Pyramid Head

Red Pyramid Thing, more colloquially known as Pyramid Head, is a humanoid monster in the Silent Hill franchise first appearing in Silent Hill 2. His red helmet and butcher's attire echo the executioners of the town's past, who worshipped the angel of rebirth Valtiel. He is a manifestation of James Sunderland's guilt and desire for punishment, existing to keep him human and help him remember his past actions. The monster weilds the Great Knife and the Great Spear, instruments of James' inner torment. By the end of the game, a second Pyramid Head manifests.

Despite criticism from Masahiro Ito and Tomm Hulett, the character was reimagined in Silent Hill: Homecoming as The Bogeyman aka The Shadowed One, a creature of vengeance and justice who inflicts punishment on those who deserve it. The films and novels have extended his role to that of a protector and servant of Valtiel.

Since its creation, Pyramid Head has become one of the most well-known and iconic monsters in the franchise, turning into something of a mainstream and flagship figurehead for the series. Apart from Silent Hill 2 and Homecoming, Pyramid Head has made his main appearances in the spin-offs Silent Hill: The Arcade and Silent Hill: Book of Memories, with cameo appearances in Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Downpour. They also appear in the films Silent Hill and Silent Hill: Revelation, the comics, the novel Silent Hill: Betrayal, and the Silent Hill pachislot.

Creation and development
When scenario writer Hiroyuki Owaku, art director Masahiro Ito, character designer Takayoshi Sato, game director Masashi Tsuboyama, and drama director Suguru Murakoshi were building the base story of Silent Hill 2, they realized that they needed a "chaser" creature to fulfill a role in the plot. Because the monsters are manifestations of the protagonist's subconscious, rather than independent pre-existing entities indigenous to the town, Ito intended for them to have a symbolic meaning applying to James Sunderland's character arc and journey.

Creating the chaser Pyramid Head, he wanted a monster with a hidden face so that it would appear less human and more disturbing. He designed such a concept but ultimately scrapped it, feeling that it looked too much like a regular human in a mask. He redesigned it in a large pyramid-head-shaped helmet and butcher's smock to get the inhuman quality he wanted. As a tank enthusiast, Ito took inspiration from the lower hull of the "King Tiger" German WWII tank when designing the edges of Pyramid Head's helmet, as well as avant-garde and other vehicles from the period. He also took influence from oil/acrylic painting he created in 1995 while in art school depicting an anthropomorphic pyramid-shaped object as part of his Strange Head series.

Designing Pyramid Head, accomplished through Softimage 3D, took approximately two weeks. Modelling, texturing and rigging took an additional two weeks, and the keyframe animations took another two weeks on top of that. According to Ito, some of the development crew and his boss were hesitant about including the design at first due to its unconventional nature. He compensated for this by putting more effort into Pyramid Head's cinematics. The character was initially modeled with bolts lining his helmet, part of a plan to depict James' delusions through his design. There was also a valve spigot on the bulge near his right shoulder, serving a function in a cancelled cinematic. These plans were ultimately abandoned.

After doing art direction, environment designs, key frame animations, and all of the creature design in Silent Hill 2, Masahiro Ito returned as a creature designer and art director for Silent Hill 3. The extensive work on the series made him exhausted. After Silent Hill 4: The Room was released, he was asked to work on another Silent Hill game. However, because they wanted him to include Pyramid Head under a different name and look, and because he had lost a lot of motivation to keep working on horror games, he turned down the project. A similar monster called the Butcher was ultimately featured in the prequel Silent Hill: Origins. A scrapped ending for the game had the protagonist Travis Grady going insane and becoming Pyramid Head. Pyramid Head was featured in the Broken Covenant pitch for a new Silent Hill game by the same developer, which was rejected by Konami.

Pyramid Head played a role in the 2006 Silent Hill film adaptation and its 2012 sequel under the name Red Pyramid, played by Roberto Campanella. Despite being an element of James Sunderland's psyche, Double Helix Games reused the character with his film design in the video game Silent Hill: Homecoming. When full development started, producer Tomm Hulett protested the inclusion of Pyramid Head to the point that he was removed from the game's production and placed on other Konami games until another producer left and he was brought back on board. Ito criticized the inclusion and musculature of Pyramid Head in Homecoming, stating that "I really disliked muscular enemies being made appearance in horror titles without a reason. In my opinion, enemies should have a reason for being in it. And PH in James' story had a reason to have to be not muscular." Lead designer Jason Allen defended the game by assuring fans that even though James Sunderland is absent, the monster serves a specific purpose. He referred to Pyramid Head as "integral" to Silent Hill lore and that the decision to insert him was not taken lightly, also acknowledging that he represented James' desire for punishment in Silent Hill 2. Hulett attempted to reconcile the continuity error by inserting the Child's Drawing into the game that dubbed this new incarnation "the Bogeyman, the Shadowed One", giving him a new name and reinventing his purpose for existing. He felt that if Pyramid Head had to be included, he needed a central role to the story rather than just a cameo. "We had a tough situation because, now, [Pyramid Head] showed up but there wasn't really a compelling reason for him to show up. Where as originally, it was like "Shut up, Tomm. It's cool." Now it was just kind of like "Shut up, Tomm. He shows up." So, you know, I worked with the designer Jason to come up with the Bogeyman stuff to try and explain why Alex would have imagined this figure. And I kind of see him like: Fitch's daughter makes Scarlet and so that creature sort of came from her, and then Asphyxia comes from Nora, so I kind of say that the Bogeyman is Alex's that in the end product. All of those creatures killed the parents. We tried to make it fit in."

- Tomm Hulett

Ito was displeased with Pyramid Head's inclusion in the later games, believing that he strayed too far from his original purpose. He also felt that it would be difficult to convince Konami to make a new game without him, because many of the producers believe that the brand recognition of the character makes too much money. If Pyramid Head was to be used again, Ito wanted him to have an "impressive new direction." When he became involved in a Silent Hill game in 2013, he designed brand new iterations of Valtiel and Pyramid Head that were distinct from what was seen in Silent Hill 2 and Silent Hill 3. The intention was for the more angelic Valtiel to kill Pyramid Head in the opening scene of the game. Concept art for the opening depicts a baby carriage on a bridge in the Otherworld. The game was cancelled, but Masahiro Ito stated in 2017 that he would only be willing to work on a new Silent Hill project if Pyramid Head is not present or if he can be killed off in the opening.

Etymology
The full name that Pyramid Head is referred to in most Japanese Silent Hill materials is "Red Pyramid Thing" (written in English). This includes documents such as Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle and various merchandise. The original Japanese game script refers to the monster as "赤い三角頭", meaning "Red Triangle Head". "Head" and "Thing" most likely swapped places during localization on the English script. Despite the frequent usage of "Red Pyramid Thing", his name is more often shortened down to "三角頭", meaning "Triangle Head". The wording of "Triangle Head" seems to be related to "三角錐", meaning "Triangular Pyramid" or "Tetrahedron". With that in mind, the most contextually accurate translation of these names would be "Red Pyramid Head" and "Pyramid Head".

According to Masahiro Ito, Red Pyramid Thing is the official name of the creature and the name given to him by James Sunderland. However, Ito himself coined the name "Pyramid Head" (Sankakuatama) and often used it during the development of Silent Hill 2,    and the name appears in the game itself via inventory descriptions for certain items. Since the game's release in 2001, other versions of the creature have appeared under different designations, with "Pyramid Head" serving as the umbrella name.


 * Red Pyramid Thing refers to the creature manifested from James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2 and similar creatures.
 * Red Pyramid is the official designation of Pyramid Head in the 2006-2012 film universe, while Pyramid Thing has been used in merchandising and multiplayer content in other video games.
 * White Hunter (Белый охотник) and Saint Apostle (Святой апостол) refer to the alternate reality versions of Pyramid Head depicted in artwork by Masahiro Ito.
 * The Bogeyman, the Shadowed One refers to the creature encountered by Alex Shepherd in Silent Hill: Homecoming.
 * The Executioner refers to the creature encountered by Heather Mason in Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill.
 * Pyramid Blight refers to an unlockable cosmetic for the Executioner that depicts James Sunderland's Pyramid Head injected with a serum from the Dead by Daylight universe.

Pre-Silent Hill 2
"I created Valtiel because I wanted to relate the works of the series through a creature. In the religion of Silent Hill, Valtiel exists as one who is close to God, and Pyramid Head takes the shape of Valtiel's reason for existence. That is to say, the Pyramid Head character was born from the townspeoples' idolatrous ideologies."

- Masahiro Ito

There is a supernatural power that surrounds Silent Hill, Maine that has the ability to manifest elements of the unconscious mind. In the early history of the town, Native Americans used this to seemingly communicate with both nature and their dead relatives. Their land was eventually stolen from them by European settlers. Because of the town's power, a mysterious cult began to form that took control over much of its infrastructure. One of the deities they worship is Valtiel, who serves as an angel of rebirth and a being close to God who has appeared in many forms throughout the town's history. The cult began performing ritualistic executions, wearing red hoods and an executioner's outfit modeled after him.

Right before Mary Shepherd-Sunderland contracted a lethal disease, three years before the events of Silent Hill 2, she and her husband James Sunderland visited the town of Silent Hill on vacation. One of the locations they visited was the Silent Hill Historical Society, which contained paintings and artifacts relating to the executioners of the town's past. One such painting in particular, "Misty Day, Remains of the Judgement" (a stylized portrayal of an executioner standing among caged corpses), stuck in James' mind.

Silent Hill 2
In the final stages of her disease, Mary fell into a state of agony and became verbally abusive towards James. It was during this that James smothered her with a pillow to relieve her of her pain and because of his growing resentment towards her. He instantly fell into a state of regret and denial, later receiving a letter from someone claiming to be Mary telling him to find her in Silent Hill. With the memory of killing her having been repressed, he traveled to Silent Hill to find her. As he arrived, he found himself in a dream-reality state where the darkest elements of his subconscious were manifested into twisted monsters and scenarios.

In his search for Mary, he made his way to the Wood Side Apartments where he encountered Pyramid Head, a monster similar to the painting he had observed in the Historical Society years earlier. He hid in a closet as the creature abused and slaughtered two monsters known as Mannequins. Having evaded Pyramid Head, James encountered it again in the apartment building next door, slaughtering a monster known as a Lying Figure. Locked in the room, James fought the monster in self-defense as it proceeded to attack him. After outrunning the assault, James watched as Pyramid Head fled the encounter upon hearing a siren blare, descending a water-filled staircase. At the apartments, James interrupted a suicidal Angela Orosco, taking her knife before she has a chance to use it, and met Eddie Dombrowski, an often bullied man who was self-conscious about his weight.

After going through the buildings, James followed the letter's instructions and made his way to Rosewater Park. While Mary was nowhere to be found, he met a woman strongly resembling his wife named Maria, who begged him to escort her through the dangerous town. After searching through the area, they came to Brookhaven Hospital where the town cycled to an even deeper part of the nightmare known as the Otherworld. When they entered the hospital basement, Pyramid Head chased behind them as they sprinted to an elevator. James managed to make it to safety, but Maria was slaughtered for moving too slowly. The elevator took him to the first floor of the hospital, where a distraught James found a note instructing him to go to the Historical Society, which he had visited years prior.

Upon arriving, he descended down a long stairway and kept jumping down mysterious dark holes until arriving in a Labyrinth in an even deeper part of the nightmare. Finding his way through the Labyrinth, James found Maria mysteriously alive and alternating between Mary's personality and her own. She tells James of the time he and Mary spent at the Lakeview Hotel, and he leaves to navigate his way through the Labyrinth. Pyramid Head can be found in this area, but he does not pursue James unless directly approached. When James finds Maria again, she has once again been murdered.

James makes his way to the Lakeview Hotel, where he finds a video tape recording of himself killing Mary, suddenly recalling his past actions and coming face-to-face with his guilt. In the lobby, he encounters Pyramid Head again, this time with a second Pyramid Head by his side. One of them proceeds to kill Maria in front of a distraught James. James realizes that his subconscious created them because of his guilty desire for punishment and decides that he no longer needs them. After a conflict, the two Pyramid Heads kill themselves, having fulfilled their purpose.

Silent Hill: Origins
"There's something to this painting. Makes me want to stop and look. This isn't the time though and it's going to burn just like the others."

- Travis Grady

A stylized painting of an executioner, similar to "Misty Day, Remains of the Judgement", is present in the Gillespie House when Travis pulls its resident from a fire.

Silent Hill: Homecoming
Although unseen, the Bogeyman makes himself known to Alex Shepherd in the game's introductory level, Alchemilla Hospital. His first action is the murder of the doctor who wheels Alex into the operation theater. As the player progresses through the hospital, a grinding noise can be heard periodically. Presumably, this is the Bogeyman dragging his knife across the floor. As the first level ends, Alex enters an elevator, following his brother. As it comes to a stop, the Bogeyman's knife plunges through the still-closed elevator door toward Alex. The scene then transitions to a truck cab and an awakened Alex, revealing that he was dreaming. Later, he is first encountered in the Grand Hotel in Silent Hill; seen dragging his knife down a hallway and being trailed by insects (similar to the film), he turns to face Alex, who has hidden himself behind a pile of rubble. The Bogeyman turns away and continues walking down the hall.

Much later, within the Church of the Holy Way, he appears a final time and executes Adam Shepherd, cutting him in half lengthwise right before Alex's eyes. In the Judgement ending, obtained from not mercy killing Lillian Shepherd, not forgiving "Adam", and not healing Wheeler, Alex awakens to find himself strapped to a chair. Two Bogeymen come out of the darkness, holding two halves of the helmet they wear. They stand over Alex and place the two halves on his head, transforming him into one of them. This could possibly symbolize the "evil" choices made by Alex throughout the game, showing that he has potential to be an apathetic punisher as well, embracing the darkness within him that the Bogeyman represents.

Silent Hill: Downpour
James Sunderland's Pyramid Head appears in a joke ending in Silent Hill: Downpour, involving various monsters and characters from the Silent Hill games throwing Murphy Pendleton a party. Pyramid Head cuts the cake.

Literature

 * A variation of Pyramid Head in a white helmet appears in the comic White Hunter designed for the booklet of the Silent Hill: Origins soundtrack, and in the art film Fukuro for Art of Silent Hill. Both works are by Masahiro Ito. Neither version is connected to James Sunderland, and they are both set outside of the Silent Hill universe.
 * Although Masahiro Ito created the Pyramid Head of the Silent Hill universe for James, fans wanted to see new variations of the design. Therefore, Ito designed alternate versions of the character with different coloured helmets: Белый охотник (the White Hunter) and Святой апостол (the Holy Apostle aka the Saint Apostle).  Both versions can be seen at.
 * Masahiro Ito's preferred English translation of the black-helmeted Pyramid Head's name is "the Saint Apostle."
 * The Saint Apostle's story and purpose are not connected to the main Silent Hill universe. When asked about its meaning, Ito responded "It's a secret."
 * Pyramid Head has been featured in several of the comics published by IDW Publishing:
 * Dying Inside - In Issue 5, the character Whately is seen with a horde of Pyramid Head-like silhouettes standing behind him.
 * Paint It Black - As Ike Isaacs helps a squad of cheerleaders escape Silent Hill, they are chased by a trio of Pyramid Head-esque monsters.
 * Dead/Alive - Numerous Pyramid Heads wander the streets of Silent Hill, Maine as the Real World is invaded by the Otherworld.
 * Sinner's Reward - When Finn Conway is about to kill Jack Stanton in retaliation for attempting to run off with his wife and allowing her to be killed, a Pyramid Head runs him through with the Great Knife.
 * Pyramid Head appears in the officially licensed novel Silent Hill: Betrayal by Shaun M. Jooste, released in 2016.

Spin-offs

 * Pyramid Head appears as a boss in the rail shooter Silent Hill: The Arcade. His appearance is reminiscent of his Silent Hill 2 incarnation, but his knife has a white-edged blade. In Brookhaven Hospital, he is surrounded by hundreds of Creepers. His attacks can only be avoided if a certain amount of damage is dealt to him before he strikes. His helmet acts as a shield, and it is futile to shoot at it; the best place to shoot is just under the helmet or around the rim. He will kill Jessie if Eric and Tina do not defeat him in time. If the player successfully defeats Pyramid Head, the Otherworld transitions back to the Fog World, and Jessie is saved. Later on, he appears during a hallucination scene in Brookhaven Hospital and then at the ruins of Wish House Orphanage.
 * Pyramid Head appears in the PS Vita dungeon crawler Silent Hill: Book of Memories as a type of enemy. They are hostile to the protagonist. The player can wield his Great Knife and Great Spear as a weapon, as well as wear Pyramid Head's helmet as an accessory.
 * Pyramid Head appears in the pachislot adaptation of Silent Hill 2.

Guest appearances

 * Pyramid Head makes an appearance in the game Krazy Kart Racing published by Konami as a playable character, along with Robbie the Rabbit.
 * A chibi Pyramid Head appears as a playable unlockable character in the Nintendo DS title New International Track &amp; Field. To unlock him, the player must obtain bronze in all events in Single Event mode. His design is more reminiscent of the Pyramid Head of Silent Hill 2, though the helmet seems to combine aspects of the original with those of his film counterpart. The game mentions that Pyramid Head was on "a brief but enjoyable killing spree" in Hollywood — a presumed reference to his film incarnation.
 * Pyramid Head could be purchased as a costume in the now-defunct PlayStation Home. He was available with the Great Knife or without a weapon.
 * Pyramid Head is a playable character in Super Bomberman R. In the Bomberman universe, he is an immortal creature that roams the wastelands of Planet Silent Hill. He serves as an executioner who preys on other creatures who inhabit the world.
 * Cheryl Mason and a version of Pyramid Head known as the Executioner appear with a Midwich Elementary School map in Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill. In the Dead by Daylight universe, The Executioner is a sadistic monster obsessed with enacting punishment through pain, making him feared even among other creatures. When someone enters Silent Hill deserving of such punishment, he unleashes unrestrained penance onto them and then retreats into the shadows, resting until another sinner comes along.
 * Pyramid Head appears as a boss in Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals - Silent Hill.

Film universe
In the 2006-2012 film universe, Pyramid Head was adapted as the monster Red Pyramid played by Roberto Campanella.

In Silent Hill, he arrives to attack Rose Da Silva and the inhabitants of Silent Hill, West Virginia when the town transitions into the Otherworld. His arrival is heralded by swarms of Creepers. After a few failed attempts to kill Rose and Cybil Bennett, Red Pyramid pursues the protagonists to a church where they manage to escape. A member of the town's cult, Anna, falls behind and Red Pyramid brutally murders her with a skinning after undressing her.

The sequel Silent Hill: Revelation reveals Red Pyramid to be the protector of Alessa Gillespie, who had now been reincarnated as Heather Mason. Heather first sees Red Pyramid in a dream. Later on, she finds herself trapped in Brookhaven Asylum, with hundreds of prisoners trying to drag her into their cells. Frightened, she screams for help, and Red Pyramid comes and chops at the arms to stop them from hurting her and then departs. He later appears on the carousel at Lakeside Amusement Park, where he is chained to the carousel and turns it manually. When he senses that Heather is being threatened by Claudia Wolf, he breaks his chains and rushes to her aid. He fights with Claudia's monster form, who stabs him in the stomach and rips his helmet. Finally, Red Pyramid decapitates Claudia with his Great Knife, takes a lingering glance over to Heather, then wanders away. The last scene of Red Pyramid occurs after the credits, in which he is briefly seen dragging his Great Knife.

Appearance and symbolism
"The hand of Pyramid Head has two reasons. Pyramid Head has no face. So he expresses his will and emotion by hand. The index finger is separate from the others is very convenient to operate by CG tools. And Silent Hill 2 is PS2 game. We had a limit to the number of polygon. Shaping around the fingers is able to reduce polygons than to make each fingers."

- Masahiro Ito

Pyramid Head is a figure of James Sunderland's guilt and inner torment, manifesting from the part of his mind that desires punishment. He is described as a "distorted memory of the executioners" by Takayoshi Sato, who also explains that Silent Hill was once a town of executions. Most of the people living there were either executioners themselves or family to an executioner. A reflection of James, the monster is a masculine humanoid who takes an appearance similar to the executioners of the town's cult, with a red rusted pyramid-shaped helmet over his head, donning butcher's wordrobe, leather boots, and white executioner's gloves. James and Pyramid Head's shoulders stand at the same height. There is a mark on the back of his garment where the cloth is stitched together, which is a similarity he shares with Valtiel. Exposed from the back-end of the helmet is a bubble-shaped protrusion, the purpose of which is to seal the gap between his neck and helmet. Some action figures have depicted it as inhuman flesh lining the bottom of the helmet. However, this design is not accurate. Ito has elaborated, "Gecco's PH statue did the underneath [of the helmet]. I just put the bulge on the back of the neck of SH2's PH, not the underneath, it's so annoying."

The front of the helmet is an iron plate. Underneath it is tongue-like flesh that Pyramid Head uses when attacking James and other monsters. The bottom left corner of the plate will peel up, allowing for the tongue to slither out of the helmet. Ito used this to subtly convey that the monsters are James' delusion, since it is impossible for iron to bend. The helmet itself represents James' torment, with the sharp corners suggesting the possibility of pain. Action figures and Silent Hill: Book of Memories have portrayed the helmet with a hole on the bottom left corner. This too is erroneous. The hole only appears on the designs of the white-helmeted versions of Pyramid Head seen in Fukuro and White Hunter, which are not connected to James or Silent Hill.

Ito designed Pyramid Head with the "In Water" ending of Silent Hill 2 in mind. His Great Knife does not manifest until after James picks up the knife that Angela Orosco was planning to kill herself with, taking the shape of half of a pair of scissors. The intention was for James to find the other half of the scissors (a second Great Knife) in the Labyrinth, symbolizing the connection between him and Pyramid Head. However, Ito did not have time to insert a distinct version of the Great Knife into the game for James, so the player is only able to obtain the knife that Pyramid Head was using. Ito's drawings of Pyramid Head outside of Silent Hill 2 have featured a differently shaped Great Knife because of this.

Pyramid Head exists to keep James human and help him realize that he is guilty, often attacking other monsters to fulfill his role. The scene where James hides in the closet from Pyramid Head abusing the Mannequins represents the conflict in his mind. His fear of facing his inner demons manifested itself as Pyramid Head attacking other monsters to remove the visions from his psyche.

Pyramid Head's abuse of the monsters was made intentionally erotic by the development team. As Sato explains, "Psychological horror has to shake human's heart deeply. Shaking people's heart deeply means uncover people's core emotion and their core motivation for life. Everybody is thinking and concerning about sex and death. Everything. If we want to scare, shake, or touch the users or spectators, then we have to think about sex and death deeply. To make like a death scene, somebody died or monsters died, we tried to mix erotic essence. This is kind of a visual and a core concept." Pyramid Head's constant murder of a reincarnating Maria is also his attempt to wake James up from his delusion and force him to remember his past actions. Pyramid Head kills himself because his purpose for existing has been finished.

In Silent Hill: Homecoming, Double Helix Games wanted to explore the nature of Pyramid Head. The Bogeymen are the embodiment of a myth that parents used to control their children. Jason Allen also referred to the Bogeymen as the "accretion of the activities going on in the town of Shepherd's Glen." The myth is perpetuated by a nursery rhyme, warning children that if they do not obey their parents, the Bogeyman will inflict punishment onto them. Throughout the game, the Bogeyman never attacks Alex Shepherd, targeting his sinful parents instead. It is unknown what Pyramid Head looks like underneath the helmet. Masahiro Ito stated that he never designed Pyramid Head's face, but had an idea of "a binded someone's head with many frames" at the time of creating him. He clarified that "hidden face" does not mean "without a face", and that he hopes that players see him as an "other James". However, he has refused to reveal what the character truly looks like underneath the helmet, believing that it is more effective to leave it to the player's imagination. He added that he knows what the character looks like underneath the helmet, even though he chooses not to reveal it. An ending in Homecoming depicts two Bogeymen transforming Alex Shepherd into one of them, indicating that the "Bogeyman" iterations of Pyramid Head could be those who were wronged in the town's history. However, Ito has stated that the Pyramid Heads are not men, but creatures.

In the film universe, Red Pyramid wears a basin with sharper corners and has a significantly stronger, more superhuman musculature than James' Pyramid Head. He wears an apron made of human skin with no top covering his upper torso. Christophe Gans, the director of the first Silent Hill film, had tried to give him a more game-accurate appearance, but the shape of the helmet was impractical. They also wanted to update his appearance so that he appeared more powerful, rather than the grotesque humanoid with bad posture seen in Silent Hill 2. This was an homage to Anubis, the Egyptian God of Death. The psyches of the female characters influenced his shape, dress, and physicality. Gans consulted composer Akira Yamaoka and Konami before moving forward with Red Pyramid's final design. Rather than merely being influenced by the executioners of the town's past, the film iteration is stated to have literally been one of the executioners by Gans. He believes that "there is not one particular or exclusive manifestation of [Red Pyramid] as an entity."

Revelation director M.J. Bassett said of the character, "one of the big things is that people compaling that Red Pyramid belongs in game number two. But he was in the first film, so I couldn’t just ignore this amazing character in the sequel. He’s our Pinhead, our posterboy. But he needed to make sense within the story." Whereas the first film was about a parent searching for a daughter, the second film is about the daughter searching for her father. This impacted Red Pyramid's role in the film, who is seen as a symbol of the power of masculinity and how it can simultaneously protect and oppress. The second film expands Red Pyramid's role to be not just that of a former executioner, but also as a monster created as a guardian to Alessa and her reincarnation, Heather.

In Silent Hill: Betrayal, Pyramid Head is once again reinterpreted, this time as a servant of Valtiel, a guardian, and a bringer of righteous vengeance and justice. As Shaun Jooste explains, "It is not the same PH that is in any of the games, but rather a new antagonist that is within that helmet. I might be able to tell the story without PH, but not without the person portraying him inside that helmet. As such, PH becomes an essential plot character rather than an obstacle [the protagonist] needs to bypass. I had read somewhere that those who serve Valtiel wear objects to represent the way his face is hidden too. Whether or not that is actually what is accepted, that stuck with me and I loved it. And since my series takes a much closer look at Valtiel as my favourite deity of the series, I wanted the same guardians in the novels." Tom Waltz, who wrote some of the IDW Silent Hill comics, later regretted including Pyramid Head in Sinner's Reward. He was not aware that the monsters manifest from the subconscious of the characters at the time, and included Pyramid Head because of his design. He said, "In hindsight, I know better."

Crossovers
In Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill, the serum that James Sunderland's Pyramid Head injects himself with is labeled "Zinc 1825". In Dead by Daylight lore, the serum was the creation of Dr. Talbot Grimes, the killer known as the Blight.

Strategy
Pyramid Head is a boss fight in Silent Hill 2.

In the Blue Creek Apartments, the boss isn't too difficult should the player be conscious of keeping space between James and the creature; Pyramid Head has an instant death kill move, so it is recommend to stay far away from him. He also has a horizontal swipe move that does considerable damage, but does not one-shot. The general strategy is for James to stay in the corner of the wall, running to the opposing one as the boss draws too near, while firing at Pyramid Head with the handgun during this safe time to do so. If the player wishes to conserve ammo, they may choose to simply avoid Pyramid Head, as the fight will end after a set period of time, though the fight ends quicker if the handgun is used; the time limit depends upon the difficulty setting and varies between one minute on Easy and up to an hour on Hard. The fight is cut short when a siren blares, prompting Pyramid Head to walk away, opening a door that James must follow him out of. It is still important to keep a wide berth from him while Pyramid Head evacuates; should the player be too close, Pyramid Head will turn around and attack James.

During the hospital basement scene, James can shoot Pyramid Head through a fenced window in one section to temporarily slow Pyramid Head down, a useful tactic if the player is aiming for the "Maria" ending.

Later on, an invincible Pyramid Head can be found patrolling two areas of the labyrinth, somewhere beneath the penitentiary. Although he will attack James if he gets too close, he does not pursue him. James can steal the Great Knife, which is stashed in a small room within the labyrinth.

In Lakeview Hotel, the general strategy is to equip the rifle and run into the corners of the room. An exploit can also be used by using the Great Knife in a corner, stunlocking both Pyramid Heads while damaging them. This may not be possible in all versions of the game, however, as some players apparently had difficulty doing it in their version. After defeating them, the player must take scarlet and rusty eggs from their bodies to unlock the exit doors.

Trivia

 * At one point, Silent Hill 2 was going to have random unscripted Pyramid Head encounters. The E3 trailer shows him in the hallways of the Blue Creek Apartments, while a prototype demo features him stalking the streets. In an early trailer of Silent Hill 2, James is seen hiding in the laundry room from Pyramid Head as he drags his knife down the hallway.
 * Pyramid Head creator Masahiro Ito was asked if characters other than James can have their own Pyramid Head, or if he can appear in different forms due to the existence of the "Misty Day, Remains of the Judgment" painting. His response was "Would the 'other people' kill his wife too?"
 * When asked how Pyramid Head can see through his helmet, Ito replied "How do other creatures in Silent Hill 2 see?"
 * Although James' sexuality played a role in how he saw Pyramid Head's actions, Ito believes that the sexual frustration theme has been over-exaggerated by fans, often overshadowing the other symbolism.    However, he humorously added that he could not get a girlfriend because of the time he spent working on Silent Hill 2.
 * The Murder Incident Article in Silent Hill 2 mentions a "Red Devil" coming to punish a murderer named Walter Sullivan. Because this foreshadows the appearance of Pyramid Head, many fans believed that the "Red Devil" is Pyramid Head himself. Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle debunks this, adding that "No one besides Sullivan himself can really know what he saw." It is ultimately revealed in Silent Hill 4: The Room that the Red Devil is the executioner Jimmy Stone, Walter's first victim.
 * In Silent Hill 2, Pyramid Head was originally not going to obtain the Great Spear until after the player entered the Silent Hill Historical Society and saw the paintings. However, Team Silent had to include it earlier because Pyramid Head could not swing the Great Knife in the narrow corridor of the Otherworld Brookhaven Hospital.
 * The scene of Pyramid Head dragging a Bubble Head Nurse in the Silent Hill 2 trailer was later re-used in Ito's art film Fukuro, where Pyramid Head drags off a Lying Figure in the same manner. In Silent Hill 3, Valtiel can be seen dragging Heather Mason like this and manhandling nurses as well.
 * The scene was originally going to appear in Silent Hill 2, but it did not make it passed the censors. According to Ito, "They said this would make the players image a rape, so cancelled."
 * The Lost Memories: Silent Hill Chronicle, as well as a painting in the Silent Hill Historical Society, refer to Pyramid Head as "The Judgment", the number 20 of the Major Arcanas in a Tarot Deck, most likely due to his role in the town and its mythology.
 * Even though Pyramid Head's name is never spoken in Silent Hill 2, James calls them "Pyramid Head" if the player examines their impaled bodies after the second boss fight. "Pyramid Head" is also listed in the in-game descriptions for the eggs and Great Knife. This suggests James may have coined the name "Pyramid Head" himself.
 * In Silent Hill 2, when Pyramid Head attacks as he thrusts his spear, his grunt is identical to James's grunt when he is hit by an enemy.
 * In Silent Hill 2, if the player positions a Lying Figure in front of Pyramid Head, Pyramid Head will attack it.
 * Surviving the fight against the two Pyramid Heads in the Silent Hill HD Collection awards the trophy/achievement "I Don't Need You Anymore".
 * In Silent Hill: Homecoming, the player can unlock the Bogeyman's helmet by clearing the "Bogeyman" ending.
 * Pyramid Head and Xuchilbara are not connected and Pyramid Head does not have the power of resurrection, despite some fan speculation.
 * When Masahiro Ito was asked about the movie version taking influence from the Egyptian God of Death and about Gans having consulted Konami and Yamaoka on the project, he was bewildered. He said on the matter, "Umm...they really misunderstood Pyramid Head... I designed that only for James."
 * While he was happy that the Silent Hill film added to the brand recognition of the character, Ito wished that they gave him more of a background in the story of the film.
 * Masahiro Ito disagreed with the decision to introduce Pyramid Head in the hallway behind the bars, preferring to introduce him in the mannequin scene where James hides in the closet.
 * When asked if Pyramid Head could be considered a "good guy" in Silent Hill 2, Ito agreed adding "although I tried not to depict it directly."
 * The scene where Pyramid Head kills the Mannequins was inspired by the imagery in Blue Velvet.
 * Pyramid Head's tongue-like appendage was inspired by a scene in the film Jacob's Ladder.
 * A figure resembling Pyramid Head appears in the "Creation" painting in Silent Hill 3. This was a production mistake, stemming from the painter not consulting the core team members.
 * Although there is no confirmed in-universe explanation, it is possible that the figure is tied to Valtiel or his executioners, similar to the "Misty day, remains of the Judgment" painting.
 * While designing vehicles in World of Tanks, Ito based the armoured turret of the Special Edition Panther II tank on Pyramid Head's helmet as a self-homage to his earlier work.
 * In 2022, Ito said, "I wish I hadn't designed fxxkin Pyramid Head."