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- Image from Silent Hill 2 Remake, courtesy of Bloober Team

Top 10 Fascinating References in Silent Hill 2 (2001)

Originally posted on Total Apex Gaming
By Matthew Lewallen | Last updated May 24, 2025 11:22 PM ET

Since I had fun putting together that last article on the 10 most fascinating references in 1999’s Silent Hill on the PS1, I wanted to provide 10 more hidden details from its (loosely connected) follow-up entry on the PS2: 2001’s Silent Hill 2. Not only did SH2 obviously benefit from the leap between 32 to 128-bit systems in the graphical presentation department, but it also received an arguably darker and more troubling story tying into real-world psychological issues and trauma.

10. Shades of Blue Velvet

The infamous scene where James Sunderland hides in a nearby closet and watches the mysterious entity Pyramid Head do something…”unpleasant” to one of the game’s bizarre mannequin-like enemies is an extremely disturbing yet iconic moment in Silent Hill 2 (with it more or less being replicated during SH2‘s 2024 remake). But what’s particularly interesting – and also unsettling – is that the scene is an indirect reference to an equally shocking part from the late David Lynch‘s 1986 movie Blue Velvet (itself touching on very heavy themes of violence and the criminal underbelly).

9. The Whisper in Room 209

Seemingly designed to activate at random (with a purported 50/50 chance that players will hear it during a given playthrough), an eerie whisper will occur in Room 209 of the Blue Creek Apartments building (the second half of Silent Hill 2‘s first major explorable location). While some have dismissed the soundbite as merely being gibberish (and possibly even something that was just ad-libbed from one of the voice actors), others have postulated that the whisper might actually be saying the following (quite ghoulish) phrase: “See my dead wife, come home to do some laundry…”

8. Johnny’s on Fire!

Much later in Silent Hill 2‘s final location, the (ostensibly) well-preserved Lakeview Hotel that James and Mary Shepherd-Sunderland spent time together at, players will notice a small boiler placed in the building’s lounge with a note attached to it that reads: “I’m Johnny, one hot guy.” Again, while this detail is very easy to overlook and dismiss, the eventual reveal that the hotel is actually charred and in complete disrepair puts forth the implication that the boiler might’ve been the source of the fire that burned the building down (with “Johnny” possibly being a very facetious Shining reference).

7. Every Street Has a Name (& Story to Tell) – Pt. 2

Image from Silent Hill 2 courtesy of Konami and Bloober.

As in the original game, each of the streets featured throughout Silent Hill 2 directly references the name of a prominent author with notable bodies of work that are very closely (but also very loosely) connected with the game’s overarching storyline and concepts. Major namedrops featured this time are Carroll St., Lindsey St., and Rendell St. (having combined fantasy/crime fiction backgrounds), with additional streets including Katz and Nathan (both having produced more “versatile” works).

6. A Little Japanese Wordplay

Another notable detail at Lakeview Hotel is the briefcase found in Room 202 that needs to be opened via a combination lock so players can retrieve the needed “Cinderella” music box to solve the central music box puzzle stationed in the building’s lobby. Notably, the lock’s letter combination can initially read “KIRA,” which is how the word “killer” is pronounced in Japanese phonetics; likewise, “kira” can be translated as “shiny” in Japanese, possibly serving as a reference to Cinderella’s glass slipper.

5. The Gang’s All Here!

In an incredibly easy-to-miss detail in the Silent Hill Historical Society building – one even I totally overlooked for the longest time – there’s a framed picture of a large group of people gathered around to have their photo taken. Even though I (and probably many others) assumed that this was just some random background detail with no larger significance to the overall narrative, it was confirmed in the official Lost Memories publication to be a picture of Silent Hill 2‘s very own game developers.

4. Strike That, Reverse It

This one’s admittedly not the most surprising or well-hidden reference in Silent Hill 2 (it’s actually sort of spoiled in the following’s title), but the track “The Reverse Will” featured on the game’s official album release has a brief section that sounds like someone speaking – but in a very obviously garbled and distorted manner. When played backwards, the section is actually Jacquelyn Breckenridge (the original voice actress for Laura) reciting “Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep,” an old children’s bedtime prayer (in particular, a version of it as printed in the pages of the New England Primer textbook).

3. James to the Infinite Power

Serving as more of an (extremely disquieting) internal detail than a specific reference to something beyond the game’s setting, there are multiple corpses seen throughout Silent Hill 2 that have a very peculiar quirk to their models: namely, they’re wearing the exact same clothing as James (green jacket, blue jeans, and black dress shoes). This detail, as reinforced by an equally bizarre hidden message in SH2‘s 2024 remake, has led to the theory that James is potentially caught in an infinitely repeating “cycle” of events (itself comparable to The Third Policeman, The Quiet Earth, and 1408).

2. The Crimson Ceremony

As with my previous article, I’d like to spend the last two entries on this list discussing heavier, more esoteric references to alchemy/psychoanalysis-focused concepts that Silent Hill 2 continues on from the previous game: in this case, the matter of the “Crimson Ceremony” ritual that can be initiated in the “Rebirth” ending. After collecting four new items on subsequent playthroughs, James can allegedly resurrect Maria (but with unseen results) via arcane magic tied to the first game’s cult, with the ritual items and conditions mirroring the alchemical process of creating a philosopher’s stone.

1. Red Squares

To try and summarize exceedingly more detailed and researched points brought up in a very well-produced video by YouTube content creator Max Derrat, SH2‘s recurring implementation and predominant placement of “red squares” references the alchemical interpretation/application of “squaring the circle” – more specifically, the transmutation of a subject into another state. However, as filtered through the psychoanalytical principles of Carl Jung, “squaring the circle” becomes the act of bringing unconsciousness into a conscious level…which perfectly sums up James’ overall story arc.