Silent Hill (idea)

It's been mentioned by Skilldrick and webnaut, but it's worth pointing out that almost every single fucking thing in Silent Hill has some form of literary, occult or even popcultural meaning. Below is a sort of list of these references in Silent Hill.

Note: I don't claim to have found all of these myself, some are taken from various places on the web. Sarcastic comments are my own, though. If you spot something not here, feel free to /msg me.

It begins.

Street names
Most streets in Silent Hill are named after an author of some description.

• Finney St. -> Jack Finney (Body Snatchers, Time and Again)
• Bachman St. -> Richard Bachman (The Regulators)
         Richard Bachman is a pseudonym of Stephen King.
• Bloch St. -> Robert Bloch (Psycho)
• Matheson St. -> Richard Matheson (I Am Legend, Earthbound)
• Ellroy St. -> Jack Ellroy (The Black Dahlia)
• Bradbury St. -> Ray Bradbury (Something Wicked This Way Comes)
• Levin St. -> Ira Levin (Rosemary's Baby, Sliver)
• Sanford St. -> John Sanford (Prey, The People from Heaven)
• Simmons St. -> Dan Simmons (Song of Kali)
• Sagan St. -> Carl Sagan (Contact)
• Crichton St. -> Michael Crichton (Jurassic Park, Sphere)
• Koontz St. -> Dean Koontz (Phantoms, Mr Murder)
• Midwich St. -> Not actually an author, but a reference to The Midwich Cuckoos by John Wyndham - basis for the film Village of the Damned.
• Wilson St. -> F. Paul Wilson (Nightworld)

Collectibles
If (and when) you come to a point in the game that necessitates the collection of two or more items to proceed, the smart money says they'll be named in relation to each other.
That sentence was clumsy, best to go on and pretend it never happened.

• Keys:
  -The keys of Lion, Woodman and Scarecrow are all named after characters in The Wizard of Oz.
  -The keys of Ophiel, Hagith, Phaleg, Bethor and Aratron are named after some of the Olympic Spirits, specifically Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter and Saturn respectively.
    Missing are Och and Phul - Sun and Moon. Celestial bodies evidently have bad agents.
• Plates:
  -The plates of Turtle, Queen, Cat and Hatter are all characters from Alice in Wonderland. Cute.

Misc. references
There's plenty more references in this game than just items and locations, mind. Some are just there.

• The whole game is evocative of The Mist, by Stephen King. Flying monsters and fog..
• The layout of the motel looks a lot like the one in Psycho. All we need now is a paranoid schizophrenic crossdresser. Where's Alfred Ashford when you need him?
• Not quite a reference, but Metatron is consistently referred to in the alternate spelling of Metraton. Metatron, as we all know from Dogma, is the angel who sits on the throne next to God's throne.
  thanks to jon_c_pay for correction on spelling!

"There are violent and disturbing images in this game" - and never was a truer word spoken.