User blog:Sclera1/List of Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3 characters

The survival horror video games Silent Hill, Silent Hill 2, and Silent Hill 3, the first, second, and third installments, respectively, in the Silent Hill video game series, feature a cast of characters. The games' player characters are "everymen", in contrast to action-oriented survival horror video game series featuring combat-trained player characters, such as Resident Evil. The games are set in a multiverse consisting of reality and an alternate dimension whose form is based on the series' eponymous fictional American town. Silent Hill and Silent Hill 3 follow a common story arc revolving around the efforts of a cult to revive a deity it worships. Silent Hill 2 follows James Sunderland as he searches for his deceased wife in the multiverse while under the delusion that he received a letter from her stating that she is expecting him in Silent Hill, ultimately realizing that he killed her.

The design of the games' characters shifted varying conceptual phases prior to the settle on their depictions in the installments they first appeared in. For the creation of Silent Hill 3 characters' physical appearances, the game's development team used actors as models.

Design
The characters of Silent Hill and Silent Hill 2 were designed by character designer Takayoshi Sato. Team Silent, a production group within Konami Computer Entertainment Tokyo, oversaw the process. Team Silent designed the character Maria to have physical flaws and did not base her on any particular model. The developers toned down her character design after being unhappy with it and the technical problems her low neckline caused. To better capture her facial movements, Sato Takayoshi would practice her expressions in front of a mirror at work and drew her facial expressions instead of using motion capture. Maria and Mary share the same facial structure, polygon count and voice actor; only the muscle structure differs. Takayoshi designed Angela to appear older than her intended age of sixteen or seventeen and the developers chosen an older voice actor for her. Fifty to sixty Japanese and American voice actors auditioned for Silent Hill 2, with five ultimately chosen: Guy Cihi, Donna Burke, David Schaufele, Jakey Breckenridge, and Monica Horgan. Motion capture of the voice actors was used to model their characters' action.

The design of Silent Hill 3's characters passed through different stages. The game's development team initially saw Heather as "innocent", something that was reflected by original sketches of her, but they found this motif to be too "nice", so the game's supervising illustrator, character designer Shingo Yuri, seeked another source of inspiration, modelling Heather after French actresses Sophie Marceau and Charlotte Gainsbourg, with Vanessa Paradis having served as a model for concept art of the protagonist. The character's leg-revealing outfit and slightly curly hair had been the subject of debate among Yuri and two young female members of the development team: while Yuri firstly envisioned her wearing jeans, these members dissented on the addition of this element because they believed that Heather should discreetly be instilled sex appeal—a property which they insisted that it should be possessed by her—by having her legs divulged as they considered that exposure of them would bestow femininity and prettiness on Heather; he was ultimately convinced by the females that their own proposal should be followed. Trusting these members' sense of fashion, Yuri also accepted their judgement on the character's hairstyle, which was that curly hair would be more suitable for a young girl. Heather's hair was "more natural" and "less elaborate" in earlier design stages, according to him. The character's name was taken from Heather Morris, who provided Heather's voice and motion capture. The name "Helen" was firstly planned to be used for the character, but was later discarded as it was considered to be old-fashioned. The design of priestess Claudia Wolf was the most difficult of the game's character designs for the development team. Her creation was based on the concept of making her look strange but conventional and evoke to the player a feeling of being endangered. Desiring to show her evil side, the development team initially imagined her with a shaved head and tattoos all over her body, though this idea was finally rejected as the team deemed that giving her this physical appearance was a very obvious way of achieving this goal. Other dropped ideas included portraying her as a "holy woman" as well as dressed in a long robe that trailed along the ground. After seeing a fashion magazine cover depicting a human face without eyebrows and believing that the pictured person's feelings were unrecognizable due to this trait, the team opted to integrate lack of eyebrows in Claudia to impart her the same perceived property of having feelings unable to be defined by other people, also esteeming this feature to trigger a subtle and solicitous emotion to the player. Hollywood actress Julianne Moore had been used as a model for concept art of the character. Claudia's name originates from Italian actress Claudia Cardinale, having substituted the original "Christie" because the latter was viewed as too "cute". Silent Hill 3's male characters were delineated by the development team as possessing flaws and complexes in order to appear as realistic humans, an example being character Douglas Cartland's combing of his hair to his head's back part to conceal his baldness. In early design stages, the image of a quotidian middle-aged detective was attributed to him. A priest from the film The Fifth Element was the basis for the generation of Douglas; actors such as Ian Holm and Giancarlo Giannini were models for some of the character's concept art. The name of Douglas was taken from actor Douglas Fairbanks, Jr. and according to one of the game's creators, this name was selected because it "just seemed to suit him", with the character not being connected to his namesake. The foundation of character Vincent's design was the idea of a character of a hypocritic nature which is disguised by their "nice" clothes and neat appearance, as the game's animator wished the hierocracy of Vincent to be manifested through the way he acts. An incorporation of hints aiming at unveiling Vincent's nature occured, though, according to Yuri: the character constantly laughs "like he is hiding something nasty" and during his speech, "one of his eyes is not looking at the observer." Yuri underlined that the latter hint is subtle.

Harry Mason
Harold "Harry" Mason (voiced by Michael G) is the main protagonist and player character of the first installment in the Silent Hill series, Silent Hill. A thirty-two-year-old writer whose wife died of an illness four years prior to the game's events, he has not accepted her death. Harry lives with his adopted daughter Cheryl Mason, with whom he drives to Silent Hill, due to her wish for a vacation there,  but they have a car accident, which leaves him unconscious. He regains consciousness and realizes that Cheryl has disappeared, so he navigates it to locate her, periodically slipping in and out of the alternate dimension and eventually stumbling upon a ritual, in which Cheryl holds a prominent role, conducted by a local religious cult called "The Order" in an attempt to revive a deity that it worships; the deity is ultimately revived and Harry vanquishes it. In the game's canonical ending (named "Good" ending), he is given a baby girl, who is the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie and Cheryl.

Harry also appears in the series' third installment, Silent Hill 3, as the adoptive father of the game's main protagonist and player character, Heather, who is the girl given to him. Following the events of Silent Hill, Harry moved with Heather to the American city of Portland, and five years after the game's events, he killed a member of The Order who tracked Heather down and went into hiding. He is eventually assassinated by command of The Order priestess Claudia Wolf.

Harry is also the main protagonist and player character of the ninth installment in the series, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which is a "reimagining" of Silent Hill. After a car crash in Silent Hill, he realizes that Cheryl is missing. As he begins a quest to find his lost daughter, at the end, the player learns that actually the real Harry Mason died in a car crash eighteen years ago, leaving behind his traumatized daughter. The Harry Mason controlled by the player is a fantasy created by Cheryl.

His character served as the model on which Rose DaSilva (Radha Mitchell), the protagonist of the first film adaptation who also appears in the second film, was based on.

Cheryl Mason
Cheryl Mason (voiced by Sandra Wane) is Harry's seven-year-old adopted daughter and an elementary school student. She was adopted by Harry and his wife after the couple found her abandoned while they were vacationing in Silent Hill. Following her disappearance after the car accident, she is eventually revealed to be one half of Alessa Gillespie's bisected soul. Cheryl rejoins with Alessa's half soul after the car accident.

Cheryl also appears in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. She is the reason behind Harry's quest through the town of Silent Hill. As the game reaches its end, however, the player uncovers the truth: Harry Mason died eighteen years prior to the events of the game, and a now twenty-five-year-old Cheryl Mason takes a psychological session to move on from her father's death, an event she has been denying for eighteen years.

Her character served as the model on which Sharon DaSilva (Jodelle Ferland), a character in the first film adaptation, was based on.

Cybil Bennett
Cybil Bennett (voiced by Susan Papa) is a twenty-eight-year-old police officer from the nearby town of Brahms and an ally of Harry, repeatedly supporting him in his search for Cheryl when they periodically meet in both alternate dimensions. She comes to Silent Hill to check on it and investigate, due to a sudden loss of communications. She first meets Harry in one of the alternate dimensions and, realizing the abnormality of the situation, provides him with a handgun and heads back to Brahms to call in reinforcements, but is unable to exit that dimension. Cybil is later attacked by an unknown assailant while at the local amusement park and, when Harry meets her there, afterwards, she is possessed by a force and attacks him. The player can either rescue her through exorcism by use of a dispelling substance on her or kill her, with both actions altering the game ending achieved. In the game's "Good+" ending, Cybil escapes with Harry and according to series writer Hiroyuki Owaku, "what happens to her afterwards is left to players' imaginations." Cybil also appears in the series' first film adaptation (portrayed by Laurie Holden).

Cybil also appears in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. She is a police officer from Silent Hill who helps Harry in the quest of finding his daughter. Her personality and physical appearance varies according to the player.

Dahlia Gillespie
Dahlia Gillespie (voiced by Liz Mamorsky) is the forty-six-year-old owner of an antique shop in the suburb of Silent Hill and a priestess of The Order, serving as the game's primary antagonist. She looks much older than her actual age and is rumoured to have a secret side business in fortune-telling and magic spells that is related to the occult, to which she is devoted. Dahlia is Alessa's mother and the mastermind behind the plan of the deity's revival, regarding the deity as an object to be exploited. Through its revival, she intends to negate the existing concepts, by destroying the present world, and obtain power. She talks and behaves enigmatically and exploits Harry via his quest to find Cheryl, tricking him into helping her succeed with the plan. In the "Good" ending, which is the canonical ending of the game, and in the "Good +" ending, Dahlia is electrocuted by the deity itself, while in the "Bad +" and "Bad" endings, she is electrocuted by Cheryl/Alessa, after a possession of her by the deity.

Dahlia appears in the series' first film adaptation (portrayed by Deborah Kara Unger ) and will appear in the series' second film adaptation, Silent Hill: Revelation 3D (portrayed again by Unger ). Dahlia is portrayed as a good mother to her daughter unlike her video game counterpart, and Alessa's burning is orchestrated by her sister Christabella, the leader of film's Cult. Dahlia lives wthin Silent Hill in self-exile, and becomes the only survivor of the Cult after Alessa exacts her bloody revenge upon the church's members. Deborah Kara Unger described her role as "more complex" than she imagined.

Dahlia also appears in the prequel video game Silent Hill: Origins.

Another appearance of Dahlia is in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, where she is reimagined, bearing the surname "Mason" instead of "Gillespie". Voiced by Laura Bailey, she is the wife of Harry Mason and mother of Cheryl. Her real counterpart is only seen through echo photos and messages, and finally at the end of the game. The player, however, interacts with two manifestations of Dahlia through the game: a young Dahlia, a woman who apparently Harry has been cheating on his wife with, and an older Dahlia, who seems to be Cheryl's mother and Harry's wife. Her personality and physical appearance varies according to the player.

Michael Kaufmann
Michael Kaufmann (voiced by Jarion Monroe) is a fifty-year-old physician and the director of medical staff at Silent Hill's Alchemilla Hospital. He secretly allied with Dahlia Gillespie, but he turns on her and attempts to prevent her plans. When Harry Mason first finds Kaufmann, he is in a state of paranoid shock, sitting in an examination room with a gun in his hands. He stares down at an Air Screamer he has just shot lying in a puddle of blood at his feet. Seeing his vial of Aglaophotis has been shattered by Dahlia, he immediately sets out for the other sample. Depending on the player's actions, Kaufmann is either overwhelmed by a Mumbler inside Annie's Bar, or rescued by Harry. If saved, Kaufmann is thankful, but his business presses him onward. If Harry finds the motorcycle stash first, Kaufmann reappears and angrily snatches it away. He is last seen in the good endings, where he non-fatally shoots Dahlia and throws the Aglaophotis at the Incubator, causing it to expel the Incubus and knocks Kaufmann unconscious. After the Incubus's defeat, he regains conscious and is killed by Lisa Garland, sending him into the pit.

Kaufmann also appears in Silent Hill: Origins. He is the director of Alchemilla Hospital and aids Dahlia in her plan..

Another appearance of Kaufmann is in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, where he is reimagined, bearing the name "Dr. K". He is the therapist who tries to help Cheryl overcome her father's death.

Lisa Garland
Lisa Garland (voiced by Thessaly Lerner) is a twenty-three-year-old nurse who worked at Alchemilla and another ally of Harry, repeatedly helping him. She nursed Alessa while the latter was hospitalized in Alchemilla, due to Alessa's life-threatening burns from the "accident" Dahlia staged. Harry encounters Lisa multiple times in the "Otherworld" hospital, uncertain of what exactly is going on and unable to remember what has happened to the town. Harry offers to protect her if she will accompany him, but she refuses, believing that she is "not supposed to leave" the room. Eventually realizing that she is actually dead, she begs Harry to save her, but he flees the room and bars her exit from behind a closed door. She is last seen in the good endings, attacking Kaufmann and preventing him from leaving Otherworld while it caves in on itself. Lisa also appears as a trainee nurse in Origins, and is fondly remembered by Heather in Silent Hill 3.

Lisa also appears in Silent Hill: Origins, where she is still a trainee and desires to act in the theatre.

Another appearance of Lisa is in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, where she is reimagined. She is a nurse at Alchemilla Hospital. Harry meets her after she is involved in a car crash, and then follows her to her home. She calls Harry back to her apartment later, and is either dying or already dead by the time he arrives. Her personality varies according to the player.

Alessa Gillespie
Alessa Gillespie (voiced by Sandra Wane) is Dahlia's fourteen-year-old daughter, who has possessed supernatural powers ever since she was born. Her classmates at elementary school called her a witch, teased her, scribbled on her desk, and excluded her, because of her possession of these abilities. Seven years prior to the game's events, Dahlia conducted a ritual that impregnated Alessa with the deity through immolation, in order for her to give birth to it; Alessa, having received extensive life-threatening burns from the ritual, survived because her status as the god's "vessel" rendered her immortal. Due to her resistance to the ritual, her soul was bisected, putting the deity inside her in a dormant state, and, thus, preventing the birth. One of the soul's halves went on to leave in baby Cheryl. After the ritual, Alessa was declared to have been found dead at the Gillespie house and was secretly and forcibly hospitalized in Alchemilla, confined in its basement. She was made to continue living through an incantation. Alessa developed an obsession to cease to exist, which is a sentiment rooted in benevolence, because, that way, she would escape from the pain in which she was eternally made to live. Harry locates Dahlia along with Cheryl/Alessa and Alessa's apparition, shortly before the game's end. The apparition disappears and a new life form is created as a result of Cheryl's rejoin with the other half of the soul. This being is named "Incubator" and is Cheryl/Alessa, having the physical appearance of a non-charred Alessa. In the game's canonical, "Good" ending, and in the "Good +" ending, Incubator manifests a baby girl that is the reincarnation of Alessa and Cheryl, gives it to Harry, creates a portal for both of them to escape and is ultimately swept up by fire, while in the "Bad" and "Bad +" endings, which do not see her manifest a baby, she is killed by Harry, after thanking him. She also appears in Silent Hill: Origins, but is the only character of the first installment in the series who does not appear in Shattered Memories.

Alessa also appears in the series' first film adaptation (portrayed by Jodelle Ferland and Lorry Ayers). In the film, Alessa's backstory is similar to that of the video games. She is bullied in school, and is implied to be raped by the school janitor (who later appears as a monster). Her aunt Christabella burns her as part of a Cult ceremony, but she survives and is put in hospital. Alessa's anger causes her to personify her darkness as "Dark Alessa", also played by Jodelle Ferland. Dark Alessa transforms the town into its reality shifting self but is unable to get revenge upon the Cult due to be unable to enter their church thanks to their blind faith. Alessa than split her goodness away into Sharon Da Silva, again played by Jodelle, who was put up for adoption, later adopted by Rose and Christopher Da Silva. Sharon experiences nightmares of the town and eventually returns there with Rose, ultimately becoming one with Dark Alessa to create a new incarnation of Alessa. Originally, Christophe Gans, the film's director, considered having three different girls to play Alessa's three selves but upon meeting Jodelle he chose her to play all three roles.

James Sunderland
Portrayed by Guy Cihi in the original version and by Troy Baker in the game's 2011 remake, James Sunderland is the main protagonist and primary player character of Silent Hill 2. After receiving a letter from his deceased wife Mary, James comes to the misty town of Silent Hill to find her. James knew Mary's illness would eventually kill her, and often read medical textbooks, searching for something to help her. The knowledge of her terminal illness caused her to become angry and hurt her loved ones, particularly James, and it pained him to visit her in the hospital. She had been suffering for three years, and died the week preceding the game's events.

In his search, he eventually meets Maria, who strongly resembles her except for more provocative clothes and behavior, and allows her to accompany him. Over the course of the game, he repeatedly witnesses her death at the hands of the monster Pyramid Head, while the letter from Mary gradually fades, suggesting that he only imagined it. Near the conclusion of the game, he watches a videotape that shows him smothering his wife, and realizes that he killed Mary. Returning to see Maria killed again by two Pyramid Heads, he concludes that he needed the monster to punish him for Mary's murder. The Pyramid Heads commit suicide after pursuing him for a while, and James meets either Mary or Maria on the hotel rooftop, depending on which of the six possible endings the player has triggered based on his or her actions throughout the game; all endings are presented as equally valid. Maria or Mary transforms into a monster, and James kills her. In "Leave", James has one last meeting with Mary, reads her full letter and leaves the town with Laura, while "In Water" sees James commit suicide by driving his car into the lake; in "Rebirth", James plans to revive Mary using occult objects collected throughout the game. In "Maria", after Mary's defeat, James dismisses her as a hallucination and then leaves the town with the inexplicably resurrected Maria, who starts coughing. The other two are "joke" endings available on replay games: in "Dog", James discovers that, beyond a normally locked door, a Shiba Inu has apparently been controlling all the events of the game from a vision mixer, and the second is a continuation of the UFO ending of the first game, in which James is abducted by aliens with the help of the first game's protagonist, Harry Mason.

Subsequent installments in the series have made references to James. If the player has saved data from Silent Hill 2, Silent Hill 3's protagonist can investigate a clogged toilet in the alternate dimension of the mall, and the player can prompt her to remove the blockage—much like the optional decision in Silent Hill 2. Unlike James, she will ultimately refuse, asking "Who would even think of doing something so disgusting?" The fourth installment reveals that he and Mary disappeared when they went to Silent Hill, and introduces his father, Frank Sunderland, as the superintendent of the South Ashfield Heights Apartments building in the fictional town of Ashfield. Additionally James makes cameo appearances in the joke endings of the third and seventh installments.

Maria
Maria is a sexualized manifestation of Mary based on an exotic dancer. She was created in James' mind subsequent to his duress after killing his wife. She first appears in "Born from a Wish", a sub-scenario prior to the events in the main game which appeared in the expanded versions of Silent Hill 2. In it, Maria awakens in Heaven's Night club, wondering if she should continue to live and fight, or to let herself be killed by the monsters, and decides to search for someone alive. Her search takes her to a mansion, where she hears the voice of Ernest Baldwin from behind a locked door. She eventually learns about the death of his young daughter, and Ernest tasks her with obtaining an item in a nearby apartment, unable to retrieve it himself. After completing her task, she discovers his plan to resurrect his daughter, and he warns her about James. Opening the door, she finds no one in the room. At the conclusion of the scenario, Maria contemplates suicide, but ultimately tosses the gun away, resolving instead to find James.

James first meets her in Rosewater Park, his first suspect for the "special place" Mary claims to be in. Maria accompanies James after this point, seeking protection from the monsters in Silent Hill, and after reaching the bowling alley she leads James on an attempt to find Laura ending in Brookhaven Hospital. Maria is killed by Pyramid Head before she can escape the hospital. She reappears again, inexplicably alive and with no memories of her apparent death, in the Labyrinth in a jail cell, seductively beckoning James to rescue her. Before he can reach her, however, she is killed again. She appears a third time in the Lakeview Hotel, where she is killed by two Pyramid Heads promptly after James finds her.

In the "Leave", "In Water" and "Rebirth" endings James confronts Maria a final time, dressed as Mary and trying to get James to take her. James conclusively rejects her, and she transforms into the final boss with intent on killing him but is instead killed for good by James. In the "Maria" ending, Maria returns alive again after James has killed Mary and James decides to leave Silent Hill with her. As they leave she begins visibly coughing, a hint that she has the same disease Mary had and that the events of the game may repeat themselves.

Maria is portrayed by Monica Horgan.

Angela Orosco
Angela is drawn to the town after taking a life. She is a disturbed, unstable teenage girl who is ostensibly on a search for her mother. It is strongly implied in the game that Angela was abused and raped by her father, with her mother turning a blind eye. Backstory material provided by Konami states that Angela had run away from home prior to the game's events, and after being brought back kills her father, leading to her being drawn to Silent Hill.

James first meets Angela in a cemetery, where she warns him that there's "something wrong" with Silent Hill. She is next seen in the apartment complex area with a blood-covered knife, contemplating suicide. James takes the knife from her at her request, and she flees in panic after he initially tries to take it out of her hand. In a later area, James fights a monstrous version of Angela's father who is about to attack the girl. After the creature's defeat, Angela acts with disdain and general hatred toward men, and accuses James of abandoning Mary for another woman. She is last seen on a burning staircase in the Lakeview Hotel. Angela, now in a state of delusion, mistakes James for her mother. After realizing her error, she asks for her knife back, not before wishing James had left her to die in the labyrinth. She believes that she deserved what her father did to her, and hints at suicide. When James refuses to return her knife, Angela walks into the flames of a burning staircase and is not seen again. As she does so she claims that these burning surroundings are how she always sees the town - one more suggestion that each person drawn to the town perceives it in a different way. Angela is voiced in the game by Donna Burke. Her appearance in the game and the choice of her portrayer were made by Team Silent with the intention of making her appear unnaturally aged.

Mary Shepherd-Sunderland
Mary is the late wife of protagonist James Sunderland. The player first sees Mary in a photograph James has with him and spends much of the game searching for her. In the game, she is said to have died from a mysterious illness three years ago. James goes to Silent Hill, where the couple shared many memories, after receiving a letter from Mary that says she is waiting for him there. Over the course of the game, James is haunted by memories of his wife, including Maria, who strongly resembles her, seems to have some of her memories at times, and repeatedly dies. James is eventually forced to remember that Mary died recently and that he killed her, suffocating her with a pillow after she was released from the hospital. In her last days alive, she believed she had become physically repulsive, acting "self-centered and difficult, even abusive towards James". Mary does not appear in person until the end of the game: in the "Leave" and "In Water" endings she is shown forgiving James for killing her after the final bossfight, while in the "Maria" ending she fights James as the final boss (instead of Maria) in revenge for her murder. James is quick to dismiss the latter scenario as being a hallucination.

Mary was portrayed by Monica Horgan, who also portrayed Maria. The producers acknowledged that Mary and Maria were designed to be almost completely identical.

Eddie Dombrowski
Eddie is the third murderous character in Silent Hill during the game. He is an obese young man with an apparent connection to the character Laura. His dialogue during the game reveals that he had suffered verbal abuse for much of his life prior to his arrival in Silent Hill, and his arrival was preceded by him finally snapping, killing a dog, shooting a football player and going on the run from the police. Backstory material provided by Konami describes Eddie as being usually calm but with "another side that he cannot control when angered" and listing his former occupation as being a gas station attendant. Eddie also wears a baseball cap, small shorts, and a white and teal striped shirt, clothes that one would see a child wearing.

James first meets Eddie in an apartment complex vomiting into a toilet and aggressively denying any involvement with the death of a man stuffed in a refrigerator in the same apartment. If the player returns to the apartment after the cutscene, they can investigate further, finding posters of football players with apparently meaningless graffiti and bumper stickers on the walls. One bumper sticker clearly says "Illusions The Water Margin." He is next seen talking to Laura in a bowling alley, ignoring insults and comments from Laura and James while doubting that his then-unspecified crimes will be forgiven. His final appearances are in the prison/labyrinth area, where he confesses to killing the man in the apartment and another victim on the grounds that they were mocking him, and apparently has no moral issues with killing. By the end of the level he is dangerously unstable and threatening to kill anyone whom he perceives as mocking him, leading to a fight to the death with James after a poorly received comment from the latter. In the final cutscene before his death Eddie concludes correctly that James too was a murderer, telling him that they were both "called" to Silent Hill as they're "not like other people". The final encounter with Eddie takes place in a large meat freezer, a counterpoint to the burning staircase on which Angela stands during her final meeting with James.

Eddie is portrayed by David Schaufele.

Laura
Laura is an eight-year-old girl wandering the town. She is apparently the only "innocent" human character in the town, in contrast to James, Angela and Eddie, and consequently does not see any monsters or serious abnormalities in the town. This has two consequences in the game: firstly, Laura can apparently move around the town safe from supernatural danger, and secondly Laura occasionally places James in danger due to the fact that she isn't aware of the supernatural threats he faces.

Laura is an orphan who befriended Mary during her last year alive, having been a patient at the same hospital as her, and like James appears to be searching for Mary in the town as well (unaware of her death). She acts rudely towards James and Eddie, the two characters she encounters, motivated with the former by a belief that he did not really love Mary.

James first encounters Laura in the apartment complex, where she kicks a key out of his reach and stomps on his hand. He confronts her in frustration after the level is cleared, where her connection with Mary is revealed, but she runs away before James can get more out of her. She is next seen at the bowling alley with Eddie, and after she leaves James pursues her at Maria's request. He finally finds her at the hospital, where James accuses her of lying when she details her connection to Mary. Laura then asks him to pick up a (nonexistent) letter from Mary inside a hospital room. When James enters it, she slams the door behind him, locking James in with several dangerous monsters. Laura is seen again at the Lakeview Hotel with a letter confirming her friendship to Mary, and she becomes furious with James when he tells her he has discovered he killed Mary. In the "Leave" ending, James leaves Silent Hill with Laura, possibly intending to carry out Mary's wishes to adopt the girl.

Early promotional articles incorrectly named the character as "Lauren."

Laura is portrayed by Jackie Breckenridge.

Pyramid Head
Pyramid Head, also known as "Red Pyramid Thing", "Red Pyramid", or "Bogeyman", and "Triangle Head" (三角頭) in Japan, stalks James, representing his wish to be punished for Mary's death. Masahiro Ito, the designer of Silent Hill 2's monsters, created Pyramid Head because he wanted "a monster with a hidden face". Known for his large triangular head, Pyramid Head lacks a voice, and his appearance stems from the "distorted memory of the executioners" and the town's past as a place of execution, according to Takayoshi Sato, the character designer for Silent Hill 2.

Pyramid Head has since appeared in the 2006 film Silent Hill as "Red Pyramid", in the 2007 first-person shooter video game Silent Hill: The Arcade as a "boss" (a computer-controlled opponent), and in the sixth installment of the Silent Hill series, Silent Hill Homecoming, as the "Bogeyman". He has also made an appearance outside of the Silent Hill series as a player character in the 2008 Nintendo DS video game New International Track & Field. Positively received in Silent Hill 2 for his role as an element of James' psyche, he has been cited by reviewers as an iconic villain of the series and part of Silent Hill 2's appeal.

Heather
Heather (voiced by Heather Morris) is the main protagonist and player character of Silent Hill 3. As the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie and Cheryl Mason from the first game, Heather is instrumental in main antagonist Claudia Wolf's efforts to bring about the rebirth of "God". She is portrayed by actress Adelaide Clemens in the film series.

Claudia Wolf
Claudia Wolf (voiced by Donna Burke ) is a priestess of The Order, and the main antagonist of the game. It is said during the game that she was abused as a child. She used to be a friend of Alessa in their childhood. Claudia is attempting to carry on where Dahlia Gillespie failed in Silent Hill and use Alessa Gillespie (through her reincarnation as Heather) to birth "the god". Contrary to Dahlia, her intention in resurrecting the god is to "save" mankind, though she believes she is a sinner and will not be saved. She speaks in riddles and is always barefoot. At the end of the game, she tries to give birth to the deity herself and dies.

She is portrayed by Carrie-Anne Moss in the film series.

Douglas Cartland
Douglas Cartland (voiced by Richard Grosse) is a private investigator hired by Claudia Wolf and The Order to locate Heather. When this results in the death of Heather's adoptive father, Harry, he feels guilty and accompanies Heather into Silent Hill as an ally. In the "Normal" ending, which is the only ending available on the first play-through of the game, Heather and Douglas survive. If the player gets the "Possessed" ending, Heather kills Douglas, implying she herself has been "possessed". Douglas is mentioned in one of The Order's books in Silent Hill Homecoming, which states Douglas successfully exposed the Silent Hill cult to the authorities after the events of Silent Hill 3. He is portrayed by Martin Donovan in the film series.

Vincent
Vincent (voiced by Clifford Rippel) is a priest of The Order. Vincent is less dogmatic than Claudia and opposes her actions. Vincent appears to be on Heather's side during the game. With his finances, he built the church where the final battle is staged in and is killed by Claudia when Heather enters. He is portrayed by English actor Kit Harrington in the film series.

Reception
Critics enjoyed the level of realistic detail given to the characters of Silent Hill 2 and Konami's ability to transition between CG and in-game scenes. Game Revolution liked that James was an everyman character instead of a highly trained professional. GameZone praised James' sympathetic character, and found the voice acting improved, though not flawless, as compared to Silent Hill 2's predecessor. Another reviewer considered the voice acting and script superior to the survival-horror video game series Resident Evil, while GameSpot criticized the script for hampering the voice acting.

The character of Heather was praised by certain reviewers of the game. GameSpot's Scott Osborne found her "interesting" and liked the fact that, although regarding her as seeming to be an average girl, she remains non-intimidated upon witnessing sights considered by him frightening, stating that "even Rambo would run like hell from that."