Silent Hill 2, Innocence, and Fog World
In Silent Hill 2, the Otherworld of Silent Hill is revealed to be manifestation of James Sunderland’s unconscious guilt. The others were seeing the worlds of their own in Silent Hill —Eddie in his freezing environment and Angela in her burning environment. It’d make sense for James that his world was slowly rotting away; he was slowly losing livelihood. Then we have Laura, who has just turned 8, gleefully pranking in the abandoned Fog World. The implication of Laura’s presence is that she is innocent; she is not haunted by the literal otherworldly monsters nor the environment in Silent hill. Some even go so far as to speculate she may have stayed in real Silent Hill, not the fog-ridden town.
But her very presence in the town seems off-putting. For a girl called into a beautiful place that is harmless, the only thing she gained from her visit was learning of the fact that James was the murderer, and her dearest friend had seen the ultimate betrayal. Whether she is innocent seems rather irrelevant whom the town calls, unless we are to assume supernatural phenomenon in Silent Hill is inherently malicious.
This is where my depressing theory comes in. Silent Hill is heaven-like place for Laura, because the real world is fog world-like for her. Remember how Silent Hill 2 starts off? James apparently drove to Silent Hill and decided to walk through the graveyard as the tunnel was blocked off. We don’t know exactly how the transition took place, from him being in the real world to the fog world, but we do know that’s how we perceived it. Then how did Laura get to Silent Hill? This isn’t her dream; she is certainly there, because in one of the endings she can leave with James. For an 8 years old, there is no adult supervision nearby, let alone means of travel. We learn that she crossed path with Eddie much earlier than James did on the way to Silent Hill, but the story doesn’t explicitly explain the surroundings of her departure. Her very presence in Silent Hill may be self-evident of harm.
It’s also interesting to note that her friendship with Mary hails from a hospital. She was admitted in a hospital where she knew a nurse by first name basis, knew enough to know where her locker was, and she was most likely kept in a nearby ward, if not the same ward, from where Mary must have been, a patient who was deathly ill. What’s even more ironic is that she is implied to be an orphan in Mary’s letters, which in turn also implies she is registered in a system, not a neglected child in traditional manner. It begs the question how she can “leave” with James in any sense of the word, when it is likely to raise hell to explain how a child suddenly appeared in a remote resort town with a grown man.
What’s worse, the locations we meet Laura in Silent Hill are not the place a child should be left alone, whether or not it is fog world or real world. One such place is the hotel. The Lakeview Hotel is a massive illusion in James’ head. The original building in the real world had burned down years ago; and James, not knowing of the fire, likely imagined it in the Silent Hill. In the fog world, the hotel is already deserted as-is, not to mention unoccupied, whereas in the real world, she would be playing in the piles of ashes —though if that had been the case, we don’t know how she was able to play the piano. She may be more protected in the fog world by the nature of the supernatural phenomenon.
If we were to take more Christian reading into Silent Hill universe, I would argue Silent Hill in the second installment is reminiscent of purgatory. None of the “sinners” are committing crimes of their own free will; I can certainly think of few not guilty by reasons of insanity claims against the prosecution had I been defending them. Laura is likely shunned as ‘guilty’ by the community due to her unfortunate circumstances. They are all fundamentally flawed, any way we cut it. And the ones who committed more sinister crime do die in Silent Hill as the story unfolds, possibly hinting their rightful place is not even in purgatory. In this reading, we would assume Laura and James have ascended, in a manner of speaking, out of Silent Hill in the “leave” ending.
Ultimately, my point in this fan theory is that believing Silent Hill is all in the character’s head is too plain and overdone in modern gamer’s taste. This isn’t Monkey Island. It makes little to no sense cultists worshipping hallucinogenic power, when it makes no impact on the real world, not to mention they could have scored the real deal in some dark alleys —why risk dying in the hands of monstrous executioner of a heathen god.