As we have finally crossed the spooky threshold of October, my mind always takes me back to my favorite horror franchise in gaming this time of year: Silent Hill.
One of the trademarks of the series is the inclusion of creepy nurses who have no interest in your basic healthcare needs.
So I ask you, former vacationers of Silent Hill ERA, which style of damnation nurse unnerved you the most?
Silent Hill
The originals. When first introduced, your experience with these nurses may vary. Mine was one of them lunging at me from the darkness, catching me off guard and generally confusing the hell out of me because unlike the other abominations of SH thus far, they seem oddly human... until you notice the twitching, tumorous growth on their backs. Sometimes you will find them simply shuffling around aimlessly in the black hallways.
Silent Hill 2
Affectionately known as the 'Bubblehead Nurses', the immediate off-putting aspect of these nurses' designs is the mixture of the bulbous, faceless heads combined with the seductive nature of their body design. Reminding me of works from Clive Barker, it's an uncomfortable combination of disgust and lust. Their quiet nature and twitching heads, along with their preference of swinging pipes blindly, made them quite a bit different from their almost dream state, stabby predecessors.
Silent Hill 3
(credit to cosplayer ShadeCramer)
In the third entry we get nurses that are fundamentally designed similar to the Bubbleheads (asset sharing? š ), but this time with more human faces... with red squares around their mouths. Very Masahiro Ito-ish, if you are familiar with the more broad scope of his work. Also used a gun!
Silent Hill (2006)/Silent Hill Homecoming
A shared design between the 2006 Christophe Gans SH movie and Double Helix's Homecoming, the nurse continues the 'scary/sexy' nurse trend, but in the case of the game- more advanced animation and slight changes in the design (nurse uniform appears to be made out of flesh and the faces are covered by fleshy bandages/flesh deformation).
*SH4 did not have a nurse. There was a highly disturbing Patient creature, which is sometimes confused as a nurse, but technically no. Origins has nurses, but they are basically the Bubbleheads with worse graphics. Downpour did not have nurses and Book of Memories and The Arcade just use pre-existing ones. I've added the Other option for those that may have only played those games.*
One of the trademarks of the series is the inclusion of creepy nurses who have no interest in your basic healthcare needs.
So I ask you, former vacationers of Silent Hill ERA, which style of damnation nurse unnerved you the most?
Silent Hill
The originals. When first introduced, your experience with these nurses may vary. Mine was one of them lunging at me from the darkness, catching me off guard and generally confusing the hell out of me because unlike the other abominations of SH thus far, they seem oddly human... until you notice the twitching, tumorous growth on their backs. Sometimes you will find them simply shuffling around aimlessly in the black hallways.
Silent Hill 2
Affectionately known as the 'Bubblehead Nurses', the immediate off-putting aspect of these nurses' designs is the mixture of the bulbous, faceless heads combined with the seductive nature of their body design. Reminding me of works from Clive Barker, it's an uncomfortable combination of disgust and lust. Their quiet nature and twitching heads, along with their preference of swinging pipes blindly, made them quite a bit different from their almost dream state, stabby predecessors.
Silent Hill 3
(credit to cosplayer ShadeCramer)
In the third entry we get nurses that are fundamentally designed similar to the Bubbleheads (asset sharing? š ), but this time with more human faces... with red squares around their mouths. Very Masahiro Ito-ish, if you are familiar with the more broad scope of his work. Also used a gun!
Silent Hill (2006)/Silent Hill Homecoming
A shared design between the 2006 Christophe Gans SH movie and Double Helix's Homecoming, the nurse continues the 'scary/sexy' nurse trend, but in the case of the game- more advanced animation and slight changes in the design (nurse uniform appears to be made out of flesh and the faces are covered by fleshy bandages/flesh deformation).
*SH4 did not have a nurse. There was a highly disturbing Patient creature, which is sometimes confused as a nurse, but technically no. Origins has nurses, but they are basically the Bubbleheads with worse graphics. Downpour did not have nurses and Book of Memories and The Arcade just use pre-existing ones. I've added the Other option for those that may have only played those games.*
