Silent Hill 2 monster attack speed?

I was watching a friend play through silent hill 2 recently - they're new to the series, so they were taking it reeeeal slow. Exploring everything, taking a while to remember the combat controls, etc. Accordingly, the monsters in the apartment complex seemed to be vibing out whenever she walked up to them, patiently waiting until she got around to smacking them in the face with her stick

Ofc watching her play made me want to go through it again too, so I picked up a new game myself on the same disk, etc - and can barely so much as get in the same zip code as a monster before they decide to spray their hello-goop all over me.

Is this a known thing? If so, what determines it? I tried checking the wiki and didn't see anything in particular - although I would guess it might have to do with the speed you beat that first monster. She took a minute to figure things out, while I already had the chainsaw handy and quickly made it clear I had places to be.