In the video game space, Silent Hill (1999) is one of the forefathers of survival horror. The creepy and deserted town of Silent Hill has become the host of some of the scariest gaming experiences out there. There’s a palpable sense of isolation, fear, and unease with each new area, and compared to other psychological horror franchises, nothing can quite compare. It’s dark, depressing, oftentimes traumatic, and perfect for the Halloween season.
Hollywood is no stranger to psychological horror as well. However, it’s not often that you’ll get a horror movie reminiscent of the surrealistic horror that the Silent Hill series is known for. Still, there are a handful of shows and movies that come pretty close. There’s also the adaptation of the original game, Silent Hill (2006), but what if you want something else? With the recent release of Silent Hill f (2025) and Return to Silent Hill (2026) dropping next year, it’s a pretty great time to find out what makes this series so compelling and fascinating. If you’re already a fan of the series and want something just like it, here are 10 movies like Silent Hill on Prime Video, Paramount+, Crunchyroll, and more.
Blue Velvet (1986)
When the Silent Hill series first began, Masahiro Ito, who was the art director for the first four games, cited the works of David Lynch as a huge inspiration for his vision of the town. Known for his surrealist imagery and deep symbolism, Lynch’s best example of both is in Blue Velvet.
Blue Velvet, like most Silent Hill projects, is a layered experience. While the film starts off simple enough, it continually reveals itself to be much darker than it was at first glance. At points, it’s hard to get a sense of what’s happening, but that sense of confusion just encourages you to pay more attention. This is the thinking man’s psychological thriller and is highly recommended for anyone who wants to get out of their comfort zone. Much like The Holy Mountain (1973) or mother! (2017), Blue Velvet is open to interpretation, making it a perfect inspiration for the ambiguous nature of Silent Hill. If you prefer your horror movies cerebral, then Blue Velvet is for you.
Jacob’s Ladder (1990)
Another film that directly inspired Silent Hill and the horrors of the town is Jacob’s Ladder. While Blue Velvet created a rich plot filled with plenty of symbolism and meaning, Jacob’s Ladder is meant to leave you hollow and depressed. It is a film about trauma. From the opening scene, we watch how the Vietnam War fills Jacob with a sense of terror that he just can’t shake, even as he returns home.
If you love character studies, then Jacob is an excellent protagonist for you to sink your teeth into, and the exploration of the Vietnam War setting will excite fans of Full Metal Jacket (1987). But the real reason to watch it is for its monsters. Even to this day, they’re pretty nightmarish, and like Silent Hill, each monster has symbolic meaning to Jacob’s journey. The name of the game, though, is pain. Jacob’s journey is one of pain and horror, and by the end of its nearly two-hour runtime, you’ll be feeling the pain and horror of Jacob’s descent into madness, too.
Cure (1997)
One of the most defining things about Silent Hill is its uneasiness. The fog that covers the town is omnipresent, and you know that something is waiting beyond, ready to attack. It’s atmospheric, and Cure does a great job of capturing that same vibe.
Some may cry foul at the slow pacing of Cure and how not much happens, but the eeriness of the setting helps to slowly introduce its horrifying plot. In that way, it’s very similar to movies like Under the Skin (2013) and Rosemary’s Baby (1968), as both horror movies prioritize putting audiences into an uncomfortable state of mind before descending into a disturbing climax. What makes the climax of Cure so memorable is that we, alongside Detective Takabe, are trying to figure out the mystery of the serial killings. The killings should be impossible, yet the process of discovering the how and the why of it makes Cure captivating. The uneasy tension that’s bubbling under the surface of Cure is perfect for those pining for Silent Hill’s deserted streets.
Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 (1988)
One of the key concepts of Silent Hill is the Otherworld. It’s a terrifying otherworldly realm that screams danger. Every transition into the Otherworld instantly puts you on edge, much in the same way that the Cenobites of Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 do.
Hellraiser 2 is actually structured somewhat like a Silent Hill game. While the introduction is there to establish its cast, eventually, the film spends the majority of its 93-minute runtime subjecting them to the nightmares of Hell. It’s a surrealist nightmare where, half the time, the plot isn’t easy to follow, but the imagery is delightfully awful. If you’re the kind of person who loves the gnarly imagery of Event Horizon (1997) or Phantasm (1979), then the imposing nature of Hell in Hellraiser 2 is such a sight to behold. Not only that, but the monsters that inhabit Hell all have their own unique designs that will stick with you, most notably the sadistic and booming Pinhead. If you’re a Silent Hill fan and long for the rust-coated hallways of the Otherworld, watch Hellbound: Hellraiser 2 and take a trip to Hell.
Perfect Blue (1998)
Satoshi Kon was a director who understood the power of psychology. Nearly all of his projects explore, in some capacity, the power of dreams, memories, fantasy, and the delusions that people can fall into. It’s material that should be familiar to Silent Hill fans, and Perfect Blue is undeniably his magnum opus.
If you love the surreality of Mulholland Drive (2001) and Black Swan (2010), then you’ll appreciate what Perfect Blue has to offer. There’s a certain beauty in how it subverts and plays with your expectations with its surrealist imagery and conflicting narration. Viewers are constantly left wondering what’s real, what isn’t, and if our lead Mima is truly in her right mind or not. Its ending may be a little bit too polished and doesn’t leave much room for interpretation, but the journey to get to that point is harrowing and uncomfortable. It’s a textbook example of how to do a psychological thriller, and if you loved how Silent Hill constantly had you questioning what was going on, Perfect Blue will also keep you guessing and then some.
Ring (1998)
As the most recent entry in the series, Silent Hill f took some big risks with its depiction of its fog-covered town. For example, the game isn’t even set in Silent Hill, but rather the small Japanese town of Ebisugaoka. Because of this, there’s a distinctly more Japanese flair to the scares, and if you’re looking to replicate the feeling of Japanese supernatural horror, it’s hard to beat Ring.
While most Americans may be more familiar with the story thanks to its American version, The Ring (2002), the original Japanese version is a far different beast. There’s more of a focus on the supernatural elements of the story and a decidedly more folksy vibe to it. The story feels like a dark secret being unearthed as we not only try to figure out who or what Sadako is, but also how to break her curse. Movies about curses, like Uzumaki (2000) and Ju-On: The Grudge (2002), all have their charms, but something is fascinating about Ring and the mysteries surrounding its curse. The curse, and the video associated with it, are genuinely frightening, so if you’re looking for a Japanese horror movie that puts you on edge, you can’t do much better than Ring.
The Lighthouse (2019)
Isolation is a key theme in most Silent Hill games. The casts are usually kept intentionally small, and when other characters outside of the protagonist appear, they’re usually odd and stilted. The supporting cast greatly contributes to each entry’s sense of dread, and there’s no better example of a film with a dread-filled cast than The Lighthouse.
For one hour and 50 minutes, the audience is stuck in a tight and claustrophobic lighthouse with only two people to keep us company: Robert Pattinson and Willem Dafoe. With Pattinson as the POV character, Dafoe singlehandedly makes The Lighthouse into an uncomfortable mood piece. It’s next to impossible to predict how his character is going to behave and what sense of logic he’s working on. Sometimes he’s happy, sometimes he’s emotionally vulnerable, and other times he’s howling with fury. He’s unhinged in the same way that Jack Torrence was in The Shining (1980) or Eddie Dumbrowski in Silent Hill 2 (2001). It’s a stunning performance, and if you want to see an actor lose themselves in a role, or you’re just a fan of outrageous villains, The Lighthouse beckons you.
Higurashi: When They Cry (2006-2021)
Higurashi: When They Cry is an interesting series in a lot of different ways. Created by Ryukishi07, the same writer of Silent Hill f, the series ran for over 15 years. It’s a fairly complex series that is overflowing with lore and poignant story beats, but it can also be tonally confusing, which helps drive home the horror when it does crop up.
For fans of Silent Hill f, the small town setting of Hinamizawa should clue you in to what to expect. Everything seems fine on the surface, with a fair bit of slice-of-life hijinks and exploits. But when the dark underbelly of the town crops up and the gruesome killings within it, they hit with ferocious impact. It’s akin to how Audition (2000) spends most of its runtime creating a cute romance between its leads, only for the film to deliver violent and visceral imagery that will leave you in stunned silence. There’s a lot to dig into with Higurashi, and if you’re looking for a series with extensive worldbuilding that isn’t afraid to leave you unnerved and traumatized, then check it out and any of its myriad spin-offs.
Dark Gathering (2023)
It’s not often that an anime revels in its horrific imagery. Sure, Perfect Blue and Higurashi: When They Cry are horror series, but they don’t seem to fully embrace the tropes and iconography of horror as much as Dark Gathering does.
In many ways, Dark Gathering feels like a darker and more serious version of Scooby-Doo, Where Are You! (1969). Each new episode tends to focus on a new monster that is harassing our main cast and usually ends with the monster being beaten back. The key difference here is, that for once, the creatures are scary. These monsters, or yokai as they’re called, all come from Japanese folklore, and the ways they torment the living are unsettling. Some will cause physical harm, psychological harm, or sometimes both. Even when things seem at ease, there’s always an underlying sensation that something worse is waiting in the wings. The series only has 24 episodes, so it is a fairly quick watch. Really, it’s perfect if you’re looking for a weekly horror series that can actually get under your skin.
Shutter Island (2010)
If you were to ask a Silent Hill fan what the best entry in the series is, chances are, it’ll be Silent Hill 2. The story of James Sunderland and his quest for answers about his dead wife was so well handled that it serves as the foundation for Return to Silent Hill. It’s also impossible not to draw comparisons between that iconic story and Martin Scorsese’s Shutter Island.
Shutter Island is an excellent film that keeps you guessing all the way through. We know that something’s going on at Ashecliffe Hospital, but we can never really put our fingers on what exactly that is. Without giving too much away, Shutter Island is wonderful at creating an unreliable main character. Teddy isn’t too far off from James, and for that matter, has a lot in common with other unreliable protagonists like Nick Dunne from Gone Girl (2014) and Leonard Shelby from Memento (2000). Because of that, it’s exciting watching Teddy come to terms with his own actions as the film hooks us into finding out the truth, not only about what’s going on in Ashecliffe, but what’s going on with Teddy. If you love films that play with your expectations and have multifaceted protagonists, then Shutter Island will remind you of Silent Hill in more ways than one.
