Silent Hill 2 Inspiration for Fleshlip and Mandarin Enemies Explained

Masahiro Ito took over social media to break down the specific visual inspirations for the Silent Hill 2 enemies known as the Mandarin and Flesh Lip. Ito discussed the creatures in detail and how aspects of their appearance changed in the remake.

The first revelation concerned how the Silent Hill 2 enemies were based on internal lore from the game and real art from the real world. Both Mandarin and Flesh Lip have prominent mouth designs to symbolize James’ memory of Mary’s verbal abuse. Both are also inspired by artist Francis Bacon’s “Second Version of Triptych 1944”.

Masahiro Ito expanded on the thread and showed specific images.

Ito noted that subtle changes were made to Mandarin in the remake, particularly regarding the changes to monsters in the Otherworld that add surgical tape to the creatures’ bodies. Ito also talked about how Flesh Lip and the Mary boss fight and have the same visual meaning.

These aren’t the first members of the development team to delve into the influence and creative decisions surrounding the Silent Hill 2 remake. The Bloober team previously discussed the creation process of James Sunderland, the game’s protagonist.

Silent Hill 2 is now available on PC and PS5. It will remain exclusive to Sony for a year. The original game is playable on PS2, Xbox and PC, as well as in Silent Hill HD Collection on the PS3 and Xbox 360.