Silent Hill is one of the most popular and famous horror video games out there, and it’s got a very dedicated community of fans willing to wait a long time for the next game. With rumors and leaks, as well as confirmation from the director of the Silent Hill movie that’s coming up that there are several Silent Hill games in development, there’s a lot to speculate about.
Along with Halloween just around the corner, and October being the month of all things scary and horrifying, Silent Hill just fits the description of October like a charm. And one of the most iconic characters from Silent Hill, Pyramid Head, is one that is definitely worth taking a look at this month.
Beyond Pyramid Head, there is also the overall symbolism that Silent Hill as a place represents. And the way Pyramid Head and other creatures were used to further that psychological horror that is present in Silent Hill was effective, terrifying, and well-done.
Who is Pyramid Head?
Pyramid Head is described as being a humanoid monster and is a manifestation of the guilt and desire for punishment felt by main character, James Sunderland. Pyramid Head’s main reason for being is to keep Sunderland human and make him continue to remember his past actions.
Sunderland’s inner torment and extreme guilt also manifests into Pyramid Head’s weapons, the Great Knife and Great Spear.
Ever since Pyramid Head was designed, he has become essentially the figurehead of Silent Hill. For the most part, when people imagine Silent Hill, Pyramid Head is usually the first thing that pops up in their heads. However, the design of Pyramid Head didn’t just come from nowhere.
Origins of the Pyramid Head Design
The idea for Pyramid Head came about after the team working on the game realized that they would require some type of character that would play the “chaser” role in order to fulfill the plot’s requirements. Art director Masahiro Ito wanted the monsters to have more of a symbolic meaning, as they represent manifestations of the subconscious of the protagonist. His main design goal with Pyramid Head was to create something that had a hidden face, effectively dehumanizing the creature and making it more terrifying.
Human beings often look for faces in things. If you’ve ever looked at cars, you probably laughed and said it looks like it’s smiling or frowning. Because of the way our psychology operates, we search for the face. It allows for the thing in front of us to feel human and real. When we obscure the face, we effectively disconnect the human side of the thing in front of us and that can make something much more terrifying.
Ito’s original design looked much too like a normal human but with a mask, so he decided to create something much more terrifying.
Ito’s redesign for Pyramid Head created the large pyramid helmet and the butcher clothing to make it look less human and more terrifying. He also took inspiration from the lower hull of a German WWII tank to design the edges of the helmet.
Two weeks of design, 3D work, modeling and two more weeks of rigging and texturing, and then two more weeks of keyframe animations, Pyramid Head had been created.
The Story of Silent Hill
Silent Hill takes place in a town called Silent Hill in the state of Maine. Maine is in the northeast most part of the United States. Surrounding Silent Hill is a supernatural power that can manifest elements of a person’s subconscious mind. Before the European settlers arrived, Native Americans used the power to communicate with nature and the dead.
After the Europeans took over and time had passed, a cult began to form around the power. One of the gods they worship is named Valtiel and within Silent Hill’s story, Valtiel is an angel of rebirth and a being that is close to God who has appeared throughout the town’s history.
The cult would dress in red hoods and executioner outfits designed after Valitel and begin ritualistically executing people.
In the case of James Sunderland, three years prior to the events of Silent Hill 2, he and his wife Mary Shepherd-Sunderland visit Silent Hill on a vacation. They visit the Silent Hill Historical society and see a painting and artifacts that relate to the executioners that lived in the past of Silent Hill. One of them, titled “Misty Day, Remains of the Judgement” showcased an executioner standing among corpses placed in cages.
Silent Hill 2 would be the true moment for Pyramid Head to shine in the series. Silent Hill 2 gives us a dark premise where Mary is infected with a disease and Sunderland decides to kill her in order to relieve her of her pain. Additionally, after becoming sick, Mary starts to verbally abuse James and part of his motivation for killing her was his growing resentment and hatred for her behaviors.
However, after killing his wife, he becomes stricken with regret and denial. He eventually gets a letter that claims to be Mary telling him to find her in Silent Kill.
Now, James represses the memory of killing her and goes to Silent Hill to find her. If you don’t know, memory repression is a response some people may have to traumatic moments. Instead of facing it, they will often block the memory, effectively deleting it from their minds.
Once James Sunderland arrives at Silent Hill, the town’s supernatural powers get to work manifesting his guilt.
Throughout the duration of Silent Hill 2, James is chased down by Pyramid Head, with the monster slaughtering creatures throughout the strange nightmare world, or the Otherworld.
James continues to evade the creature, but he continuously sees it killing a woman that looks similar to his wife, continuously finds it chasing him down, and it leads up to the final moment in which James sees two Pyramid Heads that kill the representation of his wife.
He eventually comes to the realization that Pyramid Head was just a manifestation of his guilt and desire for punishment, and upon his realization, the two monsters kill themselves after fulfilling their purposes.
Pyramid Head would go on to appear in the Silent Hill games after, the Silent Hill movie back in 2006, and even is a playable character in the survival horror multiplayer game, Dead by Daylight.
Symbolism of Pyramid Head and Silent Hill at Large
Pyramid Head is one of the most intriguing characters in horror, because he’s not the typical horror monster that we see in most media and games. Horror often likes to create supernatural dangers and does not necessarily delve into the inner machinations of the human psyche.
However, Pyramid Head is just that: The inner workings of James Sunderland’s mind.
Famous horror movies like Saw, Annabelle, It, and other stories often take a horror villain that is external to the character. Silent Hill however takes a dive into internal conflict. Sure, the inner conflict is presented through a supernatural town, but without his internal guilt and desire for punishment, the villain of the story would not be present. The villain of Sunderland’s life is his own mind and his own guilt.
The Executioner Archetype
Utilizing and executioner as a symbol was stylistically one of the more clever parts of Pyramid Head’s design. In the story of the game, most of the people in Silent Hill were executioners or had family who were executioners. The history of Silent Hill is ridden with execution as a part of its core. Executions and the death penalty in general have been seen throughout history as means to obtain justice, and if we consider James Sunderland’s actions, it only makes more sense for him to have an enemy of his own mind that is portrayed like an executioner.
Pyramid Head often attacks other monsters that represent conflict and guilt within James Sunderland’s mind. The Mannequins are abused by Pyramid Head because the Mannequins represent conflict in Sunderland’s mind. James Sunderland’s fear of facing his actions and the demons within him are what spurred Pyramid Head’s existence and the attacks Pyramid Head made on the manifestations of these memories in order to continue suppressing the memories.
Each character presented to us in Silent Hill 2 was portrayed in a way that the town showcased their inner traumas and inner psychological states. For instance, a character named Eddie has an Otherworld that is cold with hanging bodies that represent meat in a freezer. It’s a nod to potential bullying Eddie faced when he was young. Angela’s Otherworld represents potential sexual abuse from her father and brother, which explains why her Otherworld is so bizarre and why one of the manifestations is called the Abstract Daddy boss.
It’s these cases and instances of symbolism that help to formulate the power of Silent Hill’s world building.
How Symbolism Made Silent Hill Terrifying
There is a lot of symbolism sprinkled in Silent Hill, and I believe that’s what makes it truly terrifying. I can throw at you as many jump scares as I want, but nothing is more terrifying than unlocking what makes us truly afraid. The depths of our minds can be our worst enemy, and the traumas that people face never leave them. This is what I think makes Silent Hill such a fantastic title and what makes Pyramid Head such a fantastic representation of that trauma for James.
James running away from Pyramid Head and from his memories only made the situation continue to chase him more and more, with Pyramid Head managing to find him every time. It’s truly terrifying, because when it comes to trauma and repressed guilt, facing them is complicated, as was portrayed by the depiction of Pyramid Head.
Narratively, Silent Hill is a game that makes you terrified because it makes you understand the story behind the horror and pain that the characters face in their Otherworlds. Not many games can accomplish that, and that’s why Silent Hill and Pyramid Head are so iconic.
Pyramid Head is a terrifying creature, but that’s why James’ guilt manifests this way. He committed a terrifying act, and unless he comes to terms with it, his own guilt will eat him up. Silent Hill, in my eyes, is a depiction of human guilt in general. Forget the violence, blood, executions, and all that. Think about just the concept of the town and how it is itself a representation of guilt and trauma. The town’s history is built off of blood and executions and conquest, and it’s only appropriate that those that interact with its supernatural side see that side of it, but reflected from their own selves.
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Zainah Yousef
Zainah Yousef is the author of The Fallen Age Saga and specializes in gaming, social media advice, and reviews. She's been writing all her life and she probably won't stop anytime soon.
