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Silent Hill (1999) (VG) More at IMDbPro »

Alessa Gillespie is the daughter of Dahlia Gillespie, the presumed leader of a religious cult known as 'The Order'. Dahlia's cult believes in a God they call "The Holy Mother" or "The Lord of Serpents and Reeds". Their opponents (referred to in the games as 'The Christians') call this deity "Samael". Throughout the games, we are made aware of the Order's various attempts to 'raise' their God via rituals designed to bring about the God's reincarnation on Earth. The God's rebirth will bring about a corresponding Apocalypse, during which 'sinners' will be judged, and the Order will reign supreme in a type of Paradise very different from any traditional definition.

One of these rituals involves burning a select member of the clergy alive, in order to cause the type of indescribable suffering that attracts their God. Dahlia subjects her own daughter to the ritual, motivated by what she perceives to be her opportunity to maintain a position of power and authority in the ensuing as the Mother of "the Mother of God". Alessa is specifically chosen because at a young age, she exhibited extreme psychic/telekinetic powers, which made her an outcast among her peers at Midwich Elementary School. In the game's direct sequel, Silent Hill 3, it is revealed that Alessa "could kill people with her mind." With the Order's help, the ritual is performed in the Gillespie house but goes mysteriously awry, savaging six other homes in Silent Hill's business district, but leaving Alessa barely clinging to life, with only the half of the God's soul reborn inside her. Alessa uses her powers to create an infant version of herself to escape her pain, which is later found at the side of the road outside Silent Hill and adopted by an unsuspecting Harry Mason, the game's protagonist, and his critically ill wife.

On the brink of death, Alessa is kept alive unnaturally by means of magical incantation invoked by her mother, who hopes that her continued pain and suffering will attract the other half of the God's soul. She is kept captive secretly in Alchemilla Hospital's basement due to the efforts of Dr. Michael Kauffman, director of the Hospital and Dahlia's partner in a drug-running business that also funds the Order's activities. Kauffman is able to provide another child's corpse (presumably also burnt in the fire), so that the rest of town believes Alessa to be dead. There, Alessa is attended to by Nurse Lisa Garland, who trades her silent compliance for the Order's hallucinogenic drug ('White Claudia' extract 'PVT'), to which she has become addicted. Though she has been previously led to believe she will be released from the hospital after her convalescence, Alessa realizes the extent of Dahlia's plot a full seven years later, when she overhears a conversation that reveals the Order's true intentions. Knowing that she will be unwittingly bringing about an Apocalypse, Alessa becomes determined to prevent the God's Birth, and psychically summons her other half back to the town so that, once reunified, she can fully manifest her powers and kill herself. Alessa's powers at this point begin to envelope the whole town, which transforms into a physical incarnation of what her nightmarish dreamscape has become.

Outside Silent Hill, Harry Mason's wife has since passed away, and both he and his adopted daughter, who he's named Cheryl, are both having trouble coping with her death. Harry suggests they take a vacation and Cheryl adamantly and repeatedly suggests they travel to Silent Hill, where the family had previously vacationed. Unbeknownst to Harry, Cheryl's true motivation is the fact that she's being summoned back by Alessa. Harry agrees to take her, and while en route just outside Silent Hill, he sees an apparition that looks exactly like an older version of his daughter, later revealed to be Alessa's astral protection. Harry swerves off the road in an attempt to avoid hitting the 'girl', and is knocked unconscious. Upon awakening, Harry finds Cheryl missing, and no conceiveable way out of town. Thus the game begins.

With the help of clues hidden throughout the town, and the assistance of a police officer named Cybil Bennett who has also become trapped there, Harry attempts to find and save his daughter. Harry's mission is repeatedly taken off track, both by Alessa tries to prevent Harry from finding the truth about Cheryl and disrupting her reunification and suicide, and by Dahlia who deceives Harry into believing that Alessa is a demon who will kill his daughter, scaring him into carrying out tasks that will effectively seal Alessa's powers.

By the games' end, Dahlia actually succeeds; Alessa's powers are sealed and the ritual is once again enacted. The Order's God is eventually born, but from this botched version of the ritual, so he is weak and able to killed by Harry. As Alessa lays dying, she once again reincarnates herself as an infant, whose care she entrusts to Harry, having proven himself a worth parent. In Silent Hill 3, we find out that Harry once again named his daughter Cheryl, and relocated to Portland, Maine in hopes of securing her safety.

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