| “ | 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, every day. 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. |
” |
Sexuality is defined by the Oxford English Dictionary as the "capacity for sexual feelings". According to Sigmund Freud's psychoanalytic theories, sexual urges have strong roots within the subconscious mind and are a primary motivator of human thought, behavior, and development.[2][3] The original developers, particularly Hiroyuki Owaku and Takayoshi Sato, were inspired by these theories when creating the original Silent Hill games.[4] In Silent Hill lore, characters within proximity to Toluca Lake may experience a paranormal state in which the boundary between dream and reality is obscured, causing the physical manifestation of delusions, often in the form of monsters, environments, and poltergeists stemming from negative thoughts and emotions. This state transitions between the Fog World and Otherworld, analogous to the Non-REM and REM sleep cycle.[5][6][7][8][9] The series employs erotic subtext, both to reflect the psyches of its characters and to get under the player's skin by disturbing them on a psychological level.
Silent Hill 2[]
Red Pyramid Thing murders one of James Sunderland's delusions, the Mannequin.
Angela's troubled past is not kind to her in the Otherworld.
Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland receiving a letter claiming to be from his deceased wife, urging him to find her in the town of Silent Hill, Maine. Upon his arrival, he meets two other characters who were drawn to the town, Angela Orosco and Eddie Dombrowski, and his subconscious thoughts take physical shape.[10] He encounters nine delusions throughout his journey, symbolized by nine red squares in the game's climax. Among these are the Mannequins, which partially represent his natural sexual urges, and Red Pyramid Thing, who takes the form of an executioner.[11][12][13]
Red Pyramid Thing is the part of James' psyche attempting to bring him out of his delusional state. It is frequently seen abusing and slaughtering the other monsters, for the purpose of erasing them from his mind.[14][15][16][17] Although these actions are not explicitly sexual, witnessed by James, there is an element of visual eroticism in these acts, reflective of his unconscious mind.[1][18]
Angela Orosco, a survivor of sexual abuse inflicted on her by her father and brother, experiences her inner thoughts manifested as well. When James crosses paths with her, he does not see exactly what she sees, but instead her abuse filtered through his own psyche. The Abstract Daddy creature represents Angela's past trauma, and James' memory of his wife on her sick bed.[19][20][21] The symbolism of Abstract Daddy is synchronized with the framed portraits Angela stares at in the Lakeview Hotel staircase.[22]
Silent Hill 3[]
- Piling up the 300th day and night
- From beyond the door,
- cries of pain are heard
- And the final destination
- has become real
- Though not a blessed beginning
- In Silent Hill 3, the message on the moon door is a metaphor for the stages of pregnancy to birth, foreshadowing a grim fate for Heather Mason[23]
The elongated hole symbolizes the birth of God.[24]
When the development team was creating the protagonist for the third game, they wanted to go in a different direction from the 30-year-old males used in the previous entries. As Hiroyuki Owaku explains, "When it came to creating a new lead character, we thought long and hard about factors such as age and sex. But the main focus was to express the emotional side of the experience and the fear of the character. Heather [Mason] was our solution to this conundrum."[25] The initial designs for Heather by Shingo Yuri depicted her wearing jeans and long pants. However, female staff members insisted on a more feminine appearance, leading to a redesign that gave her curly hair and a skirt that shows her legs.[26]
As the result of a summoning ritual, Heather is unwillingly pregnant with the fetus of a deity worshipped by a religious cult. The game's events center on the cult rediscovering Heather seventeen years after she was hidden by her adoptive father as a newborn, at a time when her body has matured enough to give birth. The cult believes that birthing their god into the material world will bring about an end-times paradise, and their intentions bring them into conflict with Heather.[27]
A manifestation of the angel of their religion, Valtiel, stalks her throughout the game and is tasked with protecting the fetus that resides in her body to ensure its birth. He is associated with the imagery of turning valves, handles, and other cyclical symbols, which represent the concept of birth and that God can be reborn any number of times. The cyclical motif is also symbolized by the cyclical shifts between the Fog World and Otherworld, which sometimes occur suddenly.[28][29][30] The creature Insane Cancer has an appearance suggestive of a cancerous mass.[31]
The story climaxes with Heather swallowing Aglaophotis, a substance capable of repelling evil spirits, and expelling the fetus of the god from her body.[32][33] Voice actress Donna Burke likened this scene to an abortion.[34]
Silent Hill 4: The Room[]
| “ | A person's room should be a place of refuge and comfort. We felt that it would really be terrifying to become trapped in that sanctuary and to have that space gradually eroded through a succession of disturbing events. This was our main concept during SILENT HILL 4's development.
|
” |
A nude female mannequin.
A figure bowing before a larger figure.
In Silent Hill 4: The Room, Cynthia Velasquez is implied to be promiscuous, and at the age of thirteen, she was already going to night clubs. Walter Sullivan is hinted at being attracted to her, but she turned him down. Cynthia's murder aligns with "Temptation" in the 21 Sacraments.[36][37] When she enters Walter's Otherworlds, which she thinks is a dream, she promises Henry Townshend, the first man she encounters, a "special favor" if he helps her.
When Henry peers through a hole in his living room wall to check if his neighbor Eileen Galvin is safe, he winds up spying on her, which could be seen as an act of voyeurism. The Eileen Head monster is potentially a reversal of this role. In the 21 Sacraments, Eileen serves the role of "the Holy Mother reborn."
The Spiral Staircase, manifested from Walter's subconscious, is shown to have many naked figures for unknown reasons. Some of them are female and seem to be in bondage. For example, one female mannequin is hung from her nipples. Another piece shows a tall nude masculine figure with wings being worshipped by two female figures, both of whom are similarly nude.
Silent Hill: Homecoming[]
A nurse of Alex Shepherd's nightmares.
Concept art of Pyramid Head leading two nude, mutilated Nurses on a leash.
Silent Hill: Homecoming focuses on Alex Shepherd, a man blamed for the death of his kid brother Joshua, who suffers a mental breakdown as a result and is admitted to Alchemilla Hospital: Asylum for the Mentally Ill by his parents. In his years institutionalized, Alex constructs a fantasy that he is a war veteran like his father and was admitted into the hospital due to war injuries. He escapes when elements of his psyche are manifested by the Otherworld.
The game depicts the manifestation of sexuality more directly than earlier installments: the Demon Nurses are tied to his false memories of being treated by nurses in a military hospital. Alex recalls in his diary, "My wounds made me captive to a damn wheelchair for a long time. Thanks to the helpfulness of the pretty nurses, in their low-cut, white clothes and their provocative stilettos, I learned – if painfully – to run again." The Demon Nurses appear as a distorted image of the nurses that Shepherd lusted over.[38]
Outside of Alex himself, a prominent depiction of sexuality is seen in Asphyxia, with several pairs of breasts over several torso segments and a hand clutching the boss' genital region.[citation needed] Pyramid Head was originally going to rape the Nurses in Alchemilla Hospital, due to the developers' interpretation of his actions in Silent Hill 2, but these scenes were deleted.[39]
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories[]
| “ | We're getting deep in it now. I can almost taste it. All this talking and we still haven't touched on the sex thing. ...That's what you're thinking. Aren't all psychiatrists supposed to be obsessed with sex? It's not us, it's you.
|
” |
Sexualized Cybil.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories is a reimagining of the series in which the player controls the deceased Harry Mason in dream sequences, representing his grieving daughter's memory of him during therapy. The game creates a Psych Profile and tailors itself to the player's decisions and how the player character behaves. Certain actions that Harry can take, such as acting in a flirtatious manner with female NPCs or staring at pornographic images, may influence the narrative. Examples of this include the Raw Shock creatures taking on a salacious appearance or the character Cybil Bennett wearing a shirt that partially reveals her cleavage. These actions may result in the "Sleaze and Sirens" ending in which his daughter comes to the revelation that Harry was sexually immoral and unfaithful to his wife, Dahlia.
Depending on the player's psychological profiling, Dahlia's appearance can be that of her Seductive design, which has her wearing skimpy clothing and acting far more promisicuous, as well as sending sexually-charged messages to Harry as he progresses. It is implied that she and Harry had sex in The Orpheus.
Silent Hill: Downpour[]
The Doll taunting Anne for her infidelity (Anne's Story)
Silent Hill: Downpour and its tie-in Anne's Story feature monsters known as Dolls that taunt the police officer Anne Marie Cunningham for cheating on her husband with another man, an act she is remorseful for. A man named Patrick Napier is also imprisoned in Overlook Penitentiary for child molestation and murder, having killed a pre-adolescent boy he was attracted to. The grief of the boy's vengeful father Murphy sets the plot of the game into motion.
2006-2012 film series[]
The Janitor spreads his infliction.
Silent Hill (2006) is the story of a girl's (Alessa Gillespie) revenge after being burned as a witch by a vicious cult. Having barely survived, she makes a pact with a devil and punishes the town through supernatural means. The creatures are human beings transformed by her vengeance and their designs embody elements of her mind; director Christophe Gans compared them to Dante's Inferno and described them as "grotesque figures of doomed people. People in hell." The creature known as "the Janitor" is Colin, the former custodian at her elementary school who is punished for molesting her as a child. Red Pyramid takes a more masculine, muscular appearance than his game counterpart, influenced by the perspectives of the female protagonists.[40] The Creepers surrounding Red Pyramid in the abandoned schoolyard represent sperm.[citation needed]
The screenplay for Silent Hill: Revelation had a scene between Sharon Da Silva and Vincent Cooper that was ultimately cut from the film: "He leans in to kiss her and tentatively at first but then with increasing passion. Heather responds with her own desire and need...", implying Sharon and Vincent had sex.[41] In the final version of the movie, it is suggested there is still some sexual tension between the two, most explicitly when Vincent gives Sharon a kiss and she does not reciprocate.
Other media[]
Fukuro Silent Hill
Troy Abernathy's delusion.
- The art film Fukuro directed by Masahiro Ito contains overt sexuality, serving as an abstract metaphor for the human womb.[42]
- In the graphic novel Silent Hill: Dying Inside, Troy Abernathy hallucinates his dead wife in a bloodied sexualized nurse costume, who taunts him by saying "What's the matter, Troy? You used to love it when I put on this old thing."
Sexual frustration theory[]
The use of Freudian psychology in Silent Hill 2 has led some players to misconstrue certain scenes as literally sexual, common suggestions being that the primary theme of the game is sexual frustration, that most of the creatures were born from James Sunderland's repression, and that Red Pyramid Thing is a manifestation of his libido that forces other creatures into sexual intercourse (despite the absence of genital contact in the cutscenes).[43][44][45] This is, however, contradictory to the intentions of the developers.
Creature designer Masahiro Ito has been particularly vocal, clarifying that none of the creatures in Silent Hill 2 were designed with sexual frustration in mind. Although he is okay with alternative interpretations, he dislikes how this theory is often presented by its proponents as official canon.[46][47] He was especially dismissive of the suggestions that Pyramid Head's tongue-like organ is a phallic symbol and that the hole in Neely's Bar is representative of Mary's vagina, and has stated "There is no reason to rape the mannequins for PH in the first place."[48][49][50]
Notes[]
- Ito is open about the intentional use of sexuality in his work, such as the influence of BDSM fashion on the designs of the Lying Figure and Bubble Head Nurse, the Freudian subtext when Red Pyramid Thing kills the Mannequins and Lying Figure, and the focus of a sexualised bondage fashion girl in his cancelled game The 13th Floor.[51][52]
- In response to the heavy sexual frustration speculation, Ito joked that he did not have time for a girlfriend while working on Silent Hill 2.[53]
Blue Velvet(1986) - Mommy Mommy
The sex scene in Blue Velvet, which employs psychological horror as the protagonist hides in a closet.
- The scene where James hides in a closet as Red Pyramid Thing kills the Mannequins (animated by Ito) was an allusion to a scene in Blue Velvet, which ironically depicted sexual intercourse.[54][55][56]
Additional information[]
- The original Silent Hill game centred on the manifestations of 14-year-old Alessa Gillespie's psyche. Some of the imagery in the game has been interpreted as sexual by third party journalists. The Guardian noted the use of Freudian symbolism and what they perceived to be "slitheringly phallic monsters" in a retrospective, comparing Dahlia Gillespie to the "archaic mother" and opining that the story could be read as an allegory for a father who fears losing his child to adolescence.[57]
- In a light-hearted interview with Xbox Magazine promoting Silent Hill 2, Sato was asked "What's the deal with all the monster sex?" He answered jokingly, "Because they are starving for love and communication. Monsters need love and mercy too."[58]
- Heather Mason is sexualized in some promotional materials for Silent Hill 3.
- One of Heather's unlockable abilities in Silent Hill 3 is the Sexy Beam and a cheat code forces Douglas Cartland to walk around in his underwear.
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- In Silent Hill 3, Stanley Coleman repeatedly expresses an obsessive attraction to Heather, a behavior which makes her extremely uncomfortable.
- Character designer Naomi Hara wanted Eileen Galvin to be the cutest female character in the series up to that point, adding "Usually, you want the "girl next door" to be this ravishing beauty, but most of the time, it's just an ordinary person living there, isn't it? I designed her with that sort of everyday quality in mind. I tried to bring that out in her figure, too - her legs are chubby; her rear's kind of big and plump."[59]
- Unlockable cosmetics for NPCs in The Room include Cynthia Velasquez in lingerie and Eileen Galvin in a sexy nurse costume.
- Lisa Garland and Michael Kaufmann engage in sexual intercourse in Silent Hill: Origins.
- In Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, Cheryl Heather Mason is diagnosed with "abnormal sexuality" by her therapist Michael Kaufmann.
- At the beginning of Past Life, Issue 3, Jebediah Foster wakes up in bed with Helene Leek.
References[]
- ↑ 1.0 1.1 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E1VKvED76WQ&feature=youtu.be&t=1553
- ↑ Thornton, Stephen. Fred. Internet Encyclopedia of Philosophy,2001
- ↑ https://www.simplypsychology.org/Sigmund-Freud.html
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/073-080_en.htm
- ↑ http://silenthillchronicle.net/shkgb.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/090_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/094_en.htm
- ↑ "The Monster Lurks"#Transcript
- ↑ Doctor's Journal#Trascript
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/008-009_en.htm
- ↑ https://web.archive.org/web/20200927025145/https://preview.redd.it/9prbabzeblp51.png?auto=webp&s=4383936c0047cbb64bd11d52750e04e3c5d9953e
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1559810680441962497
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/048-049_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/110_en.htm
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1418627017457557506
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1263050285062094848
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1562159433077370880
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1263075228898390022
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1097577262612770816
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1105929282650427392
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/935208330728849408
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/867041895603556352
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/101_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/100_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/creators/interviews/2003.04.29_yamaoka_owaku_cvg_en.htm
- ↑ https://youtu.be/KiH4wOkSzGs?t=326
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/082-083_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/084-085_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/096-097_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/111_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/068-069_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/112_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/091_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/creators/interviews/2014.12.31_burke_gamingmoe_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.gamedeveloper.com/audio/classic-postmortem-i-silent-hill-4-the-room-i-
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/sh4/victim_files_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/sh4/another_crimson_tome_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/read/28407141/alex-shepherds-diary-silent-hill-lost-memories
- ↑ https://youtu.be/661LChc9Gwo?t=3907
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/shm/director_notes_en.htm
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/shm2/downloads/sh_revelation_original_script.pdf
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/406798730923220992
- ↑ https://kotaku.com/silent-hill-2s-pyramid-head-was-pure-sexual-terror-1825903869
- ↑ https://twitter.com/ragnarroxshow/status/1206256854504017922?lang=en
- ↑ https://www.gamesradar.com/the-10-most-shocking-game-moments-of-the-decade/
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1262885670294446080
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1263285533846855680
- ↑ https://mobile.twitter.com/adsk4/status/1392913269564710912
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1164903763074678785
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1263263670261305345
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1302338438276902912
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1300176319594938368
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1263251853787070464
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1362840878998425600
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/lost_memories/guide/134-135_en.htm
- ↑ https://twitter.com/adsk4/status/1639184076115681280
- ↑ https://www.theguardian.com/games/2019/jan/31/silent-hill-at-20-the-game-that-taught-us-to-fear-ourselves
- ↑ https://i.imgur.com/V79H6GN.jpeg
- ↑ https://www.silenthillmemories.net/creators/interviews/2004.07.14_sh4_staff_interview_en.htm