Merry-Go-Round

The Merry-Go-Round, also known as the Happy Carousel, is an attraction featured in Lakeside Amusement Park, in the Resort Area of Silent Hill. It appears in Silent Hill, Play Novel: Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3, as well as Silent Hill: The Arcade and Silent Hill: Revelation.

All incarnations in the games are similar: a functional, spinning carousel with horses for rides, always visited near the end of the game within the town's Otherworld.

Silent Hill
Harry Mason follows Cybil Bennett into the park and finds her unconscious in a wheelchair atop the carousel. She wakes up possessed and attacks Harry as the carousel begins to spin. If Harry has previously collected the Aglaophotis from Alchemilla Hospital, he can use it on Cybil to expel the parasite from her and save her life. Otherwise, he must fight Cybil and eventually kill her. The game's ending partly depends on her fate.

Play Novel: Silent Hill
As a remake of the first game, the merry-go-round's features remain intact in its function, design and location. It appears in both Harry and Cybil's scenarios. As in the source game, Harry finds and confronts a possessed Cybil, whose fate directly alters the game's ending. Harry describes the location thus:


 * I pass by the Ferris wheel, and arrive at the merry-go-round.
 * But, this is the only attraction that is not running.


 * While it is only natural for a ride to not be in operation, it seems
 * unnatural for this merry-go-round to not be running...
 * I walk around it.


 * While slipping between the horses I look for Cybil.

Silent Hill 3


Heather Mason visits the carousel seventeen years after the first game, which starts up automatically upon her presence. Soon after, the horses will begin to expel a mysterious, lethal gas. One horse appears more bloody and disfigured than the others, with a riddle-like note pinned in its body by a stake. Upon examination the note reads:


 * "When 13 turns count 4,
 * you will die from their curse.


 * If you wish to escape,
 * There is but one way out.


 * To kill before you are killed:
 * you will be saved by the 12th death."

Heather must attack and "kill" all horses on the carousel, which bleed and let out real-life neighing cries as they take damage. As stated in the note, if Heather fails to do this, she dies via the toxic fumes that the horses exhale.

If Heather is successful, the Memory of Alessa appears to her, and she must be defeated in a boss fight that mirrors that of the first game. Once the Memory of Alessa has been defeated, a pathway to the Order's chapel opens up.

Silent Hill: Revelation
In Silent Hill: Revelation, Heather Mason is on this carousel at two different occasions. In the beginning of the film, during a nightmare foreshadowing events to come, she runs from Robbie the Rabbit onto the carousel, where Dark Alessa encircles the carousel with fire. Dark Alessa then burns Heather alive before she wakes up. The second time, the dream repeats itself in reality. This time, Heather runs there from the Brethren, and flames erupt around the carousel as Pyramid Head lowers it into the sanctuary. Heather overcomes Dark Alessa and passes out.

Trivia

 * The attraction is known as the "Merry Go Round" in the first Silent Hill game and related media. In Silent Hill 3, the attraction has been named the "Happy Carousel" instead while still retaining the "Merry Go Round" name in the official Konami guidebooks.
 * In Silent Hill 2 during the hospital quiz the attraction is called "Merry-Go-Round".
 * In the Japanese script of Silent Hill 3, the attraction is named the "Happy Merry-Go-Round" (ハッピー・メリーゴーランド). While the English localization of "Happy Carousel" is accurate, with proper context from the first Silent Hill, "Happy Merry-Go-Round" appears to be the correct name.
 * In Silent Hill 3, if the player looks at the center of the carousel in the Otherworld, they can see a burning figure. This is noticeable around 1:30 in this video. This is a probable reference to the burning of Alessa Gillespie.
 * "When 13 turns count 4" could be a reference to Heather's age: 17. 13 + 4 is 17.
 * In Japanese culture, 4 is pronounced "shi", which is the same pronunciation as death, thus four is considered unlucky. Thirteen is also regarded as an unlucky number. The carousel could be a metaphor of bad luck and death.
 * There also happen to be 13 horses on the carousel. Essentially, every 4 turns on the carousel represents a horse "dying" until every horse on the carousel is dead.
 * 13 x 4 is 52, and there are 52 weeks in a typical non-leap year. The carousel could be a metaphor for time, and how it cycles in an endless circle, forever on end, year after year.

Silent Hill: Revelation
Happy Carousel