Silent Hill has grown over the decades, and each game brought new characters with it. However, many characters fall into the morally gray category at best, and outright immoral category at worst, save for a few. With us being big ol’ horror fans over on GameSkinny, we decided to take a trip down the series’ memory lane, so here are the 10 Silent Hill characters who are actually terrible people.
10. The Order’s God
The deity that the Order worship doesn’t receive a lot of attention or details regarding who or what it is. However, it’s hard to argue that this deity is a good person when bringing them into the world requires setting a girl on fire to induce a godly pregnancy. This mysterious god usually remains unnamed and is mentioned in the earlier games more than in the later ones. This results in us not knowing a lot about them, but they seem to enjoy pain and suffering, and their worshipers end up inflicting both on innocent people.
If being a terrible person yourself isn’t enough, indoctrinating a bunch of followers to also inflict horrors on innocent people justifies a place on this list.
9. Eddie Dombrowski
Compared to many Silent Hill characters, Eddie isn’t the worst of the worst. But he’s still not a good person, either. He’s a character who spent his childhood being bullied until he snapped, killing the bully’s dog and shooting the bully themselves. The shot didn’t deliver a fatal blow, but I can’t look at his face without thinking about the poor doggo.
Oddly enough, he seems to form a friendship with Laura while in Silent Hill, despite his violent tendencies and instability. I know he had a rough time, but I can’t trust anybody who kills an animal that didn’t do anything wrong.
8. Jimmy Stone
Jimmy Stone is also known as the Red Devil, which is a sign when you’re talking about terrible people. He’s essentially the cause of all the events Henry deals with in Silent Hill 4: The Room. As the executioner and priest of the Valtiel Sect of the Order, he carried out murders for the sake of his cult and beliefs. He tasked his right-hand man, Rosten, with raising Walter Sullivan to fulfill the 21 Sacraments, and ended up implanting Valtiel into Walter to guide him. This started his series of murders, with Jimmy being Walter’s first victim.
All-round bad person. I rest my case.
7. Murphy Pendleton
Downpour might not be the fan-favorite game in the franchise, but Murphy is one of the few protagonists to end up on this list of terrible people. However, his story and actions aren’t clear-cut, and one of his crimes is at least understandable since he kills the man (Napier) who abused and killed his son (not that I condone committing crimes for revenge). But he made a bad deal to get his revenge, and it led to him killing an innocent man in exchange for the chance to kill Napier.
6. Andrew DeSalvo
Andrew DeSalvo is a minor character in Silent Hill 4: The Room, but we don’t need to know much about him to learn about the horrible actions of his past. He wasn’t a member of the Order, but he worked for them as a watchman at an orphanage they owned since they couldn’t fully staff it themselves. Unfortunately, he drank too much too often and had a habit of abusing the children he was hired to watch. Additionally, his diary implies he killed Walter’s childhood friend when he lived at the orphanage.
5. Claudia Wolf
Another member of the Order, Claudia held the position of high priestess during the time Heather Mason returned to Silent Hill. She wanted to complete Dahlia’s mission and have the Order’s god be reborn through Heather, who’s the completed soul of Alessa and Cheryl. Although Claudia believes this god will bring salvation, she also believes that it needs to be born through hate and woe to be merciful. As such, she tries to make Heather hateful by fueling her anger towards her dad. She even kills Vincent in front of Heather for getting in her way.
4. Dr. Michael Kaufmann
Michael is the director of Alchemilla Hospital who also worked with the Order, specifically Dahlia. He sold drugs, making a large profit doing so, and helped Dahlia by secretly keeping Alessa alive, hidden in the hospital. At this time, he forced Lisa to take care of Alessa by threatening to cut off her drug supply. Since she was addicted and didn’t want to go through withdrawal, she agreed. In the end, it’s tough to find any redeeming qualities in Michael.
3. Walter Sullivan
Walter Sullivan was implanted with Valtiel and meant to fulfill the 21 Sacraments, which essentially meant he needed to kill a bunch of people. And with the guidance of Valtiel, he did just that. The nightmare world in Silent Hill 4: The Room created by him reflects his twisted beliefs that were due to being indoctrinated by the Order as a child. Really, he never had a chance since the Order had their eyes on him since he was a child. He became their perfect killer, but he wouldn’t be able to complete the sacrament ritual that became his mission.
2. James Sunderland
James takes the lead in Silent Hill 2, but he’s not a protagonist that you root for in a normal sense. He even admits that Pyramid Head is a manifestation of his guilt and need to be punished for his actions. It’s not a secret that James is a terrible person, although you could argue that he wasn’t always that way. Mary’s illness took a toll on both of them. He drank more and ended up killing her. Then, he drove to Silent Hill with her body in the trunk, intending to kill himself. However, depending on the ending you get in-game, he might instead try resurrecting her through a ritual.
1. Dahlia Gillespie
Dahlia was the leader of the Order, and she kicked off the events that led to the first Silent Hill. She cared more for her cult than anything else, including her daughter, Alessa. While Alessa grew up, she forced her to believe in the Order’s doctrines, abusing her and locking her in the attic when she disobeyed. Then, she set Alessa on fire as part of a ritual to bring her god to earth when Alessa was seven. Following the immolation, Dahlia worked with Michael to keep Alessa alive with fourth-degree burns for another seven years until Cheryl returned to complete Alessa’s soul. Dahlia won’t win a parenting award anytime soon.
And those are 10 Silent Hill characters that are actually terrible people. However, it’s part of the formula to have characters that are morally gray in this franchise, and that often adds to the psychological horror element. From here, check out why the Silent Hill 2 combat trailer stoked debate or all Silent Hill main games, ranked!
