I watched a documentary this morning on Silent Hill 2, a Crime and Punishment-esque video game about a man who killed his own terminally ill wife out of what he believes was love, and finds himself in a town fighting off manifestations of his inner neuroses in coming to terms with his murder.
The story and its multiple endings explore the themes of grief and how people cope with guilt through either giving up, staying stuck in the past (making excuses / delusions), or moving on. That moving on is hard because it means facing those parts of us that we are scared or ashamed of. And that people are never the same after trauma, but you have no choice but to choose one of the options.
Growing up, I didn’t have the stomach to consume horror media in general, much less a video game placing me viscerally in the shoes of a character whacking off butchers with bloodied pyramidal heads. These days, I’ve come around to appreciate their unique ability to confront taboo subjects and give us the courage to confront our own demons. These kinds of stories make me feel less alone.