Why We Love Survival Horror: The Descent Into Purgatory

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Based on works such as Crime and Punishment and Alien, inspired by the artwork of Francis Bacon, and based heavily on the principles of the unconscious mind from Sigmund Freud, Silent Hill 2 can hardly be said to be superficial. Indeed this tragic tale of salvation through suffering, has received critical acclaim for its ability to terrify and move audiences alike. Its most recent incarnation, despite being cancelled, was so intriguing it created a hype and buzz that arguably propelled its creator into the mainstream.

There is no doubt about this; these games are deeply sinister, disturbing, and designed to unsettle the gamer. And yet these games sold in the millions, revolutionised survival horror, and are filled to the brim with symbolism of internal struggle, embracing the shadow, and redemption.

Silent Hill 2, perhaps the most critically acclaimed of the franchise, is the story of one man’s descent into purgatory, who three years prior to the events of the game suffered from the slow and painful loss of his wife to a wasting disease. The story begins with our protagonist James heading toward the town of Silent Hill, after receiving a letter from his deceased wife that she is there waiting for him. This calling card from the town of Silent Hill is in fact his call to a very dark hero’s journey, as James must battle with his inner most daemons, and make peace with his shadow. Imagine if, egos aside, HP Lovecraft, Carl Jung, Joseph Campbell, Fredric Nietzsche and Sigmund Freud collaborated on a script, and you are getting closer to Silent Hill.

Silent Hill is a town shrouded in an ominous, thick fog which cuts it off from the rest of reality. The dense fog also gives the town the appearance of being almost partially formed, as if to be filled out by the protagonists own experiences and fears. Indeed Silent Hill mutates to torment the protagonist with their own unique version of purgatory, fuelled by their deepest fears and repressed urges. Hiroyuki Owaku, the writer of the Silent Hill franchise, stated that he based his games core principles on Freud’s psycho analytic theory, specifically the pleasure principle. Freud suggested that the driving force of the unconscious was for pleasure, to satisfy urges of anger and sexuality, which formed the core part of human personality. This is evident within the game, as we see that the protagonists core unconscious desires manifest into physical beings designed to elicit fear, disgust, and a peculiar sense of intrigue at the uncanny.

James experiences a purgatory filled with monster and symbols manifesting his struggle with obvious guilt, resentment and frustration toward his wife’s death. Ultimately these monsters serve as a metaphor to the player for the key to James’ redemption and ultimate salvation. Hints toward the decaying relationship with his wife begin at a superficial level, the hallways are reminiscent of a hospital out of your worst nightmares, cooler green and blue colours and plastic blood stained sheets draped over walls. Stained white sheets and gurneys are all common as you make your way through the hallways, representing the nightmare James must have experienced in the remaining years with his wife. Pillows can be seen as well, similar to the one we later learn James used to euphonise his wife.

Going below the surface into Freudian territory, James’ sexual frustration and resentment toward his wife manifest as hideous, sexualised pair of feminine legs, spliced together to resemble an anthropomorphic human woman, but without a head, and only a torso. This ‘manaqueen’ represents ‘just a pair of legs’ as raw sexual urge, depicted throughout with violent imagery around domination, suppression of sexuality, and raw masculine urges.

The infamous Pyramid Head antagonist James must face has been a point of contention and open to varying interpretations. A seemingly muscular man dwarfing James, wearing a crude, brutalist inspired pyramid shaped metal contraption adorning his entire head, so that no facial features are present. This sharp angled helmet is designed to elicit feelings of fear and confusion as the masked man does not appear to be in pain to an obviously painful contraption. His lack of identifying facial features are designed further add to the fear of the unknown, and further, may serve as further ambiguity to what truly lies beneath. Your imagination is likely far worse then what they could animate. He wields a large and bloodied broad edged weapon, which he drags across the floor, hinting at influences of penetration and brutality. One suggestion is that Pyramid head is a personification of James’ ID, that is to say the worst or repressed part of the self: raw masculine urges, violent, sexual and brutal. In a word: animalistic. This manifestation of the ID is initially terrifying to the player as it appears to hunt James down. But on closer inspection it has been suggested (by players far more skilled then I) that in fact Pyramid Head guides James toward his redemption, as he must accept this part of himself to achieve salvation and learn how to survive with the pain of his great loss. Indeed when you complete your quest, Pyramid Head kills himself by falling upon a bladed weapon, his duty is done, the manifestation is no longer required as James embraces and amalgamates this shadow into his sense of self. As James begins to resolve his guilt and come to terms with his life experiences and pain, the game forces James to confront his wife and overcome his resentment, anger and frustration. It is symbolic of ultimate catharsis and release, explored though the means of struggle, desperation, and fear of exploring the unknown parts of our selves.

In wrestling with freedom from eternal self-punishment, the game highlights that suffering comes in many forms, dependent on the individual, and their willingness to break out of their eternal struggle. Speaking toward mental health, and resembling warnings found in ancient mythology of the folly of the human condition, you come into contact with other people stuck in their own personal purgatory. As you do so the environment changes to reflect their own past and anguishes. This allows Silent Hill to explore difficult psychological concepts and subjects through the lens of a hero on his own journey. Like any good tragedy, the other characters are intentionally two dimensional and caricatures, serving as warnings and allegories to the player, a personification of a lesson as they fail to learn, and are destined to repeat their own personal Hell over and over again.

For many, survival horror games will be glanced and judged at surface level as gruesome, morbid, and twisted. But for those who scratch below the surface their appears to be a wealth of interactive storytelling about pain, repression, embracing the shadow, and ultimately, growth.