Sex and Death

Anna Mahtani: "It was dusk when he was awoken by a fearful scream. He had never heard such unnatural sounds, such howling, wailing, grinding, tears, [...] Terror gripped his heart like ice, tortured him and numbed him." Dostoevsky's Crime And Punishment (1866) embraces horror. Regularly cited as Silent Hill 2's biggest thematic inspiration, this Russian novel about guilt insists laying out in full the psychological torture that Raskolnikov puts himself through after murdering an old woman. The hallucinations that ensue wouldn't be amiss in a Konami title. Neither would the fact that both stories embrace the Madonna-Whore complex, with Raskolnikov believing he can use a prostitute's love and faith to escape his guilt, just as James' wishes breed both monstrous pin-up nurses and Maria, a sultry stand-in for his wife, who is repeatedly murdered by Pyramid Head. "Psychological horror has to shake humans' hearts," Sato explains, "if we want to [do that] we have to think about sex and death…

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