Siren Inspirations (part 4) - Books and Movies that Inspired Forbidden Siren

The Beginnings of Western Music:
Manuale ad Sacramento



This is sadly out of print, but maybe you can listen to it at a library or something like that? The recording is very old, and I think it's a valuable sound source. The hidden Christians' prayers are Japanese-like, and the deteriorated sound gives it a unique mood, which I used as reference. If you think about the contrast between this and Gregorian hymns as you listen, there are some deeply moving things. (Azuma)    






Monthly MU



Gakushu Kenkyusha

An occult magazine with the catchphrase: "The super mystery magazine that challenges world's oddities and mysteries." It covers a wide range of curiosity and interest-evoking themes, from ancient historical mysteries to ghosts, UFOs and UMAs (Unidentified Mysterious Animals) such as Nessie and the Tsuchinoko. Monthly Atlantis Magazine that appears in the game (archives No.044 and No.094) are a parody of this magazine. It is also full of information about Tchinoko and Skyfish, which appear in Siren. Make sure you also check out how the face of the shakoki dogu so casually put on the cover of the special issue looks just like the "complete Datatsushi"'s head. (Akiyama)






Ushimitsu no Mura (Village of Doom)



Directed by Noboru Tanaka / 1983 / Matsutake Home Video

This is a shocking film based on the infamous "Tsuyama massacre of thirty". The "XX Village mass murder" from Siren is clearly based on this incident also. In 1938, The Tsuyama incident, which happened in 1938 in Okayama, was committed by a 22-year-old man in a school uniform and gaiters, two torches on his head and a bicycle lamp on his chest, armed with a rifle and katana, killing thirty villagers in a single night. As quoted in places such as the movie "Yatsuhaka Mura", according to Japanese criminal history this is an unprecedented massacre, likely never to be seen again. (Akiyama)






Dead & Buried



Directed by G.A. Sherman / 1981 / Geneon Entertainment

This is a splatter sci-fi horror masterpiece with Dan O'Bannon, who managed the script for "Alien", in charge of screenplay. It's basically a zombie movie with depictions of cruelty as its main gimmick, but it has a surprising number of similar points. The film stars a beautiful blonde zombie nurse, who is played by Lisa Blount, an actress who is famous as playing the heroine in B-grade horror movies. Toyama's first game, "Silent Hill", also featured a beautiful blonde nurse called Lisa. And in Siren, we have Risa Onda dressed as a nurse... Is this perhaps something Mr. Toyama likes? (Akiyama)






Memento



Christopher Nolan / 1999 / Amuse Soft

In Siren, Hisako Yao is in a chaotic state where her personalities from various eras interchange, and she can't control it herself. The terrible "divine curse" upon her continues eternally, like the main character of this film, Leonard... Their goal itself becomes their reason for living, and they can no longer save themselves, which makes them scary when you realise the hopeless insanity of it. (Kobayashi)






Sugisawa-mura Densetsu Kanzen Musakujo Zettai Kyofu Ban
(The Legend of Sugisawa Village: Terrifying Unedited Version)



Directed by Kanta Tagawa / 2000 / Transformer

A few years ago, the legend of Sugisawa Village spread like wildfire across the internet. The legend goes like this: In a prefecture in northeastern Japan, about fifty years ago, a young man went insane and massacred the villagers, wiping the village from the map. From then onwards, the now abandoned village became the ultimate haunted spot, ceaselessly drawing those who become lost into the bloodbath... This seems like the aforementioned "Tsuyama massacre of thirty" mixed with The Blair Witch Project, a movie that was a blockbuster at the time. Back then there was a flood of cheap videos about searching for Sugisawa Village, and the impetus for Kyoya Suda's actions in Siren comes from something similar. (Akiyama)