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Cheryl Heather Mason is the true main protagonist of the 2009 psychological horror video game Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, which is a reimagination of the first Silent Hill video game released in 1999.
Like her counterpart from the first game, she is the daughter of Harry Mason, who disappears after a car accident in the town of Silent Hill. But apart from this premise, the game takes place in a different universe and timeline, completely changing the way the story unfolds, as Cheryl's role and her characterization are radically altered.
Appearance[]
Cheryl as a child.
As a 7-year-old, Cheryl had chin‑length, side‑swept brown hair held back by a headband, matching brown eyes, and bright accessories like colorful wristbands. She wore a playful outfit: an orange T‑shirt beneath blue overalls, white socks, and Mary Jane shoes.
In the present day, as a 25-year-old, Cheryl favors a more subdued look. She wears a brown jacket layered over a buttoned plaid blouse, paired with jeans and green slippers. In the PlayStation editions, she also wears a black jeweled necklace.
Biography[]
Background[]
Harry and Cheryl about to go to Lakeside amusement park.
On July 17, 1983, Cheryl Heather Mason was born to Harry Mason and his wife Dahlia, an lived at 1206 Levin Street in Silent Hill. While Harry is often portrayed as a devoted father, the depth of his affection (and its ultimate impact on Cheryl) can vary depending on the narrative path chosen by the player and the multiple endings.
Tragedy struck when Cheryl was just seven years old: Harry was killed in a sudden car accident. The loss overwhelmed Cheryl, plunging her into nearly two decades of complicated grief and fostering a deep, unspoken anger toward her mother.
Seeking a fresh start, Dahlia relocated with Cheryl to Simmons Street and took over the Green Lion Pawn Shop. There, Cheryl endured years of exclusion and bullying at Midwich High School, which only compounded her isolation. As time passed, her memories of Harry softened and fragmented, coalescing into an idealized image of him as a heroic figure she longed to see return.
Throughout the game, players uncover a series of fragmented memories from Cheryl’s life, both before and after her father’s death; these mementos reveal Cheryl’s childhood curiosity and loneliness, but also the moments of happiness. However as Cheryl grows older, darker memories surface. One woodsy house party ends in horror when she’s drugged and stripped by the other guests. At school, she faces predatory pressure from her boyfriend, Steve, and is abandoned when she refuses. A subsequent secret affair with a teacher at Midwich High only deepens her confusion. Cruel classmates bully her mercilessly, even photographing her naked in the shower room to humiliate her.
In her teenage rebellion, Cheryl shoplifts at Toluca Mall and, in a terrifying escalation, stabs a security guard named Malcolm with a stolen knife. Although another officer calls 911 fearing Malcolm has died, Cheryl remains at large by the story’s end, suggesting he survived. Finally, a memory surfaces of her arrest in Portland, an incident that hints at the lingering consequences of her trauma and the lengths she went to in her search for escape and understanding.
Silent Hill: Shattered Memories[]
Concept art of Cheryl.
Cheryl’s inability to accept her father’s death drives her into an obsessive loop of watching the same grainy home videos, warping her memories and idealizing Harry through fractured nostalgia.
In a final effort to break free from her grief and guilt, she turns to the Lighthouse Clinic, where psychiatrist Dr. Michael Kaufmann guides her through intense counseling and family therapy. As Cheryl delves deeper into her unresolved emotions, her mind conjures a living manifestation of Harry, awakening him after his imagined car crash and sending him on a desperate search for his missing daughter. It should be noted that Cheryl's identity as the true patient during the sessions with Dr. Kaufmann during the game is completely anonymous until the very end of it.
With each therapeutic breakthrough, Harry draws nearer to Cheryl, yet the nightmares and Otherworld obstacles he faces grow increasingly menacing, mirroring her own internal resistance. At the end of the game, Cheryl heeds Dr. Kaufmann’s counsel and confronts the painful truth: she must let go of her delusion. In that pivotal moment, Harry steps through the clinic door for their final goodbye. Depending on the player’s choices, he either urges her to move on from his flawed memory, affirms that her loving recollections were real, or, if she rejects reality, remains alive in her mind as she clings to the fantasy. Cheryl leaves the clinic either with her mother or alone, having finally faced her past.
After this scene, the remaining camcorder tapes play out variations of Harry’s farewell,serving as an epilogue: the loving reassurance of his and Dahlia’s enduring affection (Love Lost ending), a bitter marital slap (Wicked and weak ending), a drunken tirade (Drunk Dad ending), or an intimate moment with Lisa and Michelle, where it is revealed that Harry cheated on Dahlia (Sleaze and Sirens ending).
In the game’s hidden UFO ending, Cheryl even speculates that Silent Hill is itself a spacecraft, briefly transforming into Mira and blurting out, “My mother was a bitch,” before the scene fades.
Gallery[]
Trivia[]
- This version of Cheryl is essentially a composite image of Cheryl Mason, Alessa Gillespie, and Heather Mason from the original story, who are all practically the same person, or different incarnations of the same person. Like her original counterpart, Cheryl is Harry Mason's daughter (although she was adopted in the original game) and the main reason for his quest in Silent Hill; but also, like Alessa, she is Dahlia's daughter, was bullied at school and resents her mother. And, like Heather, she is trying to cope with the death of her father, since the original Harry dies in Silent Hill 3. Her appearance is quite similar to Heather's, but with brown hair.
- Cheryl's voice actress is uncredited, but it is presumed that she could be Karen Strassman (who also voiced Lisa in the same game) or Kate Higgins (who voiced Michelle).
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Silent Hill Silent Hill 2 Silent Hill 3 Silent Hill 4: The Room Silent Hill: Homecoming Silent Hill: Downpour Silent Hill: Shattered Memories Silent Hill: The Short Message Films | ||