My little run down of what the monsters symbolize...*spoiler

[Crimsonsloth]

Alright so I'm giving a stab at this after analyzing the story and the characters. I'm also starting this because I always like knowing why something is in silent hill, so this is to help explain to those why things are how they are... or at least try.

Please only read this if you have beat the game because most if not all of it pertains to the major plot points in the game so please please please this is your last warning and it's your own dumb fault for looking here first instead of playing the game!!!!!!

So where shall we begin:

Nurses: Sort of a staple to the series but looking deeper they were very closely related to alex's past of being mentally institutionalized, which goes into my theory about the intro sequence (about weather or not it was a dream and he actually just escaped hence the severed doctor's and the nurses maybe it was just his diluted reality and his combat knife could have just been a scalpel but I'll have to play through it again to further justify this), creating a fear of nurses in alex's mind because who knows what they did to him. In one document I remember reading about electroshock therapy. Could that have been related to the tortures Alex underwent while institutionalized?

Feral: My best guess is that it represented Alex's relationship to his father. Alex was raised as a sacrifice, he was treated like crap... Alex's father even said that raising his son seemed to turn into a chore. Pretty much he was an unwanted dog, which reminds me of when you look at the dog hit by the car and Alex says something to the effect of "looks like im not the only one who dosn't like these dogs."

Smog: The way I thought to explain this was with the death of Josh. When smog first enters he chokes alex and mainly all of his attacks are based off of killing your lungs. Josh drowned and smog emulates this with it's smoke. Other people might have a better speculation to this as well as others but im just giving my thoughts.

Swarm: haven't thought of anything for it.

Lurkers?(is that the name of the crawling things): Nothing good thought of for this yet, possibly representing a fear of water after the incident due to they always come about in water and look like a water warped body... the blades on the hands could represent his father's hunting room.

Schism: Represents Alex as two people in one, a split personality. There is the "soldier" Alex and the real Alex who possibly is just some nut job.

Siam: I believe Siam represented Alex's parents. His father being the male with army boots carrying his mother on his back. The male of the monster seems to be the one in control which you could say Alex's father was the one who was in control of the family. He was the one who chose Alex as the sacrifice and his mother seemed to be along for the ride and had to hide her emotion thus the female helpless and strapped on it's back. The whole S and M theme is their submission to the town of Silent Hill as in they have to offer up a sacrifice to silent hill every 15 years or else.

Needler: I believe this comes from Joshua's obsession with spiders. Probably could analyze this one further but I can't think more into it than that.

I think I covered normal enemies minus the obvious cult members and on to the bosses which I thought were obvious.

Sepulcher, Scarlet, Asphyxia, and Final boss: I'm just going to group these together as they are all the same basic idea. Each one of them was a representation of the kids of each family. Sepulcher represented the Mayor's son who was buried alive thus coming out of the ground as this rotted flesh, Scarlet was a precious doll to dr. Fitch, and Asphyxia was how the Judge killed her daughter by smothering her to death(choking) thus all the arms and the visual of many women coming out of each other represents the mother daughter relationship. As far as the final boss it was spider like an appearance thus Josh's obsession. The pregnant woman could have represented the twisted relationship of Josh being the true "baby" of the family where as Alex was just raised to be sacrificed.

Boogeyman: Pyramid head whatever you want to call him either I don't think it matters. PH you never fight him but nonetheless he is important as he strolls around to be the punisher Adam Shepard. Adam has much guilt about how he had to raise Alex and that it inadvertently lead to the death of Josh. Adam also doomed Shepard's Glenn at the same time. His guilt manifests PH in which he is probably hunted down for most of the game until you meet up with him. The PH ending also goes to show that in dooming your parents Alex has lost himself to his hatred in Silent hill and has taken up his position as an executioner as he took the responsibility to do such to his own parents.

Well that is my run down of things... feel free to edit comment or add your own speculations.

[AngelsWhisper]

Nurses: Sort of a staple to the series but looking deeper they were very closely related to alex's past of being mentally institutionalized, which goes into my theory about the intro sequence (about weather or not it was a dream and he actually just escaped hence the severed doctor's and the nurses maybe it was just his diluted reality and his combat knife could have just been a scalpel but I'll have to play through it again to further justify this), creating a fear of nurses in alex's mind because who knows what they did to him. In one document I remember reading about electroshock therapy. Could that have been related to the tortures Alex underwent while institutionalized?

Lurkers?(is that the name of the crawling things): Nothing good thought of for this yet, possibly representing a fear of water after the incident due to they always come about in water and look like a water warped body... the blades on the hands could represent his father's hunting room.

Also, entries in Alex's diary from "when he was a soldier" on the official Homecoming website propose some theories for the Nurses and Lurkers.

[Crimsonsloth]

The thing im wondering though is if that diary is non cannon or just Alex's made up world... it isn't really clear.

[AngelsWhisper]

I still consider it cannon in terms of the extended background story, despite the fact Alex was never even a soldier. It's all part of Alex's delusion, the delusion we're to believe until the twist reveals itself.

Remember, Mary's letter to James in SH2 wasn't real either - but it's still seen as a vital plotpiece.

[Crimsonsloth]

Good point I didn't include any of the soldier analysis because of not knowing the canonization of it but now that you bring up the letter that just makes it all more helpful to accept that he had this preconceived world up in his head. Though I wish the journal was actually in game.

[jthomp1286]

I think the Lurkers have something to do with a diary entry on the SHH website.

I saw a guy’s legs get blown off today. He was walking patrol alongside an APC when an anti-personnel mine when off on the side of the road. The top half of his body did a back flip and landed right in front of me. Without thinking, I wrapped a tourniquet around each bloody stump and began to give him CPR.

The Lurkers crawl around and seemingly have no legs, so I believe they are a manifestation of what he saw that day.

EDIT: Playing through again, I just realized something about the Schism. The Schism may not necessarily represent a split personality Alex had. But maybe the fact that the Four Families split off from the The Order and formed their own cult. It has a split, forming two heads, two cults that believe in the same God. Its possible though it could mean both, giving a dual meaning. Two heads, two meanings. Sort of makes sense.

[overachiever547]

The final boss's official name is Amnion, which is the sac which holds the amniotic fluid. The whole pregnant look makes sense, and the fact that Josh drowned corresponds to the whole vessel of fluid boss name.

The founding families have to make a sacrifice every *50* years, not 15.

And don't worry about trying to find a meaning for the Swarm. In every SH game that features a killer beetle enemy, they never have any metaphorical relevance.

[Morbid.Marionette]

But I thought the Swarm represented Josh's love for bugs and maybe Alex's hate for them?

[Chris Sunderland]

I still consider it cannon in terms of the extended background story, despite the fact Alex was never even a soldier. It's all part of Alex's delusion, the delusion we're to believe until the twist reveals itself.

Remember, Mary's letter to James in SH2 wasn't real either - but it's still seen as a vital plotpiece.

The letter is very much real in SH2.

I want to add something, not about the monsters, but the vaginaesqe holes Alex cuts. I think they represent a fear of barriers, of going beyond something, like Alex "being a pussy" if he doesn't go beyond this point. I imagine Alex growing up with a cold, strong military father would make him feel weak at times, and mabe Adam would say things to him to make him feel weak. I know it sounds out there, but it makes sense really.

[AuraTwilight]

And don't worry about trying to find a meaning for the Swarm. In every SH game that features a killer beetle enemy, they never have any metaphorical relevance.

They did in SH1, and there's very applicable meaning in SHH.

The letter is very much real in SH2.

The final one, yea. Not the one that James made up though.

[jthomp1286]

I want to add something, not about the monsters, but the vaginaesqe holes Alex cuts. I think they represent a fear of barriers, of going beyond something, like Alex "being a pussy" if he doesn't go beyond this point. I imagine Alex growing up with a cold, strong military father would make him feel weak at times, and mabe Adam would say things to him to make him feel weak. I know it sounds out there, but it makes sense really.

Interesting, I didn't know what to think about those barriers. Was I the only one that thought the "holes" in the wall in the room where you fight Asphyxia looked like a certain part of the female anatomy as well?

[overachiever547]

Yes! Asphyxia emerging from the wall looked very much like a child emerging during birth. To be honest, it looked a lot like it was suffocating while it was trying to emerge (the arms outstretched, reaching), not an uncommon occurrence during childbirth.

If you think about it, in the case of a complicated childbirth and in Nora Holloway's sacrificial murder by Judge Holloway, both involve mothers suffocating their children.

[jthomp1286]

Exactly! It was interesting how they did that. Made me think of Angela's room in the Labyrinth.

[sh#1fan]

I dont know if this has been discused or not..?~

I think the 4 bosses in the game represent the 3 children who died in vain and want revenge then the last one being josh.
Think about it
The first boss is a tree... thing, and we know the guys kid played in the tree house at alex/josh place. its a reincarnation of his son
The second boss is obviously the docters daughter reincarnated as a freakish hell doll (becuase she loved dolls)
The 3rd being the judges daughter (nora i think her name is) she is obviosly the head, and the other parts of the body are the people that went before her... or were burried under her.
The 4th boss.. the big spider thing (sorry i have not memorized the names yet ) is a rincarnation of josh who probably has a grudge for alex for killing him. We know josh and alex colleted spiders as we see in there room.

anyway thats just my 2 cents.

[jthomp1286]

The first boss is a tree... thing, and we know the guys kid played in the tree house at alex/josh place. its a reincarnation of his son

Sepulcher. He looks like a "tree" because he was buried in the ground alive. Just like the Bartlett family contract prescribed.

The second boss is obviously the docters daughter reincarnated as a freakish hell doll (becuase she loved dolls)

Scarlet.

The 3rd being the judges daughter (nora i think her name is) she is obviosly the head, and the other parts of the body are the people that went before her... or were burried under her.

Asphyxia. It could be, but she was also suffocated, hence her name.

The 4th boss.. the big spider thing (sorry i have not memorized the names yet Embarassed ) is a rincarnation of josh who probably has a grudge for alex for killing him. We know josh and alex colleted spiders as we see in there room.

Amnion. Hence why Josh is "born" from it at the end. I don't think its a reincarnation of Josh necessarily. Josh did collect spiders, there's even the photograph where a spider is walking near Alex's army toys in the park. I think that has more to do with it than anything.

[KLGChaos]

Something I noticed for each boss monster is that they needed something attached to them to appear it seems. Sepulcher didn't appear until the watch was dropped on the ground where he was buried, Scarlet didn't appear until Alex brought the doll to Dr. Fitch, Asphyxia didn't appear until Alex brought Nora's locket to the Judge and Amnion didn't appear until Alex reached the sacrificial altars with the heirloom ring.

[jthomp1286]

Good observation. It possibly had something to do with the memory attached to those objects.

[AuraTwilight]

And they're significant to the guilt of the parents. The watch that says Forgive Me, the doll that she was supposed to get for her birthday, the ring that caused his death, etc.

And I don't think "reincarnation" is the right word; I don't think the boss monsters are ACTUALLY the children.

[jthomp1286]

No, I think its more along the lines of Memory of Alessa. Its not the child itself, but possibly just the manifestation of the guilt the parents felt.

[KLGChaos]

And they're significant to the guilt of the parents. The watch that says Forgive Me, the doll that she was supposed to get for her birthday, the ring that caused his death, etc.

And I don't think "reincarnation" is the right word; I don't think the boss monsters are ACTUALLY the children.

Exactly. Seeing the item caused the person's guilt to increase significantly, giving birth to the monsters that were twisted forms of the way they killed their children. It's why Amnion didn't show up right away-- it only appeared after Alex remembered what he did and the guilt took hold, feeding from it and creating the monster out of it.