What basically happens: James' wife dies of a terminal disease. Three years later, he recieves a letter in her handwriting asking him to return to silent hill, which was a place they'd vacationed shortly before her passing. So far, very simple. And of course then he gets there, theres fog, theres monsters, all that fun stuff. Along the way he runs into that little girl, Laura. Heres the first big factor into whats happening, and how it's happening. You'll notice Laura is basically a little brat to James, and seems completely unconcerned with the fact there are f***ing zombies milling about the town. This is because they don't exist to her, she's basically an innocent and as such the town isn't magnifying any of her regrets or sins. The fact she seems so antagonistic towards James is she was in the Hospital at the same time as his wife Mary, and feels he neglected her in her last days. Then theres Maria, Maria looks very similar to Mary except...well, basically a slut. She dosen't really "exist" in the most literal sense of the word, rather she's a projection of James' longing for his wife and the physical attraction she held prior to her illness. Eventually James makes it back to the hotel he stayed with Mary at prior to her death...thats where he finds the tape. At which point it becomes clear he's repressed his memories, and his wife didn't die. He mercy-killed her.
As for the other characters, and why they're also there.
Eddie is a psychopathic murderer. This is why theres always a corpse near him. Eddie dosen't see monsters either. Monsters aren't his hell, his hell is a sea of normal looking people who he feels are laughing at him or taunting him.
Angela is there because she murdered her father, after he molested her. Again, she's in denial for most of the game. Once you hit the hotel, and you run into that walking door monster, thats (arguably) when she wakes up and realizes why she's there. In the end though, she can't leave, she's convinced herself she deserved to be raped. Hence why she just sort of resigns herself to that flaming staircase, claiming its "always like this" for her. Basically she just surrenders to the purgatory that is Silent Hill.
Now for the monsters. The straightjacket demons are, obviously, patients. The nurses, obviously nurses. Those boxy things that fly are supposed to be hospital beds. Notice every monster you see has sort of a medical or death related motif. This represents Mary's illness, the fact that some of the monsters make skittering noises like bugs when you knock them down is supposed to be decay. The mannequins are more some subconcious represntation of James lusting over how his wife used to look before the illness, or thats the explanation I always assumed was true.
The only monster that isn't James's mind is the doorman, and if you'll notice...the doorman has a growth on his back that sort of resembles someone forcing themselves on someone else, atop a bed. Thats Angela's subconcious memory of the rape.
And finally, Pyramid Head. Pyramid Head is both real in a way and imagined. In the historical society is a picture of the executioners which presumably used to deal with prisioners at the jail you make your way through, James saw this picture, it found its way into his subconcious. Pyramid Head is basically an eternal reminder of what James did, thats why Maria keeps getting apparently killed after narrowly being seperated from James, it's supposed to be the town reminding him he can't save his loved ones. Furthermore at one point pyramid head...well he basically rapes one of those mannequins. Again, thats James's subconcious/the purgatory of silent hill sort of torturing him. Pyramid Head is really the only monster with a masculine form, which again...well yeah. It's James's guilt being manifested by the town.
And now for the connection to the cult, it's very hard to see but you'll notice Pyramid Head wears a robe with a symbol on it...thats the Valitel sect, Valtiel being one of the three gods of the town (I never totally understood how that worked). The cult, or part of it, reveres Valtiel. If you've played 3, I'm pretty sure that weird thing that periodically turns the valves is Valtiel.
Theres also a theory Pyramid Head is the "red devil" mentioned in a newspaper article in the game, when you first see him he's bathed in a red glow. Apparently Silent Hill 4 expands on that more, I haven't played it so I have no idea.
Furthermore theres an ending where you try to raise Mary from the dead, using a cult ritual, I think it even involves white claudia.
So theres no direct narrative connections. There are little hints, mostly it's 3 and 4 that contain the hints to 2, but 2 has some references to the others. Basically 1 and 3 have the town as being in the grip of a cult attempting to bring about "paradise" through the ressurection of their god. Silent Hill 2 seems to have the town as more of a purgatory, cursed by its own history, and acting as some kind of beacon to people with intense guilt. I have no idea what 4 is like, or if it reconciles the two fairly differing views of just what the town itself is. |