Silent Hills got the boot, but Del Toro, Kojima, and Remus are still busy with something new
The cancellation of Silent Hills was a massively missed opportunity even for people that weren’t long standing Silent Hill fans like myself. That was because of three major factors going into the project. Hideo Kojima, video game developer and auteur behind Metal Gear. Guillermo Del Toro, film director and molder of macabre masterpieces such as Pan’s Labyrinth. And Norman Reedus, the Walking Dead’s good ol’ boy Daryl Dixon. This is a superstar line up of talent given the broad and rich campus of the Silent Hill mythos to plunder! Sadly, such a specific product will likely never surface, but that essential vision and the contributors to it have re-collaborated into an original project that might carry some of the same creative DNA. It’s called Death Stranding.
The New Project
“Disquieting” would be the magic word of this trailer
Not much is known outside of the above trailer and its accompanying twin trailer. The ladder of which features an actor who might be familiar to viewers. Already though this project has received enthusiasm and support from Kojima’s fanbase and even those outside of it. That’s the benefit of getting three big name creators together on the same project, they bring in their fans who otherwise would not overlap with the others.
There are a few things that can be gathered from the trailer. The title refers to when whales beach themselves and eventually die with several different theories as to why this happens. Given that we see what looks like the corpses of large cetaceans beached on the shore, it’s safe to assume this phrase and what it pertains to will tie into the game’s central theme. Of course, there is also perhaps the more obvious presence of a crying infant. In the trailer’s counterpart, another character who is modeled after Mr. Del Toro is also trying to protect an infant against a hostile world. Perhaps this is a Children of Men setup where there is this one child that’s important for a reason or children in general are.
The ominous title and the disturbing imagery of rotting sea life upon an oily ocean.
Continued involvement
The important thing to take away from this news is that all three of the touted contributors to Silent Hills will be bringing their A game to Death Stranding. This brings an interesting concept to the forefront. The spiritual successor. Even if it doesn’t involve exactly the same lore, history, rules, and characters as the previous Silent Hill games, could Death Stranding still have the same themes and ability to explore the psychological depths of horror and revulsion in the human condition that the series is famous for? We will have to wait and see. I am certainly excited.
What do you take away from this? Are you hopeful for Death Stranding being what Silent Hills could have been? Are you excited for this game but think it’s too different to live up to what was promised? What are your feelings on the creators involved?
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