Written by: Tom Waltz
Art by: Tristan Jones
Publisher: IDW
Silent Hill Downpour: Anne’s Story has been an interesting series so far. This second issue has cemented that it’s more or less not taking any steps away from the events of the game but are rather retelling the story from the point of view of Anne, the female cop we meet at the beginning of the game. From a psychological standpoint, it’s interesting and rather telling but I can’t help but wish that we were either getting a continuation of Downpour’s story or a completely different spin off (maybe the mailman?). However, as much as these events are somewhat stale, seeing someone else suffer the horrors that Silent Hill has to offer is an interesting comparison to Downpour and other Silent Hill titles in terms of the way the town is almost a psychological breakdown of every character’s hidden fears and secrets.
One of the things that is interesting to me is how the comic throws in direct scenes from the game. While playing it’s hard to imagine that anyone other than Murphy Pendleton is going through horrifying occurrences within Silent Hill and that’s the high point of the miniseries. The scenes also serve as a nice way to frame the amount of time that’s passing and to those who played the game, Anne’s realizations and memories begin to link up to some of the stuff that we know to be true regarding Murphy.
At this point in the series, we get a little more detail as to why (and how) Anne wanted a transfer for Murphy. With this issue though, we get a much more humanizing look at her character. Anne’s story mirrors Murphy’s in a way. They’re both people who were eager to get revenge and had to go to extreme measures to get it which is something that Silent Hill forces them to confront. Tom Waltz has been writing this as an excellent companion piece to the game and I think any Silent Hill fan can appreciate it.
The art style is my only criticism and I know that a lot of people will be divided on it. On one hand I really enjoy the fact that Tristan Jones has gone with a really messy, almost unfinished design. It uses a done of rough line work, details often aren’t filled in all the way, and certain fills often look like scribbles. While I feel like it does help highlight the horror and the idea that stuff in Silent Hill is a physical manifestation of people’s inner thoughts, I would’ve liked to see it polished a little bit more. It seems like the style would make certain things scarier but this issue’s main enemy (that directly has to deal with something from Anna’s past) is almost too obscured by these rough lines. Silent Hill’s enemies and boss monsters are one of the series’ high points and it was a shame to see that so much of it was obscured.
I’m pretty curious to see how the series plays out considering the game had multiple endings and that alone will probably keep me reading until the end. There’s a lot to explore with Anne regarding the truth about her father’s killer. Silent Hill fans who didn’t play Downpour should consider this a definite pick up as it really nails the themes present in Silent Hill titles and Downpour had a really great storyline that’s worth exploring if the gameplay turned you off from the video game.
