Rewatched some scenes from the game and I think I’d be good to expound on some of my previous thoughts:

I was thinking about how there was a dissonance between SH3’s direct narrative with an extremely aggressive and blunt metaphor and the (overlooked) richness of the text and how the key is within the design and approach to Silent Hill as an entity.

I think what is vital and why it’s so important it comes after Silent Hill 2 is that it is a direct inversion of what Silent Hill means in its predecessor. In SH2, SH is more of a pure psychological liminal space that operates more on a Freudian dream symbolism/logic and is more concerned on the extent of the realness (and thus instability) of Jame’s environments. Silent Hill 3’s SH still operates as psychological liminal space but makes itself aware as pure malevolent entity that seeks to both give concrete form to fear and trauma and how it is something that is perpetuated through the shortcomings/evils of its inhabitants.

Thus what Heather sees is NOT her guilt and shame manifested but instead her own fears and reckonings with the transition to adulthood. The insane cancer for instance takes form as a greasy, deformed naked man that seems to be a play more on creeps than just some background monster. The level design is inherently labyrinth, filled with winding hallways with far too many locked doors, due to how it functions as a way to communicate Heather’s own in-world disorientation at being thrust into Silent Hill but also a psychological construct of her own confusion surrounding the changes of her body and pure loss of her own autonomy.

It is especially kind of surprising especially to see people comment that Harry’s death was mishandled if the abruptness and sudden nature of his death is the primary point of it. Silent Hill in this game is vindictive towards any innocent (and women as etc nurses in particular seem to be a particular subject of torture by Valtiel) and is pure oppression, what could be more cruel than killing Heather’s father before she has the chance to tell him how happy it made her feel?

But that’s the power of SH3, I think it’s through the pure assertiveness of its theme and its hybrid fusion of SH1 and the psychological horror of SH2 while finding completely separate ground!