Heather Mason (ヘザー・メイソン, Hezā Meison) is a fictional character in Silent Hill, a survival horror video game series created by Japanese company Konami.
She is the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie and Cheryl Mason, and is instrumental to antagonist Claudia Wolf's efforts to bring about the rebirth of "God".
The adult and child Alessa are respectively portrayed by Lorry Ayers and Jodelle Ferland in the 2006 Silent Hill film, with Erin Pitt assuming the role in the 2012 sequel film Silent Hill: Revelation, of which the reborn Heather also serves as the main character, portrayed by Adelaide Clemens.
Heather is the reincarnation of Alessa Gillespie, a young girl with strange supernatural abilities that grew up in the small American town known as Silent Hill.
The ceremony led to Alessa receiving severe burns all across her body, yet she was saved by a truck driver named Travis Grady.
Due to Alessa's powers and Silent Hill's own connection to the supernatural, an alternate reality known as the Otherworld starts seeping into the town.
Alessa then uses the last of her energy to teleport Harry and the baby (and maybe the police officer Cybil Bennett depending on which ending players got), before dying.
Heather then spends the night trying to get back home to her father, having to trek through a nightmare version of the mall, an abandoned subway station, the sewers, and a department building.
After destroying the monster, it turns out the creature was part of Alessa's desire to kill herself to prevent the birth of The Order's God.
In Silent Hill: Homecoming, it is revealed that Douglas exposed The Order to the world, suggesting the "normal" ending is canon.
Going by Cheryl, the character also makes a playable appearance in the Dead by Daylight game alongside Pyramid Head, Lisa Garland, Cybil Bennett, Maria, and James Sunderland, along with skins based on Alessa Gillespie and Robbie the Rabbit.
In the canon of Dead by Daylight, Heather/Cheryl works at a center for troubled youths, but is still haunted by the events of Silent Hill 3.
[7] Heather is also part of a DLC expansion pack for the multiplayer horror game Dark Deception: Monsters & Mortals – Silent Hill.
[8] Heather was initially modeled after French actresses Charlotte Gainsbourg and Vanessa Paradis in several rough sketches.
The development team realized that she seemed too "nice" and the next version of Heather was inspired by Sophie Marceau and Gainsbourg to give her an attitude.
"[12] In contrast to Morris, Adelaide Clemens, who played Heather in Revelation, had to work with physically existing monsters on the film's set.
"[14] In Silent Hill: The Terror Engine, Bernard Perron wrote that Heather's "temper" and "sharp tongue" served to distinguish her from the female protagonists of the survival-horror games Rule of Rose (2006), Clock Tower 3 (2002), and Fatal Frame (2001), whom he described as being characterized as "more frail or innocent".
[17] That same year, Mania Entertainment's "Briana Lawrence" ranked her fifth on her list of "13 Video Game Women That Kick Ass", calling Heather a "really cool lead character".
"[19] CNET shared the sentiments, adding she "may not have the toughness of some of the other protagonists here, but Heather Mason is absolutely human and eminently relatable".
[22] In 2013, Complex ranked Heather as the 36th greatest heroine in video game history, stating that they still "love" her "despite the massive pile of fail known as Silent Hill Revelation 3D.
"[23] According to Leigh Alexander of GamePro, "for years, video games have struggled to define what constitutes a positive portrayal of women.
And thanks to the likes of Half-Life 2's Alyx Vance, Beyond Good & Evil's Jade, Silent Hill 3's Heather Morris [sic], and Portal's Chell, we've got some idea of what is.