The Silent Hill film series has unveiled its third chapter, Return to Silent Hill, but it seems there’s a chilling real-life tale behind the franchise that many enthusiasts online are unaware of.

These spine-chilling horror films draw their narrative from the video games of the same name, with Return to Silent Hill, released on Friday (23rd January), specifically inspired by Silent Hill 2.

In crafting the fictional town of Silent Hill for the cinematic adaptations, the creators drew inspiration from an actual American town that suffered a tragic fate, eerily mirroring Silent Hill.

Now in both the films and games, Silent Hill is situated in West Virginia, yet venture to Pennsylvania and you’ll discover a deserted, fog-shrouded town bearing an uncanny resemblance to Silent Hill.

This town is Centralia, a magnet for video game aficionados and cinema buffs due to its peculiar link to Silent Hill, despite strong discouragement against visiting the area.

While Centralia may be devoid of monsters, it shares one of Silent Hill’s defining features – an omnipresent fog.

Back in 1962, Centralia’s authorities set fire to the local landfill as part of a waste management effort. The blaze spread through unsealed tunnels leading to a disused coal mine, sparking a subterranean inferno that continues to burn over six decades later.

Local fire crews were unable to extinguish the blaze, prompting authorities to evacuate Centralia for residents’ safety – mirroring events in Silent Hill. The atmosphere in Centralia is deemed hazardous, with warnings against prolonged exposure to the surroundings.

While most residents departed during the evacuation, a handful remained, including a church which continues to operate. This bears a striking resemblance to Silent Hill’s narrative, where a small number of inhabitants stay behind and maintain their worship services.

Although Silent Hill’s developers didn’t draw directly from Centralia, the film adaptations certainly took cues from this actual location, earning it the moniker “real-life Silent Hill”.

The town has become a pilgrimage site for gaming and cinema enthusiasts drawn by its Silent Hill parallels, including one TikTok user who documented their expedition to this so-called ghost town.

Video footage from Centralia captured smoke continuing to rise from the ground amongst a woodland of lifeless trees, alongside deserted roads and images of the functioning church standing amongst the few structures that endure.

He wrote alongside his footage: “I visited the real-life Silent Hill. Centralia, PA, was abandoned due to an underground coal fire that’s been burning since the 1960s. Very few buildings remain in the town to this day, including a church, a municipal building, and houses.”

The US Department of Environmental Protection warns that the zone affected by the Centralia Mine Fire poses severe risks, and they “strongly discourage” visits to the location.

They emphasise that the fire produces “dangerous gases”, whilst the terrain is “prone to sudden and unexpected collapse”.

Return to Silent Hill arrives in UK cinemas on January 23rd, 2026, and is rated 15.