Writer: Scott Ciencin
Artists: Ben Templesmith, (#1,2), and Aaadi Salaman, (#3-5)
Publisher: IDW
Reprinting Silent Hill: Dying Inside #1-5
What the hell happened?
Silent Hill is a popular series of horror video games centered around a small town with arcane powers. Players control and encounter characters who face their worst fears and personal demons made manifest. They also feature some of the most fucked-up character design in gaming history! I mean, these creatures barely resemble humans and animals. Other games, like Resident Evil, have monsters you can identify. Silent Hill 2 has things called “Pyramid Head,” “Table Daddy,” and “Patient Demons,” none of which accurately describe the sheer inhuman, otherworldly appearance of these monsters! And it all takes place in dimly lit rooms with walls encrusted with what I hope is just dirt. Even after multiple playings, Silent Hill 2 continued to be the most disturbing and fascinating video game I ever experienced.
So the comic had a lot to live up to. And man, does it ever come up short.
First of all, it feels like two different comic books brought together. Issues 1 and 2 tell the story of psychologist Troy Abernathy. He’s begun treating a “survivor” of Silent Hill. Determined to prove her visions of monsters aren’t real, he takes her back to that town. It’s all downhill from there. A film the patient made ends up in the hands of goth teenagers. Issues 3-5 follow these kids, led by Lauryn, on a trip into hell and memory. They learn who the evil little girl in white really is, and why Lauryn has power in this town. Dr. Abernathy returns as a monster that lends occasional assistance. The two storylines don’t exactly gel. It feels like this collects a Silent Hill special, followed by a half-assed sequel.
Secondly, each story is illustrated by a different artist. Templesmith drew the first two issues perfectly. His style varies from loose and sketchy to hyper-realistic. He successfully conveys the feelings of unease and unreality you get from playing the game. Salaman’s work is the complete opposite. His style is uniform. Characters are detailed, yet the murky coloring makes it difficult to see them. In fact, it’s dammed near impossible to make out anything in Salaman’s work! I know the town of Silent Hill is always covered in mist and perpetual night, but that doesn’t excuse not knowing where people are in relation to one another!
Finally, the ending didn’t make any sense. Somehow the fact that Lauryn was born in Silent Hill and her sister died there completed a spell that gave both of them power. There’s someone called Whately that leads an “order”. (If that’s a reference to the first video game, I missed it completely.) There are a lot of nasty things we can’t see doing nasty things to Lauryn’s friends who are now zombies. You know what? I’ve read this twice, and I give up. I can’t make sense of it.
The greatest disappointment is the comic’s failure to recreate the visual mood and atmosphere of the games. Templesmith comes close, but can’t quite achieve it in only 40 pages. The remainder is a mess. Dying Inside is an almost complete disaster. I’d recommend just reading the pages by Templesmith, then putting it back on the shelf.
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