If you watched any scene of Stranger Things which took place in the Upside Down and thought you saw a similarity between that setting and the town of Silent Hill, you're not alone. More importantly though, you're not imagining the parallels. Speaking to IGN, show creators Matt and Ross Duffer explained the Konami series' influence on the show, as well as several other games that inspired them.
"Silent Hill is the one most people have picked up on," said Ross. "Because that's the least subtle one, with the look of the Upside Down and with all the fog and the forest dripping. Obviously we were really looking at that game for visualising this other world, so that's a big one".
"We're huge, huge fans of the Dark Souls games, and there's something about when you're playing Dark Souls," said his brother, Matt. "Immediately when you're in that world, it was to do with the imagery, it has to do with the sound design, and you're just immediately very uncomfortable and on edge. We wanted you to feel that way when you're in the Upside Down".
Matt also said he was a fan of The Last of Us, for its focus on storytelling and its horrific imagery. Which … okay, no spoilers, but I can see where he's coming from on that.
Really though, I'm personally just happy that I wasn't imagining the Silent Hill connection. When characters started exploring a twisted shadow realm full of fog and slowly falling particles, talking to voices on a crackling radio, I thought to myself, "Oh, they got that from Silent Hill". But then I second-guessed myself and thought it was just coincidence. Nope! I was right, and if you thought the same, so were you.
Maybe Stranger Things season 2 will have a monster with a geometrically-shaped head? One can hope, anyway.
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