PlayStation’s official Twitter account has shocked everyone with a tweet showing Silent Hill F with a VHS filter overlay and honestly? It looks and feels great. The tweet read “Silent Hill f of VHS” alongside a very short video, and the official account even asked the gamers about their favorite horror movies from the 90s, which instantly turned the community’s attention to the old but gold nostalgic, blurry aesthetic that we all would associate with horror movies’ cassettes rentals in the past.
Not long after, the players started to talk about it being a feature in the game. The user PopTartz42069 proposed “A VHS filter would be cool in game” which indeed suggests a very good idea considering Silent Hill’s atmosphere. The franchise has always been recognized for that disturbing, borderline-nightmare aspect which could be portrayed well with the distortion in visuals and minor tracking problems that old VHS tapes used to have.
However, the confusion was also quickly seen in the replies. User scaryjoke stated “Silent Hill f is set in the 1960s. I don’t get it.” That’s a good question—what is the point of having the 90s VHS aesthetic in a game that is set years earlier? Maybe it’s more about the experience of uncovering creepy old footage than being accurate in terms of time periods. Or, the developers could be playing around with different eras’ horror aesthetics, who knows.
The discussion rapidly turned into what one would expect from gaming discussions—platform wars. The whole of the conversation was just a back-and-forth between Xbox and PlayStation fans about which console the game would perform better on. AnaAnsan3 remarked the Xbox version is an “Xbox Play Anywhere title (aka PS5 Pro slayer)” while other users were recommending “plays best on PS5 Pro.” Just the classic console rivalry stuff but it indicates that the interest in this title is across the board.
At the same time, gamers were posting their favorite 90s horror films in the comments. AJ Draws wrote “The Ring and The first Grudge movie were great” and added that he would like to see the modern VFX version of the new Hanako movie. The Notorious R.Y.U. picked “Misery and The Sixth Sense” which is definitely a good choice. Robert Friemering mentioned “One Missed Call” and confessed that he still has that ringtone, which is both a bit scary and cool.
But some players were not nearly so keen. Tea_shades called the game “overrated” and argued “SH2 was far superior, this was huge step back imho.” Then they went on to slam Neobards’ involvement with the project saying they were glad Bloober Team got the next entry. Ouch! Meanwhile, Mixatli simply said “Can’t wait to play when it’s not $70” which—agree, honestly. Game prices are insane nowadays.
There were also complaints about the technical side of things mixing in as well. User Ivan asked “When will the patch be for PS5 Pro? The game is freezing all the time.” So there do seem to be performance issues that need to be fixed and that’s pretty much what new releases undergo these days. Vlad_Dobychin also mentioned “PS network is down in Poland” so that’s another issue.
Nevertheless, the most fascinating thing? People are already talking about mods. TholurosDetectiveAgency said “this would make an amazing mod! @NexusSites” and another person mentioned that on PC they can supposedly install the RenoDX mod which adds VHS-style filters to games. So, even if the developers don’t support this look officially, the modders might just take the matter into their own hands.
ProducerName reflected “This would’ve gone so hard on a first playthrough,” which pretty much represents the whole topic. The VHS appearance had the power to amplify horror, making it more real and raw in a particular way. It takes me back to the time when you would bump into your parents’ old horror movie collection in the basement and be scared and thrilled at the same time.
JohnnyMP even compared the VHS version to “Looks much better than the actual Silent Hill movie trailer” which—well, that’s not exactly a high bar to clear but still.
What is clear from this whole discussion among the players is that they are very much in favor of the idea of melding modern gaming and retro horror aesthetics. The VHS filter not only evokes the specific nostalgia of 90s horror but also perfectly corresponds to the psychological terror of the survival horror series. It is the perfect mix of visual distortions, auditory flaws, and the overall sensation of things being not quite right, that rendered so many horror movies of that era so effective.
There is still no word if the filter will be in the game or if it was just a cool marketing tactic. But the excitement has spoken that the future of applied visual options in horror games will be more experimental. The conversations on the Silent Hill f have been taking place for a while and to be honest? I wouldn’t mind if they take it through a creepy and strange path.
