One of the most famous and influential horror game franchises of all time is Silent Hill, which is well known for its terrifying creature design, dream-like atmosphere, and details drenched in symbolism. Coming out of players' nightmares is the most famous monster from Silent Hill as a whole, Pyramid Head.
Originally appearing in Silent Hill 2, Pyramid Head has also made lore appearances in Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Homecoming, and Silent Hill: Downpour. He is a brutal executioner with an unseen face that's covered by a metal pyramid. The only semblance of a mouth can be known from a tongue-like appendage that Pyramid Head can bring out by peeling up the corner of the front plate of the pyramid.
Readers should note going forward that this analysis of the symbolism behind Pyramid Head in Silent Hill and his actions contain heavy spoilers for the entirety of Silent Hill 2. As always, this is up to interpretation, and those who wish to not be spoiled are not advised to go forward.
James Sunderland
James Sunderland is the main protagonist and playable character of Silent Hill 2. After the death of his wife, Mary Sunderland, James receives a letter from her postmortem that asks him to meet her in Silent Hill. Being that Silent Hill was a favorite vacation spot for the two of them, James travels there and finds twisted horrors awaiting him.
While trying to find Mary, James encounters other people who are looking for things or people in Silent Hill as well as a woman named Maria that looks exactly like Mary. The main difference between the two however is that Maria has a more outgoing personality and fashion choices while Mary was very modest in nature. She ends up becoming James' companion through his journey in Silent Hill.
Eventually, it is revealed that the letter James has been holding the entire time has been blank and that he in actuality had killed Mary very recently before the game had started and that Mary's body was back in James' car trunk at the start of the game. What James does with remembering this information is based on what actions the player took throughout the game.
With Pyramid Head being the main aggressor throughout Silent Hill 2, he symbolizes many facets of James Sunderland's personality and feelings toward himself and Mary. This can also be seen with how Pyramid Head treats Silent Hill's other monsters and Maria.
James' Guilt
No matter what route players find themselves on in Silent Hill 2, James is always enraptured by the guilt of killing his wife and the actions he took leading up to it. A large part of Pyramid Head's design and character is based around this deep sense of guilt and pain.
When designing Pyramid Head, the sharp points of the pyramid were created to subtly suggest pain going toward the monster as well, as Pyramid Head is a reflection of James. As can be seen in a painting and as Pyramid Head's title in Dead by Daylight, he is also known as the Executioner. Executioners aren't known for being wandering killers, but rather those who kill those who've been caught for a crime. This is representative of James' desire to face justice for his act of killing Mary.
Another big part of Pyramid Head's design that has stayed even without the presence of James is Pyramid Head's weapon: The Great Knife. While this is a terrifying weapon capable of killing people with only one swing, it is a burden to carry. Pyramid Head is unable to move very fast while using it and performing a single swing with it takes a lot of time to do. Those being pursued by Pyramid Head can also hear him coming from the loud noise the Great Knife makes as it's dragged across the floor.
After Maria is killed, Pyramid Head relinquishes the Great Knife to use the quicker Great Spear instead. This could be a reflection of James needing to let go of Mary and how he can become stronger when he gets past his guilt.
James' Sexual Repression
One of the more subtle aspects of James Sunderland's character is his sexual repression that he went through while Mary was in the hospital. It is suggested through a variety of details in Silent Hill 2 that James either was visiting strip clubs or outright cheating on Mary while she was suffering from illness. This also helps James build up more of his guilt, but with Pyramid Head symbolizing many of the inner parts of James' mind, this monster also reflects this.
The first time players ever see Pyramid Head in Silent Hill 2, he is sexually assaulting two enemies known as Mannequins before killing them. These enemies are two female lower halves fused together with each other at the seams. Mannequins seem to symbolize how James viewed the other women he's seen while she was in the hospital with them literally as walking sexual objects.
With Pyramid Head brutalizing them before killing them, it shows how James would take breaks from dealing with pain by just filling his life with vices such a sexual gratification. Other monsters such as the faceless nurses seen in Silent Hill 2 also symbolize how James viewed the other women in his life, with him even mentally sexualizing the nurses that were helping Mary.
Other Silent Hill Titles
Despite being designed around the torment surrounding James Sunderland in Silent Hill 2, Pyramid Head has returned for multiple Silent Hill games. This is simply due to developers wanting to capitalize off of Pyramid Head's popularity as a character and placing his reason for existing after having him in a game at all. Pyramid Head's original designer, Masahiro Ito, generally isn't a fan of his constant inclusion in other titles that aren't related to the character of James Sunderland.
However, there is an attempt to have some semblance of reasoning in Silent Hill: Homecoming, where Pyramid Head is known as the Bogeyman. He appears once in the protagonist, Alex Shepherd's, dreams and then appears physically two more times later in the game.In folklore, beings known as the Bogeyman are often told in childhood stories where the Bogeyman will "get" children who misbehave. Stories such as this play off the guilt that children feel and have the Bogeyman as some kind of punishing entity. This parallels Pyramid Head's role as an Executioner and a symbol of guilt.
Going forward, it is great to see this terrifying entity appear in Dead by Daylight, but it would probably be best for the Silent Hill series to create new terrifying monsters to be on par with Pyramid Head, rather than constantly bringing him back due to his reasoning for existing.