Armless Man

Armless Man
The Armless Man in the Silent Hill film
Overview
Full Name:	Armless Man
Abilities:	Spewing acid
Locations:	Junkyard All Hallows High School
Behind The Scenes
Debut:	Silent Hill film
Also In:	Silent Hill: Revelation

The Armless Man appears in both the first Silent Hill film and the sequel.

It is an incarnation inspired by the Lying Figure of Silent Hill 2, rather than the Straightjacket from Silent Hill: Origins, which was released after.

In Silent Hill: Homecoming, the Smog monster keeps to a similar appearance as well as also having the ability to spew toxic sludge at its opponents.

Appearance

The creature is a distorted, but discernibly human-looking creature, albeit heavily disfigured. Whereas the arms on the Lying Figure were somewhat apparent beneath its warped skin, the Armless Man lacks the appendages completely, hence its name. Like the Lying Figure, it staggers on crooked feet, though the Armless Man appears to be much more stiff. The Lying Figure, on the other hand, was extremely flexible, capable of bending over double. The Armless Man was able to spray an acidic toxin from its chest, which was strong enough to melt through Cybil Bennett's motorcycle helmet and leather jacket.

Silent Hill

The Armless Man is first seen not long after Rose Da Silva and police officer Cybil Bennett first arrive in Silent Hill. Cybil, having lost control of her police bike and crashed into the roadside, is escorting a handcuffed Rose back to Brahms when they encounter a huge drop-off in the road. Forced to turn around, they arrive near an old car-yard, where Cybil's radio and Rose's phone start emitting static noise.

The Armless Man approaches Rose and Cybil.

They then notice a shadowy figure shuffling in their direction. Calling out to it, the figure emerges onto the road and reveals itself to be a monster. Shrieking, it hurls a toxic projectile at them, corroding Cybil's helmet and jacket. Cybil is forced to shoot the creature, which takes several bullets in the chest before falling back, apparently dead. As Cybil looks up towards the car-yard, she manages to make out several more of the same creature heading in their direction, forcing them to flee.

Silent Hill: Revelation

The Armless Man in All Hallows High School.

An Armless Man appears briefly when Heather sees the Otherworld version of the school. It approaches her; Heather retreats backwards in fear. The scene goes back to the real world when Heather bumps into Vincent.

Symbolism

The monster may serve to represent Alessa Gillespie's hospitalization. He is disoriented, and its should-be arms are entirely adhered into its torso. This represents being trapped in oneself, as Alessa was during her many years of hospitalization: her disfigured body a shell for her tortured mind. The Armless Man also spews vile, corrosive fluids, which could be symbolic of Alessa's developing rage and abhorrence for those who put her in such a tortured state, manifested by Dark Alessa. In Revelation, they likely symbolize Heather's surfacing memories of Alessa.

Trivia

• The Armless Man is played by dancer Michael Cota. Actors auditioning for the role were asked to put their hands behind their back and walk in a distorted, exaggerated way, and Cota impressed them well enough to be hired for the role.
• The costume for the Armless Man had a hose in the chest area to spray its acidic substance and a mask and tube running from its mouth and out of the back of the costume so the actor could breathe.
• Staff working on the set gave the Armless Man the nickname of "Trojan Man" after the titular mascot of Trojan Condoms because the monster's appearance resembled a man whose upper body was trapped in a giant condom.
• As seen in the DVD extra about the monster, before the scenes with Rose's husband had to be put into the film, Rose and Cybil were going to try to get to Toluca Lake together before Rose went off by herself and were going to encounter many more monsters on the road, much more like the games.
• Another scene of the Armless Man was still supposed to appear in the final movie, in which Rose and Cybil save Anna from one of the monsters. Due to budget issues, dance coordinator Roberto Campanella was sent home, and no one on the set knew how to direct dancer Michael Cota, who played the Armless Man. The scene became so bad that they were forced to stop and shoot a different scene depicting Rose and Cybil meeting Anna inside the Grand Hotel, where she is throwing rocks at Dahlia Gillespie. A clip of it is still available.[1]

Gallery

Concept

Concept art of the Armless Man.

Roberto helps the Armless Man with choreography.

Rose kisses the Armless Man.

The Armless Man squirms.

Silent Hill (film)

The Armless Man appears.

The Armless Man writhes about in the street.

The Armless Man approaches Cybil and Rose.

The Armless Man spews acid from his chest.

Cybil shoots the Armless Man.

The Armless Man bleeding.

Silent Hill: Revelation

The Armless Man in the school.