Silent Hill 2 Remake Analysis: Monster Symbolism (spoilers)

I am blown away with how well this remake was done. It is a faithful retelling of the horror classic and will go on to captivate a whole new generation of players.

I felt like maybe an analysis of the monsters would be helpful to both old and new fans. The monsters in Silent Hill 2 are far more significant than the creatures from the first Silent Hill game. Whereas those creatures were mere obstacles born from Alessa Gillespie's fears, Silent Hill 2's monsters are manifested from James Sunderland's darkest secrets. Needless to say, this will contain heavy spoilers for the game. Keep in mind that this is my own interpretation of the monsters and shouldn't be taken as canonical.

Let's get started.

Lying Figure

This is the first monster you find and, in the original, it was the weakest monster. But Silent Hill 2's upgraded combat in the remake has made them much more dangerous. The original Lying Figures merely shambled about the town, occasionally spraying James with acid if he got too close. In the remake, the Lying Figures hunt you down and deluge you with puke. There's a new variant of Lying Figure that unleashes a torrent of acid upon death. They scurry around the floor, which is very frightening in dark corridors.

So, what does the Lying Figure represent? It is a humanoid figure in a fleshy straightjacket. They also have effeminate legs, buttocks, and feet that look like high heels. The lack of arms symbolizes confinement, like Mary felt in the last days of her illness. James also felt confined to Mary's bedside, having to watch her suffer through her illness. The acid spray is symbolic of Mary's verbal abuse of James, how she would take out her frustration on him.

The feminine features of the Lying Figure represent James' latent feelings of sexual frustration. James is human, after all, and humans are sexual beings. James might not want to feel such frustration since his wife is ill, but the town's power subverts this, combining his guilt and repressed libido into grotesque creatures. Speaking of which...

Mannequin

These monsters were also fairly weak in the original. Oh, boy, did they revamp the Mannequins in the remake! For a monster with four legs and no arms, they are the most annoying enemy to fight in the game. They also have added stealth mechanics and can now hide behind bookshelves, crouch down under tables, and blend into the Otherworldy environments. They also have a variant that crawls up the walls and ceilings.

Their design is quite obvious, being two sets of conjoined legs. Many fans like to characterize James as a misogynist because of the Mannequins. They have been reduced down to a sexualized state, something an incel might call an "ideal woman." But I think James is more three-dimensional than that. As I've explained with the Lying Figures, he feels guilty for his sexual frustration. He's a man in an amnesiac fugue state, insane with grief over his dead wife - obviously, sex is hardly a priority right then. But the town is reflecting his guilt back at him and his desire to be punished, even he doesn't remember why.

The first Mannequin comes to life after James picks up the flashlight. Its plastic appearance in the original game denoted its inhuman qualities. It would often freeze in hallways, not triggering your radio. In the remake, they are far more organic, having bandages and more visible injuries. Quite possibly, James saw Mary in this negative light, as a fake replica of the woman he once knew. The illness took her looks and her kindness, turning her into a bitter, cold woman that James hardly recognized.

Bubblehead Nurse

The nurses are a staple of the Silent Hill series and Silent Hill 2 has had some of the most dangerous types. They were beefy in the original game and are now absolutely frightening in the remake. They can dodge your attacks and wallop you with a pipe or knife. They've been given several variants as seen above and they are all equally terrifying. They have a Jacob's Ladder-esque head-thrashing complete with disturbing sound effects to send a chill up your spine. They don't just haunt the hospital and outside now, they are found throughout the rest of the game.

Their design has been changed from having cleavage to having high stockings and garters. You ever get the feeling all the leg-themed monsters means James is a leg man? That wasn't just a joke, it could be true since the town is using his repressed libido to really screw with his head. They don't faces, instead possessing bizarre masks. One interpretation is that James saw many nurses during Mary's hospitalization and grew to resent them. I'm of the theory that the town subverts this resentment as misogyny, influencing the monster designs to be more feminine. They are aggressive, carrying pipes and knives, showing possible symbolism of them causing more harm than healing. Their filthier variants also show signs of decay and corruption like the hospital in general.

Flesh Lip

This fight in the original game was one of its worst. The camera angle was wonky and you couldn't quite see what was happening. There were more than one Flesh Lip and it was just a matter of shooting it until it died. In the Remake, it's turned into a proper boss battle. The caged monster weaves in and out of the ceiling tiles for the first phase then breaks free of the swinging mechanism to become a spider-like cage beast. When the fight ends, you think you're in the clear, but then another Flesh Lip descends to pull James into the Otherworld Hospital.

The symbolism is quite obvious, with its defining feature being the mouth between its swinging legs. It symbolizes Mary in her sickbed and it is a mockery of James' repressed libido. I think the Flesh Lip is, in itself, an accusation. Does James really miss his wife or just the sexual gratification? It's obviously the former, but the town's power often mocks him, feeding off of the darkness within him. James obviously has the capacity to be the worst kind of person and the town teases him thoroughly about it.

Mandarin

This monster wasn't so dangerous in the original game, merely existing below grating. But in the Silent Hill 2 Remake, they pose a real challenge because now they stun James with their roars and have whip-like tongues. Later on, they emerge from the grates and are part of possibly the most tense part of the game. In the hotel, James has to collect three doll figurines to solve a puzzle. In one of the rooms where he finds a figurine, a Mandarin crashes through the wall and engages James in combat. But that's not all, you also get to encounter this creature without your weapons. That's right, you have to offload all your weapons and sneak around this guy to get stuff for a puzzle. Fun!

These monsters are also in the third Silent Hill game, only they're called Closers. Its symbolism in this game suggests the monster represents James' guilt. Before the hotel, the Mandarins stayed underground because James was still deep in his delusion and didn't remember killing his wife. They show up in the hotel, bold as brass, because James is so close to learning the truth. His guilt is literally punching him. The Mandarin you have to sneak around could be symbolism of how dangerous James' denial is. Or possibly, it could be a way to torment James, making him the incredibly vulnerable one without his weapons, similar to how Mary had no defense against James' actions.

Abstract Daddy (CONTENT WARNING)

The Abstract Daddy boss fight in the Remake was lengthened significantly into its own maze-like arena. In the original, it was just one room where you fought the beast. In the Remake, the Abstract Daddy chases James through the hallways, his roars shaking the entire room.

Oof. This monster is unique because the person its symbolizing was already monstrous enough as a human. The creature looks like two figures under a fleshy blanket on a bed - quite literally a perverse reenactment of Angela's sexual assault by her father. The boss arena first looks like a dingy house with winding hallways. James has to run from the Abstract Daddy, like Angela had to run from him. There's even a tiny room to hide in with a teddy bear. James has to smash three TVs that are playing recordings of Angela's father's abusive words. As the fight goes on, the house-like facade crumbles, revealing the fleshy, mechanical Otherworld beneath. The walls have pistons pumping rhythmically, leaving no doubts of the crime it symbolizes. Angela lands the last killing blows. It's important to note that this is only what the Abstract Daddy looks like to James. We can only imagine what the creature looks like to Angela. Of course, it may just look like her father, because he was certainly already a monster to begin with.

Pyramid Head

This monster's legacy on horror would go on to inspire further appearances, but his meaning would never be as impactful as it was in Silent Hill 2. He's not a monster who only seeks to kill James. No, his purpose is far more thematic, punishing James but also leading him towards his atonement. His fights are not to the death. Pyramid Head cannot be killed. In a way, Pyramid Head is Silent Hill, deciding if James has learned his lesson.

One theory for Pyramid Head's existence is that James saw the painting of "Misty Day, Remains of the Judgement" and thus, spawned Pyramid Head as his personal punisher.

He is an executioner, slaughtering the guilty as he sees fit. Though in some scenes, he seen "playing" with his victims in ways that would suggest assault. His overall masculine appearance contrasts the feminine monsters, playing up the theme of subverted misogyny. The first apartment scene also subverts voyeurism, showing a terrifying monster assaulting another monster, something that you wouldn't want to see...unless you're that kind of Silent Hill fan.

Pyramid Head isn't immediately hostile towards James. The first appearance of him is often on the second floor of Woodside Apartment through the bars. He doesn't do anything. He just stares and makes your radio freak out. He is instilling great fear in James just by appearing. Throughout the game, he often shows up to push the story along. On the hospital roof, he throws James down the elevator shaft to where he needs to be. He kills Maria at the end of a nerve-racking chase. He is reminding James of his guilt by retraumatizing him again and again. He will not let James forget his crime.

The most startling appearance from him is in the Labyrinth where he unceremoniously shows up in the Desolate Area to bully you. He also crashes down a wall and drags his knife toward James, who has no choice but to go down a tentacle-infested hallway. He ushers James to the room where Maria is dead once again, salting the wound further.

His final appearance is the dilapidated hotel after James learns the truth. Another Pyramid Head has joined him, spawned from his guilt over killing Eddie and the many deaths of Maria. They both skewer Maria once again and James breaks down. James now understands why the Pyramid Heads exist and he faces off against them. But James will never have the satisfaction of killing either Pyramid Head because they kill themselves. The eggs you collect from them suggest a new beginning, but not before James faces his last battle.

Maria/Mary

James has realized his guilt, but Maria still remains, trying to fool James into being with her. In most of the endings, you fight Maria, though in the Maria ending, you fight Mary. In the original, this boss took only a few minutes to take down, but the Remake gives her three stages. She fights James through a crumbling warehouse and then breaks apart her bed-frame similar to the Flesh Lips boss fight, breaking apart in a further stage to turn her into a mechanical spider.

For four of the endings (Leave, In Water, Rebirth, Stillness), Maria is the final antagonist. She disguises herself as Mary but James sees through the ruse. Her existence past this point suggests that she's more than a figment of James' imagination now. All of his other monsters have disappeared. We probably won't get answers to this even if Born From A Wish is released in a DLC since her story was ambiguous in the original game's bonus scenario. Technically, she is another monster, just a sentient one turned into an evil temptress. There's several parts of the game where she acts oddly, romanticizing the anything-but-romantic Silent Hill like it's a honeymoon destination, not a monster-infested purgatory.

When Maria refuses to let James go, she transforms into a demonic bedbound creature that flies and travels through the air in flurries of moths. She is mocking James one last time by becoming an image of Mary trapped in her sickbed. She's angry that she only exists to torment this man who doesn't even want her, who wants a woman who isn't even alive. The only time the creature is Mary is when you're getting the Maria ending. She resents James for killing her and choosing the demonic facsimile over her. The fight ends the same way, no matter who it is. Maria/Mary collapses and utters James' name and James has to deliver a final blow.

After defeating Maria, James will have a last meeting with Mary. The town's power grants Mary a better death, peacefully passing away rather than her last memories tainted by James' forced euthanasia. You'll get your ending and hear Mary's full letter.

So, what exactly are the monsters? How does the town create them? Those are questions that still haven't been given concrete answers and I think it's better to leave it ambiguous. Silent Hill is a town of mystery, horror, and repentance. You can interpret it your own way and fill in the blanks.