This review contains spoilers
I'm really into cults. Probably a bad tagline for a dating profile or resume header, but the intrigue works well for delving into the twisted town of Silent Hill. It is truly fascinating how so many cults are able to rewire the human psyche into believing practical insanity in order to have them work against their own best interests, including the most basic fundamental human desire: survival. The survival of self is cast off in favor of the promise of ascension in service to something greater and a more complete understanding of the universe's framework. It's human nature to look for patterns, and cults claim to offer the key to the celestial cipher of existence. Unfortunately, this key only opens a path to self-destruction - the endless letters of code mistranslated and re-arranged to be subservient to only one person, the cult leader.
Enter Silent Hill with its cult of nightmares born from the torture of a young girl and her never-ending wounds. It's a classic horror-cult story with the cult members grasping at achieving something they don't quite understand, something cosmically unknown, at the cost of their own self-survival - nightmare monsters from other worlds aren't usually known for bringing about positive change, even for those that summon it.
I went into Silent Hill 2 not really knowing anything about it other than pop-culture stuff like Pyramid Head existing. The cover has a girl on it who also happens to be the first person we meet. Here we go again - I'm ready for the plot to take me to the inevitable conclusion that the cult is back at it again, torturing Angela in horrific ways in order to birth a new nightmare. Of course, we're supposed to be looking for Mary, our dead wife, but you don't understand - I am really smart and can see past this red herring main plot. I can't be tricked.
Hours go by, and while there have been some other things thrown in here to take me off the scent (namely Laura), my suspicions about this being Angela's nightmare grow even stronger as I find Pyramid Head sexually assaulting creatures that have no face or identity, but only legs and groin. When I see Angela again, she's about to commit suicide, and then I see she has torn her father out of a family portrait. Yeah, I knew exactly where all this was going. I am smart.
Despite meeting Maria, talking more with Laura, and getting other hints throughout the game, I wasn't ready to concede that this wasn't Angela's nightmare until I found the Blood-Soaked newspaper about her killing her father, followed by killing his nightmare form afterwards. It was a moment of revelation where things started to click and the wheels started to turn in my brain that maybe this was less about Angela and more about James. It was a brilliant subversion of the first game's mythology, and cemented Silent Hill 2 as one of the greatest successes as a sequel in my mind. I was deliberately played by my own expectations from the first game, and much like James dropping down further and further into Silent Hill's abyss, my thoughts went down a rabbit hole trying to recontextualize everything that I had seen before.
After finishing the game and learning the truth of everything, I understood that Silent Hill 2 is still a narrative about a cult - the cult of self. James disregards his own self-preservation and gives himself over in service to the search for indecipherable knowledge - understanding of his own subconscious processing of grief and guilt. He's both the leader and follower in this cult of one, sacrificing pieces of himself in order to ascend past his shattered self and either achieve peace by being able to leave Mary behind, or by making the ultimate sacrifice to find justice for her murder.
Everything in Silent Hill 2's presentation is built to reinforce this introspective deconstruction that James goes through, from denial to understanding, but the best example I can give is the original soundtrack. The most emotionally charged moments aren't met with a bombastic horror-driven score, but rather music that lends itself to delving inward and sitting with the weight of the events unfolding. The game often allows the music to play on loop after the actual scene has ended, signifying James trying to come to terms with everything going on. He sits in the moment, trying to process, and I am there with him - still listening to these haunting songs as I type out this review.
Enter Silent Hill with its cult of nightmares born from the torture of a young girl and her never-ending wounds. It's a classic horror-cult story with the cult members grasping at achieving something they don't quite understand, something cosmically unknown, at the cost of their own self-survival - nightmare monsters from other worlds aren't usually known for bringing about positive change, even for those that summon it.
I went into Silent Hill 2 not really knowing anything about it other than pop-culture stuff like Pyramid Head existing. The cover has a girl on it who also happens to be the first person we meet. Here we go again - I'm ready for the plot to take me to the inevitable conclusion that the cult is back at it again, torturing Angela in horrific ways in order to birth a new nightmare. Of course, we're supposed to be looking for Mary, our dead wife, but you don't understand - I am really smart and can see past this red herring main plot. I can't be tricked.
Hours go by, and while there have been some other things thrown in here to take me off the scent (namely Laura), my suspicions about this being Angela's nightmare grow even stronger as I find Pyramid Head sexually assaulting creatures that have no face or identity, but only legs and groin. When I see Angela again, she's about to commit suicide, and then I see she has torn her father out of a family portrait. Yeah, I knew exactly where all this was going. I am smart.
Despite meeting Maria, talking more with Laura, and getting other hints throughout the game, I wasn't ready to concede that this wasn't Angela's nightmare until I found the Blood-Soaked newspaper about her killing her father, followed by killing his nightmare form afterwards. It was a moment of revelation where things started to click and the wheels started to turn in my brain that maybe this was less about Angela and more about James. It was a brilliant subversion of the first game's mythology, and cemented Silent Hill 2 as one of the greatest successes as a sequel in my mind. I was deliberately played by my own expectations from the first game, and much like James dropping down further and further into Silent Hill's abyss, my thoughts went down a rabbit hole trying to recontextualize everything that I had seen before.
After finishing the game and learning the truth of everything, I understood that Silent Hill 2 is still a narrative about a cult - the cult of self. James disregards his own self-preservation and gives himself over in service to the search for indecipherable knowledge - understanding of his own subconscious processing of grief and guilt. He's both the leader and follower in this cult of one, sacrificing pieces of himself in order to ascend past his shattered self and either achieve peace by being able to leave Mary behind, or by making the ultimate sacrifice to find justice for her murder.
Everything in Silent Hill 2's presentation is built to reinforce this introspective deconstruction that James goes through, from denial to understanding, but the best example I can give is the original soundtrack. The most emotionally charged moments aren't met with a bombastic horror-driven score, but rather music that lends itself to delving inward and sitting with the weight of the events unfolding. The game often allows the music to play on loop after the actual scene has ended, signifying James trying to come to terms with everything going on. He sits in the moment, trying to process, and I am there with him - still listening to these haunting songs as I type out this review.
2 Comments
Great Review!
tunikb
4 months ago