2016 Geek-A-Long: Silent HIll

I’ve never played Silent Hill before. I haven’t even seen the movie. Admittedly, I tried to watch it once, but I feel asleep about five minutes into it. I know precisely three things about Silent Hill:

1. It has some guy with a pyramid head in it.
2. Megan-Anne hates the game with a firey passion since she associates it with her douchey ex-boyfriend.
3. The first three Silent Hill games received critical acclaim and helped define the survival horror genre, thus earning its place on the 2016 Geek-A-Long blanket. And Mythocondrie, who nominated the video game (although it didn’t make it into one of the top ten slots on the Leaderboards) agreed with me:

I want to nominate Silent Hill.

I’ve always been a fan of survival horror game. The ambiance of this series always made me travel through my imagination. The story line is also so complete and emotional, the second one made me cry a lot. In my opinion that series is the father of survival horror….

P.S The mother being RESIDENT EVIL, but someone else already nominated it I think!

Since I only know three things about the video game and didn’t think you guys would appreciate me putting the wiki page in giant quotes, I asked my husband to guest post. Everyone say hello to my number one cappuccino slinger, David!

“I never finished playing Silent Hill 1 for the Playstation One. It was way too scary. As a huge fan of the Resident Evil games, I can safely say that Silent Hill is much scarier. Not going to lie, I still freak out a little when I hear static on a radio.

Fun fact about Silent Hill 1: the reason the developers implemented fog to limit your visibility was because the Playstation wasn’t powerful enough to render the distant city. The limitation of the system created the memorable atmosphere of the game, and the anxiety of not being able to see in front of you. It delivers anxiety, gore, shock, and scares like Resident Evil does, but packs it in a more subtle, brutal way. Rather than freaking out about what is in front of you, you’re freaking out about what’s behind you as you run away.

Horror in video games encapsulates fear in a way that other mediums can’t. I’ve never had nightmares about movies or books or scary camp fire stories; the video game medium puts you right there in the terror about as close as you can be without getting PTSD. Resident Evil gave me nightmares as a child; Silent Hill gave me nightmares as an adult. And that’s right, even though they came out around the same time, I didn’t get to play Silent Hill until much later. I played through Resident Evil at 14, and yet I couldn’t finish Silent Hill… even when I played it in my 20’s.”

Whether you’re knitting, crocheting, or cross stitching this square, you can download the Silent Hill pattern here. Instructions for both knit and crochet are listed in the pattern. When you’re finished making it, don’t forget to tweet or instagram your squares at me @jac_attacking or Megan-Anne @Doctor_Llama with the hashtag #geekalong!

https://www.instagram.com/p/BDqrC_HCZt0/?taken-by=doctor_llama

If you’re having trouble with double-sided knitting, we have a how-to video here and a tutorial on crochet here. Want to hang out with other people making the blanket? You can find moral support in the Geek-A-Long group on Ravelry here.

~ Jac
I don’t know what Halo of the Sun is, but I trust my husband and sister that it’s what’s on this square.

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If you enjoyed this post, please consider making a donation to Child’s Play Charity. Here is a direct link to our donation page benefiting the charity. Please help us raise $1,000 this year! No contribution is too small. Wanna make your donation go even further? Louet Yarn is donating 50 cents for every skein of Louet Gems Worsted purchased this year to make a Geek-A-Long blanket. You can get Gems at your Local Yarn Store or through Louet’s website. Just remember to mention the GAL at check out.