There are some truly harrowing places in the world of video games. Whether it be the dank depths of BioShock's Rapture or zombie-riddled streets of Resident Evil's Raccoon City, they're a far cry from the sunny sights of the Mushroom Kingdom. Still, few video game locales make our blood run cold quite like Silent Hill.
It's been 25 years since we first stepped into that tormented town for Konami's original Silent Hill, and with the franchise back in a big way thanks to the recent Silent Hill 2 remake and upcoming releases like Silent Hill, everyone wants to return.
Video game connoisseurs might know that the burning fires of Silent Hill are wrongly attributed to being inspired by a real-life town in America. Although there's (hopefully) no muscular Pyramid Head stalking its streets, it's a place you can actually visit.
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Urban explorer group 'Exploring with Josh' made a recent trip to Centralia, Pennsylvania, which is the real-life horror story that looks like the perfect setting for the next Silent Hill movie. The reel explains how the town was evacuated due to a massive coal fire, sadly confirming that most of the houses have now been knocked down.
There's an eerie vibe as the camera pans over a clean-looking church, a car graveyard, and shows how the highway has been blocked with mounds of dirt to prevent people trying to visit. Yeah, since when has that ever stopped anyone.
If you want a deeper dive into the history of Centralia, Game Rats has a video from 2019, expanding the backstory on how a deadly mine fire broke out in 1962. There were around 1,500 residents at the time the fire ignited, and although that was still sitting at 1,017 during the 1980 census, the population has since declined.
As of 2021, there were estimated to be just four people left living in Centralia. State and local officials have reached and agreement for the remaining residents to live there until their death, but after that, Centralia will be completely abandoned.
There's still plenty of action in Centralia, and as well as volunteers planting over 250 apple trees to restore the ecosystem in 2021, the last remaining church is still thought to hold services for surrounding towns and former residents.
While Pyramid Head creator Masahiro Ito has confirmed that Centralia wasn't the inspiration for Silent Hill, screenwriter Roger Avary admitted that he researched the Pennsylvania town for 2006's Silent Hill movie. Despite Centralia's increasingly abandoned state, it's still a popular haunt for urban explorers. With videos like this becoming more popular, and Konami finally revisiting Silent Hill after years of leaving it dormant, Centralia might not be as abandoned as it looks for long.