Hauntings Silent Hill 4 focusses heavily on returning to your apartment several times for certain reasons, and after halfway through the game this comes more and more difficult because of the presence of Ghost-like occurences called hauntings. The moment the fan in the living room falls from the roof and shatters signifies the beginning of hauntings, since the air is heavy and is hard to breathe in, much like Joseph Schreiber's Room 302. The way hauntings work, they haunt a certain section of your apartment, wherever the haunting is located. If you ever move into the small radius of a haunting, the screen will flash red, much like the effect of a nearby Ghost, and you can lose health if you stay in the radius long enough. If you leave these hauntings alone, they will eventually disappear, although it takes a while, and this wil count against you in terms of which ending you qualify for. To complete the haunting requirement for one of the two good endings, you must purify at least 80% of these hauntings, and so not more than 20% can left alone to disappear, or not touched but still active late in the game. To purify these hauntings, you must use Saint Medallions and Holy Candles found throughout the game. Holy Candles work best, and are more effective for exorcising certain hauntings, although Saint Medallions work better for some, but very few. To exorcise a haunting with a Holy Candle, you must move up to the area of the haunting and place the candle on the floor or on a table or other object beside the haunting, and you will see the candle diminish as the haunting does so as well. You can't just place the candles anywhere, and it must be in a specific place by the haunting. Look for an object to put the candle on if you can, but a lot of the time the floor will be the spot to put it. Sometimes when there are multiple hauntings close to each other in one area, you can purify them all with only one Holy Candle. Place the candle in the middle of the hauntings and watch them all dissipate. Saint Medallions don't work very well for exorcising hauntings, as they break easily and usually only last one haunting – Holy Candles last one haunting and can't be picked upp, but they are much more abundant than Saint Medallions and are easier to use. To clear a haunting with a Saint Medallion, equip one from the icon menu and move into the radius of the haunting. You won't take damage since the medallion represses the Ghost-like damage effect. The haunting should clear before the medallion breaks, unless it's a used medallion. When the medallion is working, you'll notice it pumping in the icon menu on the screen, and it will stop when the haunting clears. Since Saint Medallions are rare and not as easy to use as Holy Candles, try to leave the purifying business to Holy Candles, and stick to using Saint Medallions to repress Ghosts in the different worlds Henry travels. There are a total of fourteen different hauntings that can occur in your apartment, however, it is extremely unlikely to see them all in one game. Some occur very often, and others occur very rarely. Once a certain haunting has been cleared, it doesn't necessarily mean it's gone for good. Some haunting can and will occur more than once, but most will only appear once and some not at all sometimes. To detect hauntings in your apartment, turn on the radio in the bookshelf near the living room windows. If you hear static, there are hauntings in your apartment. If you don't, your apartment is clear. The radio only works this way passed halfway through the game when the hauntings start to appear, and in the first part of the game it may produce static for no reason, with no hauntings or anything present. The following is each haunting with a description of it, where it is, and what to do to purify it:

Rattling Windows Description: Your living room windows will rattle like crazy, trying to open and close rapidly. This is one of the early hauntings you'll see, and it occurs quite often. Although your bedroom has similar windows, this haunting is exclusive to the living room windows. Place a Holy Candle on the small table by the right window to purify it.

Cushion Chair Description: The single-person couch in your living room will silently become possessed. This haunting is not visible at first, and you'll only notice that a haunting is there by stepping into its radius. Place a Holy Candle on the small table by its side to see the chair drenched in blood as the haunting disappears.

Television Set Description: The television set in the living room will blast static, also displaying snow with faces visible at certain moments. This occurs right beside your item chest, so it should be cleared right away for convenience. Place a Holy Candle on the floor in front of the TV to dispose of the haunting.

Wall Clock Description: You living room wall clock will tick like crazy and the clock hands will constantly spin. Place a Holy Candle on the chair sitting under the clock to exorcise it.

Wall Cracks Description: Your living room and bedroom walls will grow strange large cracks, green and red in colour, but the cracks are not normal – they grow and move around. This is probably the most common haunting, which tends to reappear a lot, and occurs in both your living room and bedroom. Equip a Saint Medallion and stand in its radius to clear it.

Kitchen Faucet* Description: The kitchen faucet will poor blood continuously into the sink. Put a Holy Candle on the floor in front of the sink to get rid of it.

Refrigerator Description: At first you'll hear meowing all around your apartment, and you'll find a dead cat in your fridge, drenched in blood. Toss a Holy Candle on the floor in front of the fridge to purify the haunting.

Wandering Slippers* Description: The slippers normally located by your front door are found in the middle of the kitchen floor, with trailing bloody footsteps. Put a Holy Candle on the ground by them to clear it.

Front Door Visitor* Description: Check the peephole of your front door to take a look at Victim 21/21, of whom you should know. The haunting will affect you whenever standing near the door. Drop a Holy Candle on the floor by the front door to get rid of it.

Telephone Caller Description: Somebody won't stop calling you from your bedroom phone, and it will affect you every time you get out of bed, making it ideal to get rid of right away. Fortunately, this haunting is very rare. Place a Holy Candle on the ground by the phone to clear it.

Closet Visitor* Description: The shadow of a small boy will appear in your bedroom closet. This also makes it difficult when waking up each time, so purify it right away. Put a Holy Candle on the floor in front of the closet to make it disappear.

Walter's Portrait* Description: The photo of the church in Silent Hill that Henry took will change into a portrait of Walter, but this is a rare haunting. Put a Holy Candle on the dresser it's on to make it go away.

Emerging Ghosts Description: Ghosts will emerge from the walls in every room of your apartment, although this is somewhat rare and there will never be Ghosts in all rooms at once. It is only one Ghost trying to emerge from a wall when the haunting occurs, which can do so in all four rooms, but it never makes it all the way through. The Ghost emerges from the wall above the far couch by the painting in the living room, above the bed by the painting in the bedroom, above of toilet in the washroom, and by the portal in the laundry room. The washroom and especially the laundry room are very small rooms and it's very easy to take damage when trying to purify the haunting in these rooms, so try to do it in the living room or bedroom. Drop a Holy Candle on the floor in front of the Ghost wherever the haunting is happening to clear it.

Item Chest Wall* Description: Small, ugly doll figures will appear extruding from the wall above your item chest and make crying sounds over and over, making it difficult to use your item chest. This haunting only occurs if you take the Shabby Doll offered to you by Walter in the Apartment World and you place it in your item chest. Whenever the haunting is happening, the Shabby Doll won't be in your chest, so you can't take it out without disposing the haunting first. If you have the doll in your chest, this haunting will absolutely occur, and if you continuously leave it in the chest it will continue to appear. Don't take it in the first place and you'll be fine. To clear the haunting, place a Holy Candle on the ground in front of the chest.

* not in PC version