Summary
- Silent Hill f will feature Japanese ghost, demon, and creature references, focusing on beauty in terror.
- Monsters in the game reflect protagonist Hinako's fears and are inspired by Japanese folklore and mythology.
- Creatures in Silent Hill f may include female spirits, spider yokai, vengeful demons, shinigami, and flower yokai.
Silent Hill f’s cadre of monsters is shaping up to be a feast of Japanese ghost, demon, and creature references and deep cuts. Producer Motoi Okamoto and various staff members said in the SILENT HILL transmission last March that the game would return to the series’ Japanese horror roots, with a theme of beauty in terror. To this end, they hired monster creature and character designer Kera, who took cues from Silent Hill 2 and her brand of legendary monsters.
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If kera’s art seems familiar, she’s done amazing creature design work for Last Chronicle, Wizards of the Coast, Servant of Thrones, Romancing Saga, and Spirit Hunter: NG. She also contributed pieces to the mega art book, Legend of Monsters, which proves her incredible ability to draw from various mythologies, urban legends, traditions, and lore. Here are some Japanese ghosts, demons, and other creatures that may make an appearance in Silent Hill f, and possible yokai inspirations for the game’s known monsters so far.
10 Hanya, Hime Uo, And Other Horrific Female Spirits
Hinako’s Worst Fears Codified In Haunting Female-Shaped Creatures
Silent Hill’s monsters, especially its bosses, are emblematic of its protagonist’s fears, psyche, hidden desires and thoughts, and repressed fears. It’s no surprise that the first few monsters revealed for Silent Hill f are female-coded, to protagonist Hinako Shimizu’s disdain.
It won’t be surprising if more monsters are revealed to be female-looking ghosts, spirits, or demons, or spring from Japanese traditions and rituals involving women and coming-of-age tales. The Hangoko, or spirit calling incense, for example, calls spirits of the dead back fleetingly. In most stories, it’s used to call back female ghosts. Other candidates include:
- Ameonna, or rain woman; haggish women who appear when it's raining to kidnap children.
- Hannya wearing noh masks (kijo), or women morphed into furious demonesses by jealousy.
- Fugurama Yohi, spirits born from emotion attached to love letters left in book carts.
- Datsueba, the female oni pair of Keneo, the oni who await spirits at the banks of the Sanzu River, the river that the dead must cross for judgment.
9 Jorogumo And Tsuchigumo, Spider-Like Yokai
It’s Not A Japanese Countryside Horror Game Without Spiders
Gumo is the Japanese word for spider, and jorogumo and tsuchigumo are both spider yokai. They live in forests and caves, and feed on humans, but Jorogumo prefers virile men and doesn’t mind cities, while Tsuchigumo eats all humans and sticks to rural areas.
Jorogumo fits with the female-centric monsters of Silent Hill f has shown so far, matching the Silent Hill narrative of the town haunting its targets with creatures from their psyche or repressed thoughts. However, Tsuchigumo are masters of illusions. It wouldn’t be amiss to see a horrifying mix of the two.
8 Oi-Omoi May Come From Doll Funerals
Represents Japan’s Doll Lore And Hinako’s Fears
Oi-omoi have distinctly Western-style/Furansu/Sakura doll limbs and clothes, and a head/hair shape similar to the ichimatsu ningyo, a traditional Japanese doll seen in the first Silent Hill f teaser. This doll monster may represent a few things about Hinako’s fears.
On the website, Konami warns: “This game is set in Japan in the 1960s and contains depictions based on the customs and culture of that time.” Hinako is also stated to be under pressure from her surroundings to make a decision about her future. This could be pressure to marry her childhood friend, Shu, or a similar expectation to grow up and settle down.
It is worth noting that dolls are a prominent feature in Japanese folklore. Hanayomeningyo (bride dolls) are dedicated to children and youth who died before marriage. Okiku-chan is a doll haunted by its deceased child owner. Dolls themselves have funerals, ningyo kuyo, if they’re unwanted.
7 Vengeful Women And Demons May Have Inspired Kashimashi
Tortured Women Take The Place Of Nurses In 60s Japan
Because of their jerky, unnatural movements, Kashimashi may act as Silent Hill f’s version of nurses. In kun’yomi, or the Japanese reading of Chinese characters (kanji), “kashimashi (姦しい/かしましい)” means noisy or boisterous. Another kun reading is adultery/illicit sex (姦する/かんする/kansuru). However, when read in on’yomi or historical Chinese readings, it can be interpreted as wicked (奸/カン/kan) or rape (強姦/ゴウカン/goukan).
Kashimashi also appear as a sown-together woman, or one stabbed repeatedly with an implement like the knife they carry. Their doll-like features also have melted or warped parts, and their feet end in animal-like paws.
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Kashimashi may stem from yurei, or vengeful spirits born from violent deaths who return to haunt the living until their unfinished business is resolved. However, their violent nature more accurately describes the onryo, malevolent spirits that relentlessly pursue violent revenge.
6 Ayakakashi As Vengeful Spirits Hiding Horrors Behind Noh Masks
A Mask Can Hide The Deceased’s Death Face To Preserve Beauty
One of Silent Hill f’s guiding design principles is beauty so perfect that it crosses through the uncanny and into terror. The Noh masks of the Ayakakashi can disguise those imperfections and, as is their role in Noh theater, give these mutilated girls a new role. Covering the imperfections or possible corruption of these schoolgirls also plays into some of Silent Hill f’s content warnings: “gender discrimination, child abuse, bullying.”
The name Ayakakashi, the creature’s default pose, and their presence in foggy rice fields also evoke scarecrows or kakashi. Forestry and agriculture play a huge part in Gero, a city formed by a village and three towns, including Kanayama, the real-world inspiration for Silent Hill f’s Ebisugaoka. Several Shinto shrines in Gero are dedicated to deities who have dominion over agriculture.
Moreover, they partly share a name with the Ayakashi (although all monster names so far are rendered in katakana). The Ayakashi are yokai that appear on the surface of the water. Traditional depictions show tentacles, keeping in line with other monsters like the ara-abare.
5 Shinigami Luring People To Their Deaths, Under Izanami’s Watch
Malevolence That Invites Mortals To Their Peril
Ignoring Bleach and Death Note, Shinigami in Japanese mythology are evil yokai that fill humans with the desire to die. Shinigami are said to linger in places that have seen death, like sites where murder and/or suicide took place.
Historical depictions of Shinigami show them with horrific mutations and their authority in the afterlife, though designs vary by time period. As an example, some view Izanami, Shinto goddess of creation and death, as the first Shinigami. Interestingly, Izanami raised the world’s landmass with Izanagi using the spear Ame-no-Nuboko, commonly depicted as a naginata, or Hinako’s preferred weapon.
Symbolically, Shinigami fit with Silent Hill f, representing the thematic contrast of terror as beauty. Functionally, Shinigami may act as obstacles to Hinako as a non-traditional enemy unit. Players may have to struggle to get Hinako through their sections, as if they’re grappling enemies from Fatal Frame.
4 Octopus Yokai And Possible Illness Behind The Ara-abare
Grotesquery Disguised And Covered In Blooms
Ara-abare is immediately striking for its hybrid appearance, combining octopus tentacles with flowers associated with death and cancerous growths. If a character has a terminal illness, it would explain Konami’s warning of the game having “drug-induced hallucinations.” On the other hand, its aqueous appearance evokes images of octopus yokai.
Akkorokamui are adapted from the Ainu god, Atkor Kamuy, who swallows whole ships in Hokkaido's Uchiura Bay. The giant spider Yaushikep transformed into Akkorokamui after the god of the sea, Repun Kamuy, pulled it into the bay as punishment for attacking villagers. The carnivorous Yazaimondako, meanwhile, is named after the man who it killed for taking seven of its legs.
3 Silent Hill f’s Cult God May Draw From Susanoo, Amaterasu, And Kushinandahime
The Blooming Of Spider Lilies In Autumn Evokes Sun, Plague, And Harvest
Red spider lilies, or higanbana, feature prominently in Silent Hill f, with their tendrils, along with cancerous growths, serving as the game’s equivalent of rust as visual shorthand to depict neglect and decay. Higanbana bloom around the autumnal equinox, which heralds ohigan/higan-e, the Buddhist holiday honoring the dead.
The deeply Buddhist Emperor Shomu in the 8th century held the first ohigan, aiming to merge church and state, similar to the later Meiji era integration of Shinto and indigenous beliefs. The merging of these beliefs lead to an interesting twisting of what gods symbolize.
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Ohigan itself takes place during the autumnal equinox, a period with plenty of harvest and shrine festivals. The sun goddess Amaterasu and her brother, the storm god Susanoo, are both associated with agriculture.
Susanoo was conflated with foreign Buddhist gods—specifically, Gozu Tenno—in the Kamakura period. Gozu Tenno had origins as a deity of pestilence, but was eventually worshipped by the Gion cult as a protector.
Susannoo’s chief wife, Kushinadahime, is also worshipped by the Gion cult, although she is also a Shinto goddess in her own right. She was destined to be sacrificed to the many-headed serpent Yamata-no-Orochi, but was saved by Susanoo. Kushinadahime is considered the goddess of rice, marriage, and love, among others.
2 Priest Yokai Are Possibly The Corrupted Form Of Hinako's Friend
Silent Hill f’s First Revealed Boss May Be A Character’s Worst Fate
Igarashi Sakuko is a friend of Hinako and Shu who helps with the ritual duties at her family’s local Shinto shrine, likely as a miko or shrine maiden. Because of this, and the low-hanging pigtails on the first boss shown in Silent Hill f’s first trailer, fans are speculating that she is the unfortunate jawless priest.
Shinto priests, or kannushi, have fewer recorded myths than Buddhist monks. However, Shinto priests preside over exorcisms and ritual purifications to purge kegare, or defilement/uncleanness related to death, childbirth, disease, rape, and menstruation.
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The female-like priest missing her jaw may also be based on kuchisake-onna. This onryo asks victims if it’s beautiful, and will slit their face ear to ear if they say yes twice, or kill them with her scissors if they say no.
Interestingly, the halo around the jawless priest’s head is reminiscent of typical depictions of Amaterasu, like the woodblock print by Kunisada. Although Amaterasu is chief among the pantheon of Shinto, a religion older than Buddhism, she—like her brother—was associated with a foreign deity, in this case, the Buddha Mahavairocana.
1 The Flower Woman In Silent HIll f's Trailer May Be A Flower Yokai
Furutsubaki No Rei, Hanayomeningyo, And Tsunokakushi-Related
In the first Silent Hill f teaser trailer, a feminine figure crosses a torii gate in a lake as red spider lilies bloom on corpses. Flowers, fungi-like tendrils, and flesh tentacles grow on her and, as they reach her weeping face, it falls off, revealing a fungi-like, hollow cross-section.
Torii are symbolic gateways in Shinto that mark holy places and entrances to the spiritual world. On the other hand, spirits cross the Sanzu River in Japanese Buddhist tradition to reach the afterlife. Given the strong religious or cult themes of the Silent Hill series, this may be a process like the Ritual of the Holy Assumption, or other rituals to summon a corrupted deity.
The flowers surrounding the woman also have significance, and point to the kind of yokai it may reference. Red spider lilies, the flower most commonly associated with death in Japanese folklore, bloom in the river of the dead. Flowers associated with either fleeting beauty and life, or death, also crawl up the woman: cherry blossoms, chrysanthemum, dahlia, and camellia.
Furutsubaki no rei are yokai born from long-living tsubaki or camellia trees. These yokai appear as beautiful women who can either trick people or warn them of impending disaster. Camellia are associated with death; thus, it’s considered taboo to send camellia flowers to the convalescent.
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There’s a myth in particular from Ogaki, Gifu—the same prefecture as Silent Hill f’s town—where locals planted a tsubaki on the grave of a man who died after he robbed an ancient burial mound. A ghostly woman appeared at the site by night once the tsubaki had grown old.
The flower woman’s head was also coiffed by flowers in a style reminiscent of tsunokakushi, or the headdress worn by brides in Shinto weddings. This can tie into hanayomeningyo and the tradition of ghost marriages, and possible anxieties of women at the time.
Silent Hill f
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OpenCritic Reviews
- Top Critic Avg: 86 /100 Critics Rec: 87%
- Released
- September 25, 2025
- ESRB
- Mature 17+ / Blood and Gore, Intense Violence, Partial Nudity
- Developer(s)
- Neobards Entertainment
- Publisher(s)
- Konami
WHERE TO PLAY
- Engine
- Unreal Engine 5
- Genre(s)
- Survival Horror, Action
