Silent Hill F producer says the series has “lost” the “essence of Japanese horror”, so this terrifying new entry has it in droves

Konami is going hard on the return of Silent Hill. Following Bloober Team’s record-breaking remake of the second game, the studio is working on a remake of the very first entry in the series. However, this year, Silent Hill F is releasing on PS5, PC and Xbox, bringing the American small-town horror series to Showa Era Japan.

Silent Hill F is a return to form

Many have wondered exactly why this new entry is set in a Japanese village, as the titular town of Silent Hill has always been a stark deconstruction of the abandoned American dream. As it turns out, the new game is seemingly set to balance the scales as series producer Motoi Okamoto aims to restore the “lost” Japanese horror the series has lacked since the PS2 era.

Speaking in a recent dev diary for the upcoming Silent Hill F, Okamoto explained that the beauty of the horror series was that it “fused the essence of western horror and Japanese horror” into one terrifying art piece. However, Okamoto believes that this fusion disappeared.

“As the series progressed, I felt that the essence of Japanese horror was lost,” the producer explained. “I began to feel a desire to create a Silent Hill with 100% essence of Japanese-style horror.”

In its later years, the Silent Hill franchise certainly suffered. From Origins to Downpour, the horror franchise definitely leaned more on its Western appeal than the aforementioned fusion of cultures. Shattered Memories, a reimagining of the first game, is definitely a much less Japanese version of what fans love about the series.

Okamoto explained that Silent Hill F isn’t just about being as grotqesque or as terrifying as possible, although it is pretty gnarly. A woman’s face is cut off—pretty gross. The producer explained that the core idea of the game is balancing the crossover of beauty and horror, a theme we’ve seen in classic Japanese horror flicks like Ju-On, Ringu and even Hausu.

“The hallmark of Japanese horror is not simply grotesqueness but the coexistence of beauty and the disturbing,” the producer said. “We are creating this title with the concept ‘find the beauty in terror’.”

While Bloober Team’s Silent Hill 2 is a return to form for the series, it’s not an original game, and the horror series has seen a great brand-new entry in a long time. Right now, it looks like Silent Hill F is shaping up really well, and we’re excited to see just how good the game actually ends up being.