Midwich Elementary School


 * This article is for Midwich Elementary School seen in Silent Hill and its film adaptation. For the school in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, see Midwich High School.

Midwich Elementary School is a school located on the southwest side of Old Silent Hill on Midwich Street.

Midwich is an important location in the original Silent Hill. Midwich Elementary School was also featured in the film and comic series, as well as being the setting of The Silent Hill Experience.

Alessa Gillespie was a student here for approximately a year or two during her childhood. Alessa was the subject of extensive abuse and rejection from her peers, due to her possessing witch-like powers. For example, she was told to "go home" and "drop dead", which would have a profound impact upon her psyche and how she viewed the world.

Religious influence


It is heavily implied that Midwich, like many contemporary schools, is pious in nature. In the first game, this is more subtle in that crucifixes of Jesus can be found in the classrooms, implying that Midwich is a Christian or Catholic school, but not much else contributes to this evidence. It is possible that Midwich is run by the Order since Dahlia Gillespie, an Order member, specifically chose it to educate her daughter.



In the film adaptation, Midwich is much more vehement in its religious agenda. The school is in fact partially run by a religious cult. A painting that says "GOD" can be found within, and there is also an except from Psalm 34:21: "The foes of the righteous will be condemned." Rose Da Silva runs past a hopscotch which has "HEAVEN" and "HELL" on it, implying that teachers are teaching children about the concepts of heaven and hell, or "good" and "evil" (or their perspective of such).

Silent Hill
The school appears as the first major building in Silent Hill that Harry Mason explores in a bid to find his adopted daughter, Cheryl Mason. He was led there by clues Cheryl left in order to indicate her next possible location (in the form of scrawls from her sketchbook).

During Harry's visit to the school, he encounters the Grey Children (or Mumblers in the non-North American versions), as well as an assortment of various riddles and puzzles. These include burning a hand with a chemical and playing a piano (in this order). After collecting a gold medallion and silver medallion, Harry places them in the clock tower in the courtyard. He then goes to the boiler room and starts a boiler to unlock the clock tower doors. Back at the courtyard, Harry enters the clock tower and traverses to the Otherworld version of the school.

Midwich Elementary School is the first building Harry visits that undergoes a complete Otherworld transition, though this is done during Harry's travels through the clock tower, so the transition itself is subsequently unseen. In the Otherworld, the school is covered in rust and blood, and there are corpses everywhere. Creepers, which resemble huge insects, also appear. Harry must find a way to enter the basement boiler room to defeat the Split Head. To this end, the player must follow this procedure:


 * Get the rubber ball in the storage room (1F).
 * Get the picture card in a classroom (1F).
 * Use the picture card in the room behind the reception room.
 * Visit the boy's bathroom (1F) to get the shotgun.
 * Go to one of the teacher's room (1F) and attempt to leave one of the doors. This will result in a phone call from Cheryl.
 * Using the staircase, go to the roof. Look in a drain to see a key, put the rubber ball in the hole, and use the valve.
 * Backtrack to the courtyard (1F) and get the classroom key.
 * On 2F, go to the locker room. Examine the locker, leave, but get the library reserve key.
 * Still on 2F, go to the library reserve and pass through to a locked classroom. Unlock it using the classroom key.
 * Go to the boiler room and complete the valve puzzle.



After the Split Head's defeat, the Fog World returns and Harry hears bells ringing in the distance, leading him to the Balkan Church, where he obtains the Flauros after meeting Dahlia.

Alessa's classroom is revisited in Nowhere.

Midwich also served as an integral part of the Silent Hill demo, which was dubbed "battle mode". In this mode, Harry would simply need to escape the school by finding the lobby key; an element that would later be replaced with the Split Head boss battle, as well as a few other minor alterations.

Silent Hill 3


In Silent Hill 3, Heather Mason does not physically enter Midwich Elementary School; however, the chapel has a room that resembles Alessa's classroom. This is the manifestation of Alessa's memories and emotions. It is also learned that Claudia Wolf was a friend of Alessa's and possibly attended the school with her.

Silent Hill film
In the movie, the school was abandoned after the great fire of Silent Hill, West Virginia. 30 years ago, in the 1970s, the school was run by the local religious cult, the Brethren, and its headmistress was Christabella, the cult's priestess. Religious symbols and quotes are found in every part of the school, representing the firm beliefs of the Brethren.

Instead of Alessa's desk being pushed to the center, like it was in Silent Hill 3, Alessa's is put in with everyone else's, but it is in very poor condition. The word "WITCH" has been etched into the wood multiple times by other students and are shown to often surround Alessa and tease her at her desk.



The film initially follows the first game by having Rose Da Silva enter the school looking for her missing daughter, having been led there by a drawing of the school she finds in Sharon's sketchbook, only to find clues as to Alessa's life. There, Rose learns that the child she has been chasing is Alessa, not her own, and she sees Dark Alessa's handprints etched into the dirt on Alessa's desk. After chasing Dark Alessa into a bathroom on the second floor, the school shifts from the Fog World to its Otherworld version. However, Rose is unable to deal with the Otherworld's environment and creatures, Red Pyramid and the Creepers, and later escapes with the assistance of Officer Cybil Bennett.



During a flashback depicting Alessa's suffering at the hands of the cult, Rose learns that Alessa was sexually assaulted by a school janitor while trying to hide from her ridiculing classmates. It is also in the bathroom that Christabella convinces Alessa's mother that her child must be "purified", which later turns out to mean "burned alive".

A real world version of the school is seen when Christopher Da Silva and Thomas Gucci visit there in search of Rose. While there, Rose and Chris pass through the same space at the same time, but neither can see or hear the other, due to the two of them being in different versions of reality.

Dying Inside
Lauryn LaRoache is drawn to Midwich Elementary by her sister's evil spirit. Once there, she is forced to help her sister fight in a struggle for control of the darkness covering Silent Hill.

Known students

 * Alessa Gillespie
 * Claudia Wolf (unknown; however, because Claudia was raised with Alessa, it is a strong possibility)
 * Emilie Anderson
 * Lisa Garland

Known teachers

 * K. Gordon - K. Gordon was one of Alessa's teachers, as revealed in her notebook in Silent Hill 3. In the first game, Harry finds her house key and uses it to enter her house to progress through the town.
 * T. Moore
 * L. Ranaldo
 * S. Shelley

Trivia



 * In one of the bathrooms in the Otherworld variant of the school, a corpse can be found close to some writing on the wall. Written is "Leonard Rhine 'The Monster Lurks'". This is a homage to Dean Koontz's Phantoms, specifically "Timothy Flyte 'The Ancient Enemy'". The novelization of the game says Leonard Rhine is an author who focuses on the occult.
 * A sign reads "floor 1" in the lobby of the Otherworld. The source material for this is the movie 12 Monkeys.
 * The design of the elementary school seems heavily based on the school in Kindergarten Cop, likely because the Japanese designers wanted an American school as a reference. Similarities include the front exterior and posters. The school is John Jacob Astor Elementary School in Astoria, Oregon.
 * The teachers, listed on a memo in the reception area, are named for the members of Sonic Youth.
 * The school shares the same name as the town from the film Village of the Damned, which was based on the novel The Midwich Cuckoos.




 * In the reception area of the school, there is a health cabinet that bears an obscured sign which reads, "NOTICE: Hell is coming."
 * Harry can hear crying in the Fog World 2F boy's bathroom.
 * The Otherworld girl's bathroom has magical abilities which teleport Harry to 2F.
 * The Otherworld school roof is one of the locations needed to unlock the UFO Ending. The channeling stone must be used on the roof.
 * In the film, a symbol similar to the Seal of Metatron can be seen in the Otherworld version of the school when Dark Alessa appears at her desk.
 * The corpse found in the bathroom in the game possibly inspired the janitor monster seen in the film.

Gallery

 * For a complete list of images of Midwich Elementary School, see Midwich images.