Why do I find the Labyrinth so unsettling?

[Mits_Giotix]

Well...the labyrinth part *is*, creepy and scary, to say the least. I always find it so...weird,so out of place! I mean, the rest of the town is just a town only a bit abandoned( it looks abandoned,that is) and full of fog. yeah, there are really weird things in the rest of the town too, but when you reach the labyrinth,the shit hits the fan! This place shouldn't even EXISTS, its impossible! But then again, it's actually a man's feeling and psyche, and seeing that James is almost tottaly a whacko, it figures. Another scare factor for the labyrinth is the notes from the hospital director (the one in his room in the Brookhaven hospital and the one acompanying the wrench),that say things like you have to stare into the abyss, but if you do, the abyss also stres back at you. It really is somewhat of a "spoiler" tothe labyrinth,don't you think?
PS. The guy who wrote this stuff on abyss (Nietche?) also wrote that a man who fights monsters should be careful not to become a monster himself. This suits SH games,especially SH2.
PS2. Hey,just think of traveling in the Labyrinth for real (IRL, i mean). What would be your feelings? (I partly say this because I go to sleep in a while and I'd really like to see a hideous SH-esque nightmare, haven't seen one of these in a while)

[viex]

Well, I never felt strange while in the Labyrinth, until now... =/

However, there are some places I find unsettling. That part with the rotating room with faced-cube in the center... That shit is scary.

And by the way, the scariest and disturbing place in all Silent Hill games I played (1 and 2 lol) is that door in SH1 that teleports you to the second floor in school, or something like that.

Nothing is scarier than that, at least for me >.<

@Mits_Giotix: Nietzsche, quite a fancy name to spell "Nit"...

[PeachySakura24]

I can't remember quite well, but are there any monsters in the Labyrinth besides PH and the Abstract Daddy? I mean random enemies roaming the halls? I can't remember there being any off the top of my head, except in the prison. I am talking about the part where James draws the map himself. If there aren't any, that could be another reason you would feel uneasy, because you just keep waiting for something to jump out at you.

[Baal]

I think there's just the Lying Figures that wander around aimlessly Peachy.

[The Adversary]

>I mean random enemies roaming the halls?
Several Lying Figures.

[emptimass]

There was also a sense of confinement. Jumping deeper into this world and traversing narrow corridors. A sense that there may be no exit.

[lazarus1983]

There was also a sense of confinement. Jumping deeper into this world and traversing narrow corridors. A sense that there may be no exit.

Hm, I never thought about that before. Looking and thinking back, I can kind of see where you're coming from. The labyrinth was so maddeningly bland, that you could almost picture yourself as James, impossibly underground, wandering mindlessly in a pastel maze forever.

I wonder if the Labyrinth would've been even more effective had there not been any monsters at all?

[Oddish]

Maybe if there were lots of creepy sounds, like something huge and hideous was lurking about. But I expect it would have gotten boring after awhile. Especially if you were lost in the labyrinth.

[PeachySakura24]

Fair enough. My bad. I don't remember there being enemies in that place, but it has been a good 2 years since I have played SH 2.
Another unnerving thing about it is that, unlike the other areas you seem to find yourself locked in(i.e. Brookhaven), you pretty much know that you will get out eventually, and you kind of know where you are going. The Labyrinth is so random, and you will never exit the way you went in. You can't after jumping down all of those holes. The randomness of it all is pretty spooky.

[in_my_memory]

For me, it's the feeling of claustrophobia and the sounds of the monsters which always makes it unsettling. Sometimes I just get through that part as fast as I can, but other times I actually want to traverse the whole labrynth just for the thrill of it

[Sionnan]

This actually has a legitimate psychological basis. According to Freud, when our minds are confronted by something familiar that is in the wrong place or doesn't have the right to be there, we tend to get freaked out by it.

We understand that there is absolutely no way in hell that a place like the Labyrinth has any right to exist. However, it looks exactly like any old house- and any old house does NOT look like the Labyrinth. It doesn't look the way it should, and the familiarity of the house is distorted by its location.

It's called the theory of the Uncanny.

[Oddish]

I think you hit the nail on the head there, Sionnan. The labyrinth doesn't look like a house to me, but more like one of those school hallways that were decorated in an era when people actually thought mustard-yellow was a pretty color. I went to a couple of such schools. Very mundane, and as a result, very creepy.

[Severeth]

I don't like the labryinth at all. Not only do I find it a little boring and tedious, but there's also the fact that it's a pretty scary place, gives off the feeling of total isolation. I hate running into Pyramid Head near that area, too. I get really creeped out, hence why I just run and hope that it'll end soon.

[Dutchman]

It's the combination of darkness, filthynes, decay, creepy creatures (sounds included) and the impossibility that makes the Labyrinth so damn effective... It's terrific...

[Ultima_64]

You know the labyrinth never bothered me. I always saw it as more a relaxed walk through. There were two places that really scared me. First was Brookhaven. Brookhaven made me want to cry. It wasn't too scary, but just something about it was so unsettling and just so upsetting. The place that scares me to no end and still does is the apartments. The apartments scare me to no end. I'm not sure what is it, but I just rush through it. I can't figure it out. Oh well. Just sorry to say the labyrinth doesn't bother me.

[Whoomp]

For me what makes it so unsettling is that you don't know what lies ahead, maybe there will be an exit, maybe a badass monster or maybe something even worse. Also camera make it hard to see what is around the corner and because of the water on the low level you can hear but not see what is coming your way. This makes me think all kind of thought like "I know Pyramid Head will be around that corner ready to get me". The weird thing is that the only place in the labyrinth that I feel safe is in his own den cause there are only one way in and one out.

[Xigz]

This actually has a legitimate psychological basis. According to Freud, when our minds are confronted by something familiar that is in the wrong place or doesn't have the right to be there, we tend to get freaked out by it.

We understand that there is absolutely no way in hell that a place like the Labyrinth has any right to exist. However, it looks exactly like any old house- and any old house does NOT look like the Labyrinth. It doesn't look the way it should, and the familiarity of the house is distorted by its location.

It's called the theory of the Uncanny.

Is this also why Nowhere in SH1 was also so creepy?

One of the reasons as to why the Labyrinth unnerved me out so much was because if it's resemblance to the house in House of Leaves.

[Droo]

I agree with Sionnan 100%. That's why the Labyrinth is creepy, as well as Nowhere and the entirety of The Room. Impossible physical spaces are cognitively unsettling.

The sharp contrast between the normal overall look of the place and the impossibility of its architecture also create a great deal of dsiturbance in our brains. That's also why things like Robbie The Rabbit are unsettling: the pairing of a sweet, innocent mascot with the motif of death and blood.

[Xigz]

Seems like a large portion of Silent Hill gets it's scare factor form Uncanny.

[Droo]

It does. That's what makes it a psychological horror game, rather than the schlocky startle type of horror that drives Resident Evil.