Creepypasta Origins

Pyramid Head

Pyramid Head, also known as "Red Pyramid Thing," "Red Pyramid,"or "Bogeyman," and Sankaku Atama (Triangle Head) in Japan, is a fictional character from the Silent Hill series of survival horror video games published by Konami.
Introduced in the 2001 installment Silent Hill 2, he is the antagonist and he stalks James Sunderland, the primary player character, who comes to the town of Silent Hill after receiving a letter from his deceased wife, Mary. The Silent Hill series, particularly the second installment, frequently utilizes psychology and symbolism: Pyramid Head represents James' wish to be punished for Mary's death. Masahiro Ito, the designer of Silent Hill 2 '​s monsters, created him because he wanted "a monster with a hidden face". Known for his large triangular head, Pyramid Head lacks a voice, and his appearance stems from the town's past as a place of execution.
Pyramid Head has since appeared in other media in and outside the Silent Hill media franchise. Positively received in Silent Hill 2 for his role as an element of James' psyche, he has been cited by reviewers as an iconic villain of the series and part of Silent Hill 2 '​s appeal.
A monster with a concealed face was the concept behind Pyramid Head's design; Ito rejected his initial sketch, which resembled a masked human, and gave the creature a pyramid-shaped head.
Ito wanted to create "a monster with a hidden face", but became unhappy with his designs, which resembled humans wearing masks. He then drew a monster with a pyramid-shaped head. According to Ito, the triangle's sharp right and acute angles suggest the possibility of pain. Of the creatures that appear in Silent Hill 2, only Pyramid Head features an "overtly masculine" appearance. He resembles a pale, muscular man covered with a white, blood-soaked robe reminiscent of a butcher's smock. He does not speak, but grunts and moans painfully. His most outstanding feature is his large red, triangular head. His weapons consist of the deadly and heavy Great Knife, which the player can find and use for the rest of the game, and later a spear.
According to Konami's Lost Memories, his appearance was a variation of the outfits of the executioners from the fictional history of the town. They wore red hoods and ceremonial robes to make themselves similar to Valtiel, a monster who appears in Silent Hill 3. Like Valtiel, Pyramid Head dresses in gloves and stitched cloth and pursues the game's main protagonist. According to Silent Hill 2 '​s character designer Takayoshi Sato, he appears as a "distorted memory of the executioners" and of the town's past as a place of execution.
Christopher Gans, the director of the film adaptation of Silent Hill, suggested that Pyramid Head "was one of the executioners in the original history of the town" and "there is not one particular or exclusive manifestation of him as an entity."

Appearances

In video games

In Silent Hill 2, after receiving a letter from his deceased wife, Mary, and arriving in the foggy town of Silent Hill to search for her, the game's protagonist and primary player character, James Sunderland, encounters Pyramid Head several times over the course of the game. He first appears from behind a gate, making no attempt to attack James. Later, in an apartment, James walks in on Pyramid Head killing two Mannequins—creatures made of two sets of feminine hips and legs. Terrified, James hides in a closet and shoots Pyramid Head with a handgun several times, causing him to leave. When James asks another character, Eddie, about the monster, Eddie denies knowing about Pyramid Head. Later, near a flooded stairway, James witnesses Pyramid Head killing another creature, and Pyramid Head attempts to kill him. After a few minutes, sirens sound in the distance and Pyramid Head descends the stairway and disappears. James does not meet him again until in Brookhaven Hospital, where Pyramid Head knocks him through a safety railing and he falls, sustaining injuries. Pyramid Head does not pursue him or continue the attack. Later, he stalks James' companion Maria, who closely resembles his wife Mary, through a lengthy corridor. As James flees into an elevator, the doors shut before she can join him. He struggles to open the doors to save her, but Pyramid Head kills her. However, in the labyrinth beneath Toluca Prison, James finds her alive and unharmed in a locked cell. Before trying to seduce him, she reminisces about a trip that only he and Mary took to a hotel in Silent Hill. He leaves, promising to find a way to free her, and discovers that Pyramid Head walks a corridor nearby, now carrying a spear. Afterwards, James reaches Maria's side of the cell, but finds her dead. Pyramid Head makes his final appearance just before the final boss, where two Pyramid Heads take part in the encounter. They kill Maria yet again and, after pursuing James around the room for a while, both commit suicide.
Pyramid Head makes a significant appearance in 2009's Silent Hill Homecoming, but his role is limited to non-interactive scenes. The "Bogeyman", as he is referred to in the game, appears only twice to the game's main protagonist Alex Shepherd: once in the Grand Hotel in Silent Hill; and, much later, in a church, where he executes Alex's father by splitting him in half. His last appearance is in a possible ending to the game: Alex wakes up in a wheelchair as two Pyramid Heads appear, each with part of a helmet, which they use to turn Alex into one of them. After this ending is played, the player obtains the Bogeyman's costume for Alex to wear. Mindful of Pyramid Head's role in Silent Hill 2, the developers chose to include him as "the embodiment of a myth [that] parents started to keep the children out of trouble" and "the accretion of the activities going on in the town of Shepherd's Glen."
Pyramid Head appears as a boss in the 2007 first-person shooter Silent Hill: The Arcade, as well as Silent Hill: The Escape but with a composite design with the butcher, and as a super-deformed select able character in the 2008 Nintendo DS title New International Track & Field, an installment of the Track & Field series and another spin-off Krazy-kart racers alongside Robbie the Rabbit. The 2007 game Silent Hill: Origins also included a similar monster named "The Butcher", whom the protagonist occasionally encounters killing other monsters and a painting of Pyramid Head is seen in the burning house of Alessa. Pyramid Head appears in the "Surprise!" ending of 2012's Silent Hill: Downpour, along with various characters from the franchise. Pyramid Head's most recent appearance was in 2012's Silent Hill: Book of Memories, where he is a monster that can spawn randomly to fight the player. Pyramid Head appeared as a costume for the Playstation home.