While Silent Hill is now back with Konami working on multiple new titles for modern audiences, including a remake of the original game, there was a period where the series was set to be revived by Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding creator Hideo Kojima.
P.T., aka Playable Teaser, was a short demo for the then in-development Silent Hills, created as a coalition between Kojima, director Guillmero Del Toro and horror manga legend Junji Ito. Unfortunately, Konami scrapped the project, delisted the demo and famously fired Kojima. While the game is largely lost, it turns out the game lives as an educational tool in Japan.
Discovered by Automaton, the absolutely terrifying Silent Hill demo is being actively used as an educational tool by Tsunan Secondary School in Niigata, Chūbu in Japan. The iconic horror game—still installed on a PlayStation 4 console after ten years—is used to drive students to learn English to navigate its looping puzzles.
According to the report, fifth-year students are tasked with playing the game which the teachers pause at specific sections. At these sections, students have to state specific English phrases, such as “answer the phone” to pick up the phone, before they’re allowed to proceed.
Infamously one of the scariest horror experiences ever made, Hideo Kojima’s P.T. is also, in turn, the scariest educational tool ever created. Teachers at the school explain that the demo are frequently scared by the “sudden sound of a phone ringing”, and other scary events that occur within the demo.
Nevertheless, the school’s blog explains that the class “atmosphere… was a mixture of excitement and exhilaration” and that the “students experienced the joy of using English”. While obviously not confirmed by the school, we imagine there was also a hefty dose of nightmares after walking through the game’s terrifying looping house.
As a fan of Silent Hill, and someone who desperately wishes they kept P.T. installed on their system, it’s just heartwarming to see the game still maintain some relevance today… even if it is scaring the souls out of high school students.
Right now, the Silent Hill franchise is in a pretty great place with the brilliant Silent Hill F pushing the series past another sales milestone. With more games in the works—alongside more Metal Gear Solid games—Konami is finally treating its franchises properly rather than letting them wither and rot. However, sometimes it’s impossible not to think of what Kojima, Del Toro and Ito’s Silent Hills could’ve actually been.
