In Orphan, it is the Halo of the Sun symbol from Silent Hill 3, whereas in Orphan 2 it is a triangle reminiscent of the Seal of Metatron.
Silent Hill: The Arcade
The Siren is replaced by a boat's fog alarm, and the transition is immediately after. The Fog World's structure melts away, revealing the Otherworld's hellish texture and monsters. This game also marked the first time Toluca Lake underwent an Otherworld transition. The water becomes bloody and dark, the sky changes to a blazing color and monsters appear everywhere, such as the Split Worm. To face these monsters, the player must stand on some kind of plataform, or, thanks to Hanna's power, stand and even walk on the water. When the diabolical time in the twisted realm ends, the Otherworld simply melts away again.
Silent Hill Movie
In the Silent Hill movie, the Otherworld is a dark and rusted place that descends every time the air raid sirens sound. The transition is witnessed and the Fog World's structures flake off as they do in Silent Hill: Homecoming. Director Christophe Gans has noted that the movie's Otherworld is based off of the pain suffered by Alessa Gillespie, saying "It's a town of people trapped in dark dreams, and she inflicts onto the town what those people did to her body. That is, to me, the meaning of the darkness. The appearance of the town is corrupted in the way that her own flesh was wounded."[1] The movie's Otherworld is completely dark, with blood dripping from the walls, twisted and rusted metal everywhere, rain falling out of doors, and grotesque and deformed monsters. In the movie, Alessa controls the Otherworld and she decides when it will appear and for how long, using her powers over the Otherworld to find and kill the cultists responsible for her suffering.
Comic Adaptations
Most installments of IDW's comic series don't always make distinctions between the various levels of existence in Silent Hill readily apparent. Monsters and other oddities seem to present themselves regardless of the level of reality those trapped in the town are experiencing. When visual cues are given to indicate a shift in reality, the Otherworld bears resemblance to its most typical representation, being that of a world draped in red-orange hues, increased monster activity and caught in various levels of decay and disrepair.
Dying Inside
The Otherworld is only seen in glimpses during the course of Dying Inside, almost entirely at the start of Issue 3. Portions of it can be viewed on footage shot by Lynn DeAngelis, as well being the initial form of Silent Hill when Lauryn LaRoache and her friends arrive. However, it appears to shift to the Fog world shortly after the group begins exploring the town.
Among the Damned
It's difficult to determine if the Otherworld is experienced by Jason during Among the Damned. No visual cues are given to illustrate the presence of the Otherworld, though both Jason and Dahlia make mention of monsters coming out of heavy fog the occurs late in the story. An interesting thing to note is that, according to dialogue and through illustrations, time seems to flow normally, with Jason taking note of the fact that monsters seem to disappear during the daylight hours.
Paint It Black
Visually cues and dialogue indicate that Ike Isaacs sees Silent Hill in its Fog World iteration, though he is able to open portals to other sections of town. It is unknown if these portals, which lead to areas used by the town's monsters as lairs, are actually part of Silent Hill or exist in an entirely separate dimension.
Hunger
The Otherworld is seen overtaking Silent Hill shortly after Whately, in a bid to draw Douglas Brenneman into his plans, kills Sherrif Bryce Canavan. The residents in town are driven into a kind of madness, killing one another for little reason other than it could be considered "fun". Some residents undergo transformations into monsters, while other are killed by monsters with no clear genesis. In addition to altering those who inhabit Silent Hill, the Otherworld's influence casts the world in an orange hue, as well as engulfing the town in fire.
The Grinning Man
Events as they occur in The Grinning Man appear to take place in an unnamed level of reality. No fog is present, nor is any visual indication that things are occurring in the Otherworld, yet monsters are abound and plentiful.
Sinner's Reward
For Jack Stanton, the three different levels of existence in Silent Hill are made clear. Though the transition between the Otherworld and Fog world aren't elaborated on, the differences are readily apparent. The Otherworld is bloody and monster-ridden with the sky casting an angry red-orange hue, while the Fog world is simply abandoned and foggy. Transitions between worlds occur with no outward sign of a change taking place.
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