Silent Hill Monsters: More Than Meets the Eye

The video game series Silent Hill has long been renowned for its terrifying and disturbing monsters, but many have missed what the monsters are all really about. In truth, the monsters of Silent Hill are far more complicated and have a psychological importance as well.

In essence, each of the monsters in the Silent Hill series is manifested directly from the mind of one of the characters. As a result, they take on properties associated with that mind. This includes the person's subconscious fears as well as their desires. Overall, this makes the game even scarier once an understanding is reached as to the origins of the monsters. It also results in different games in the series having different levels of affect depending on the psychology of the person playing. Subsequently, an adult male player might be more affected by the monsters of Silent Hill 2 than of Silent Hill 3 because those from the second one speak more to his experience.

The monsters of the original Silent Hill game spring from the mind of a younger girl and as a result take on properties relevant to her. A lot of insects exist, representing her fear of creepy crawlies. Others include monsters clearly designed to represent bullies at school, as well as monsters designed to represent doctors and nurses.
The monsters of Silent Hill 2 represent the main characters suppressed memories as well as fears and desires associated with women. As a result, many of the monsters take on forms resembling adult females as well as being involved in suggestive scenes.

The monsters of Silent Hill 3 are from the same mind as those of the first but from an older age, thus they represent ideas associated with pregnancy. The Silent Hill 3 story is really a coming of age story for a woman, with the monsters challenges she must face in order to grow up.

The monsters of Silent Hill 4 are from the mind of a murderer, thus showing the manner in which he views the world. Most interestingly, many of the monsters are people who he has killed. It thus shows that to him the people he killed appeared to be monsters, as he views all humanity.

The monsters of Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are actually formed from the players mind using psychoanalytical techniques. Depending on how the player plays and what the player is attracted to, the game changes. For instance, if the player walks into a convenience store and instantly looks at a poster of a woman, the monsters may be more feminine to represent his nightmare world.

As is clearly evident, the monsters in the Silent Hill series are truly different from any series of video games before them. They represent a new type of video game; the game that tells a story from within a character's mind or event he players.