Lisa Garland

"Somehow I feel I'm not supposed to leave this place... Oh Harry, I'm so scared... I'm cold."

- Lisa to Harry Mason

Lisa Garland is a character in the Silent Hill series, first appearing in Silent Hill, followed by its sequel Silent Hill 3, and later in the prequels Silent Hill: Origins and Silent Hill: Cage of Cradle. Growing up in the titular town, she once dreamed of becoming a renowned actress, but due to family tradition went into a career of nursing instead.

Lisa was the staff member at Alchemilla Hospital responsible for treating Alessa Gillespie in the seven years after she was burned during an occult ritual. Her addiction to narcotics made her a target for blackmail by a mysterious organization who had a vested interest in keeping Alessa alive. Lisa eventually died before the events of the original game, but her specter remained in the Otherworld, oblivious to her past.

She was reimagined in the 2009 reboot Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, adapted in the 2006 film as the Red Nurse, and featured in the crossover Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill.

Silent Hill: Origins and pre-Silent Hill
"Still has an unusually high fever... Eyes don't open... getting a pulse... but just barely breathing. Her skin is all charred! Even when I change the bandages, the blood and pus just start oozing through! Why... What is keeping that child alive? I... can't stand it any longer... I won't tell a soul... promise. So please..."

- Lisa Garland

Lisa Garland is a young woman who grew up and worked in the tourist town of Silent Hill, Maine, attending Midwich Elementary School at an early age. In her late-teenage years, she was a theater enthusiast with aspirations of becoming an actress, sometimes visiting the Artaud Theater to daydream about rising to stardom. These ambitions were overridden when she was pressured by her family to become a nurse, following the tradition of her mother and grandmother before her.

She worked as a trainee nurse in Alchemilla Hospital under Dr. Michael Kaufmann, who secretly ran the town's drug trade and had business associations with the shadowy cabal known as "the Order". The Order supernaturally impregnated the psychic girl Alessa Gillespie with the god of their religion so that it could be born into the physical world and cleanse humanity of suffering. However, she sustained severe burns during the ritual, leading them to fake her death so that they could continue on with their plans without legal scrutiny.

Following the incident, Lisa had several interactions with Travis Grady, who was suspicious of the ordeal and sought to uncover the truth. At some point, Kaufmann began administering an illegal narcotic to her from his business, using her addiction to blackmail her into keeping Alessa alive in the hospital basement and maintaining the Order's secret. A complication arose when Alessa split her soul in half to stop the god's birth, causing the other half to materialize as the baby Cheryl Mason. This meant that she could not heal from her injuries, requiring constant medical attention.

Lisa spent the next seven years under Kaufmann's control and was promoted to the rank of nurse in this time. He had at least one sexual encounter with her in a Riverside Motel room during her years of drug usage. The period of drug abuse, blackmail, and stress of taking care of Alessa severely impacted her physical and mental health. She experienced hallucinations as her dependency on the drug grew worse, such as insects invading her personal space and bodily fluids pouring from a faucet. She became emotionally unstable and neurotic, often begging the Order to release her. The cult's angel of rebirth Valtiel manifested around this time as well, watching over the god fetus inside of Alessa as a protective guardian. One day, Lisa's boyfriend Matthew traveled to the town in a desperate attempt to save her.

Approximately a day later, the mother of Alessa, Dahlia Gillespie's spell of baiting Alessa's second half back to its source came to fruition. A now seven-year-old Cheryl and her adoptive father Harry were drawn to the town of Silent Hill on vacation, after she felt an inexplicable craving to go there. This had disastrous consequences – Cheryl (Alessa's second half) and Alessa reuniting in the same vicinity caused Cheryl to revert to her former self, and Alessa's nightmare was psychically projected onto the entire town as a result. Matthew was killed when the town transitioned into this nightmare, coming face-to-face with Valtiel. He was unable to save Lisa from death, who had been driven insane by the years of drug abuse and was subsequently murdered by the very angel her boyfriend encountered. Her spirit remained trapped in the part of the nightmare known as the Otherworld.

Silent Hill
"''I get it now... Why I'm still alive even though everyone else's dead. I'm not the only one who's still walking around. I'm the same as them. I just hadn't noticed it before."

- Lisa Garland to Harry Mason''

Harry Mason lost consciousness upon entering Silent Hill, waking up to find Cheryl missing and the town engulfed in Alessa's nightmare. The town would cycle between three states: the Fog World (parallel to non-REM sleep), the Otherworld (reminiscent of REM sleep), and the deepest part of the nightmare, known as Nowhere. Elements from Alessa's subconscious were physically manifested into reality, including monsters born of her negative emotions and memories. While in the Otherworld, the floors of Midwich Elementary School were lined with used drugs and empty medication bottles, reminiscent of both Alessa's time in the hospital and Lisa's recurring substance abuse.



While searching for his daughter in Central Silent Hill, Harry made his way to Alchemilla Hospital, where he would eventually come across a terrified Lisa, cowering beneath a table, having no recollection of her death. She described her experience as having lost consciousness and woken up to discover the hospital in a deserted state. She had no memory of treating Alessa, believing that all staff were under strict orders never to enter the basement where Alessa was concealed. The town cycled back to the Fog World where Lisa was nowhere to be seen, cutting their conversation short.

Harry's next stop was Green Lion Antiques, where he found a secret corridor behind a shelf that led to one of the Order's sanctuaries. The town cycled to Nowhere, and Harry suddenly found himself in the hospital again with Lisa sitting across from him. She informed him of the town's history in the hope that it might help him find Cheryl. The town then transitioned to the Otherworld, and Harry was back in the antique shop. He sprinted back to Alchemilla to ask Lisa how to get to the lake, where supposedly, Cheryl was seen by a police officer. He offered to let her join him after she begged him not to abandon her again, but she found herself incapable of leaving the building.

Later on, while soldiering through Nowhere once more, Harry located Lisa where she had been forbade to enter: the hospital basement, which resulted in the subsequent re-emerging of her memories. Realizing that she was not actually alive, she begged Harry to help her as she began to bleed profusely from her face. Frightened, he sprinted out of the room and held the door, listening to Lisa's cries.



Soon after, Harry learned the truth about his daughter as Dahlia took the final steps to birth the Order's god. Kaufmann arrived to confront her with the Aglaophotis, a demon-purging material, for betraying him, and Lisa is last seen dragging him to his doom.

Silent Hill 3
Set seventeen years after the events of the first game, Silent Hill 3 focuses on the teenage girl Heather Mason learning that she is a reincarnation of Alessa and Cheryl after being discovered by the Order. When her adoptive father Harry is murdered by them, she travels to the town of Silent Hill for revenge, slowly regaining memories of her past lives along the way.

After investigating Brookhaven Hospital for signs of the cultist Claudia Wolf, Heather suddenly remembers being treated for burn wounds in Alchemilla Hospital so many years ago. As this happens, the hospital transitions to the Otherworld. Heather climbs a ladder to get to the third floor of the building, passing both Valtiel (who has been stalking her) and Lisa, bound and forced to endure endless suffering in the Otherworld.

Personality and characterization
While much of Lisa's life outside of her career is a mystery, it can be inferred that she is generally kind and sympathetic to others. Her empathy was expressed by her sadness for a mental patient during her exchanges with Travis Grady, who was searching Cedar Grove Sanitarium for answers about Alessa's fate. When Heather Mason regains her memories of Lisa, she remarks, "But that nurse... I know her. Lisa... who was so heavenly toward me in that hellish hospital room. She did get a little weird, though...", implying that Alessa viewed Lisa as kind as well. Her passion made her well-liked by both Travis and Harry Mason.

The exact nature of Lisa's post-death condition is never clarified directly. Silent Hill 2 establishes that unreal human beings can manifest from the memories and desires of those who enter the town. One such being is Maria, who materialized from the subconscious of James Sunderland and shared physical characteristics with his late wife Mary. Unaware that she is a manifestation, she would periodically experience amnesia and would sometimes guide him on his journey through Silent Hill. The dark world in the original game manifested the delusions of Alessa, who spent years being treated by Lisa in the hospital basement.

Alternatively, the Lost Memories guidebook and a memo in Silent Hill 3 explain that the lingering thoughts of people who died in the town suddenly by suicide or by accident can cause their spirits to remain trapped in the area where it happened. These spirits have lost their human senses and memories. Unaware that they are dead, they can only relive the moments before their demise. In Silent Hill, Lisa only appears in Alchemilla Hospital and exclusively in the Otherworld and Nowhere. She is unaware that she is dead, frequently reaching out to Harry for help. One of the game's designers, Masahiro Ito, believes that Lisa is "very close" to being a ghost or spirit.

Film universe
In the 2006 film universe, Lisa was adapted as the Red Nurse. She appears briefly as the Brookhaven nurse in Silent Hill, West Virginia, that looked after Alessa Gillespie, who was severely burned in an immolation ritual. While in the hospital, Red Nurse peeked into Alessa's medical curtain out of curiosity, making eye contact with her. Alessa later lashed out against her, leaving her in a tortured state with bleeding eyes. Dark Alessa (her vengeful counterpart) would go on to confess that she did not deserve this fate.

Director Christophe Gans wanted to further explore the Red Nurse but was not able to fit everything he wanted into a two-hour film. He expressed an interest in making a sequel focusing on her character. In the same interview, he stated that he would also like to explore Claudia Wolf (who went on to appear in the sequel, directed by M.J. Bassett), an unspecified character he calls "the Doctor" (potentially Michael Kaufmann), and a version of the second game's story.

Silent Hill: Shattered Memories


Silent Hill: Shattered Memories features a new version of Lisa Garland, maintaining her status as an Alchemilla Hospital nurse that assists Harry Mason.

Play Novel: Silent Hill
The Play Novel: Silent Hill is Silent Hill adapted into an interactive visual story. Because the story is interactive, Lisa has multiple fates and varying conversations with Harry.

She is first encountered in chapter eight, and the game follows through their meeting exactly as in the original game. This also follows in line with their meeting when Harry passes out in the antique store.

In chapter 11, Harry and Lisa can have a alternate conversation in which Kaufmann enters the room, and the three begin wondering how they can get out of town. Kaufmann decides to sleep in his office, and when the room begins to turn cold, Harry offers Lisa his jacket, but she declines it. When Harry attempts to bring a heater back into the room, he suddenly sees Alessa's figure in the hallway before it disappears, and he hears a sudden gunshot. When he enters the room again, he finds Lisa dead on the floor. Figuring that Alessa must have killed Lisa, he chases after her and also finds Kaufmann's corpse. To Harry's surprise, Cheryl Mason appears in the hospital with a gun in her hand and threatens to kill Harry. At this point, the player can choose the E-1 or E-2 ending.


 * In the E-1 ending, Cheryl is with Dahlia, and Harry realizes he killed Cybil Bennett, Lisa, and Kaufmann, but repressed the memories of their murders. He then blanks out and has a vision of him dead with a gun in his hand in their family study. Apparently the entire game was a hallucination.
 * In the E-2 ending, Cybil appears and kills Cheryl. However, when Harry looks at Cheryl's corpse, he realizes that Cybil actually killed Dahlia. Cybil tells Harry she heard gunshots in the hospital and saw Dahlia with a handgun and bloody clothes. Dahlia then was about to kill Harry, but Cybil intervened. Cybil then tells Harry that his daughter is safe, and as they are about to go find her, the game blanks out. In this ending, apparently Dahlia was Lisa's murderer.

If the player never has this alternate conversation, the rest of the game will follow suit until Lisa's appearance in the hospital basement. Depending on what the player chose before, these things will happen:


 * A or B Ending. Lisa charges out of the room. When Harry finds her, she says the same things she said during her mutation scene. The player can:
 * Comfort her. Harry says he'll do what he can and holds her. Suddenly, Lisa begins dying, slowly losing control of herself. She mouths the words "help me" and falls down the stairs. Harry is devastated by this, but must move on.
 * Leave Lisa. Lisa begins to get angry as Harry says he doesn't know if Cheryl is dead or not and that he should care about the lady in front of his eyes. Lisa begins dying, falling headfirst down the stairs. After she dies, Harry becomes saddened and goes to the basement.
 * C-1 or C-2 ending. Harry wakes up, and Lisa is there, telling him a story about Alessa. They head to the basement together. They come across a symbol, and Harry asks if Lisa knows what it is. She mentions a mysterious "they", in which Harry can:
 * In the C-1 ending, Harry asks her who "they" are, which Lisa begins to tell him, but the light turns off. Harry hears Lisa's scream, then the growl of a female monster. The growl is actually from Lisa, who has mutated.
 * In the C-2 ending, Harry shows Lisa Alessa's diary, which Lisa questions and claims that Harry hates her. Before Harry can answer, the lights turn off, and Lisa transforms, which causes Harry to run away.

Silent Hill: Book of Memories
Lisa appears briefly in a joke ending in Silent Hill: Book of Memories.

Dead By Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill
Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill includes a legacy skin that transforms Cheryl Mason into Lisa Garland.

Behind the scenes
Lisa was voiced by Thessaly Lerner in Silent Hill and Jennifer Woodward in Silent Hill: Origins respectively. The name "Lisa" originates from an actress who played a nurse and murderer in the film Sanguelia. The surname "Garland" comes from the actress Judy Garland, who plays Dorothy in The Wizard of Oz.

Her character design was inspired by a nurse in The Exorcist III: Legion, which Masahiro Ito had watched with Takayoshi Sato, who designed the character. Reportedly, creature designer Naoko Satō and background designer Isao Takahashi had a heated discussion over the size of Lisa's legs and "what constitutes realism" during development. It is unknown if this impacted her final design.

According to Sam Barlow, Lisa was most likely between the age of 16-17 during the events of Silent Hill: Origins. The character is 23 years old during the events of Silent Hill.

Lisa Garland appeared on the cover of Cage of Cradle, a painting by Ito depicting her spirit in the Otherworld tied to a torture mechanism and donning a pointed helmet. Ito later tweeted a masculine variant of this painting in 2018 with the caption "Please don't stop his breath...".

The character was voiced by the vocalist Maude Théberge in the 2020 crossover Dead by Daylight: Chapter XVI - Silent Hill.

Creator's comment
"The name Lisa comes from an actress who plays a nurse and is a murderer in the movie Sanguelia. Her last name is borrowed from Judy Garland, who played a character in The Wizard of Oz who has lost her way in a dreamland."

"Lisa is one of my favorite characters in the series. What interested me about her was that this “damsel” type character turned out to just be another part of the town. At the same time, it was hinted that the “real” Lisa was a troubled individual. This is a cool dichotomy, because even the people in real life we think are sweet and innocent might have darker sides as well that we don’t let ourselves see. I think in Origins, we get to see this darker side and maybe it’s not pleasant for everyone...but that is still something “real” Lisa has to deal with, and maybe she dealt with it by never revealing that side to Alessa. Then again, since this is Silent Hill, maybe Climax saw a “different” Lisa than you did, and maybe I saw a third Lisa when I played the game.
 * —Tomm Hulett, producer of Origins regarding Lisa"

Quotes
Silent Hill: Origins
 * "Are you okay? Sorry, did I startle you? Are you waiting for someone?"
 * "You sure you're okay? You look a little shaken up."
 * "The fire in the business district? How awful. I heard about that. No one knows how it got started. And that poor girl, Alessa Gillespie... to die like that..."
 * "Well, I have to run. Dr. Kaufmann wants to meet me over at Cedar Grove Sanitarium and he'll be mad if I'm late! Maybe see you around? Take it easy, Travis..."
 * "I... It's so sad... They can't do anything for her. She just sits there... She wants her boy so badly." (to Travis about Helen)
 * "No. No! You KNOW who's in there!"
 * "Sorry if I scared you. I thought I was the only one in here."
 * "Dangerous? You're kidding! The door was open, so I let myself in. I just love the theater, Travis. I want to be an actress. But mom was a nurse, and her mom was a nurse... So I'm going to be a nurse. I've got what it takes though..."
 * "I can't stop thinking about you, Travis. I want you. You're all I think about. Let's get the hell out of this crazy town. Run off. The two of us. We could be so good together..."
 * "See? I could be a star!"

Silent Hill
 * "The room is filled with insects. Even with doors and windows shut they get in to spite me." (Lisa's diary)
 * "Feeling bad. Need to throw up. But nothing comes out. Vomiting only bile. Blood and pus flow from the bathroom faucet. I try to stop it, but it won't turn off. Need drug. Help me..." (Lisa's diary)
 * "What is it? Still has an unusually high fever. Eyes don't open. Getting a pulse but just barely breathing. Her skin is all charred! Even when I change the bandages, the blood and pus just start oozing through! Why... what is keeping that child alive?! I can't stand it any longer. I won't tell a soul. Promise. So please..." (Lisa in the video tape)
 * "Finally. Someone else who's okay..."
 * "I get it now. Why I'm still alive even though everyone else is dead. I'm not the only one who's still walking around. I'm the same as them! I just hadn't noticed it before."
 * "Stay by me Harry, please! I'm so scared. Help me. Save me from them... Please... Harry..."

Trivia

 * Despite the presence of a similar nurse in the chapel of Silent Hill 3, Lisa Garland only appears in Brookhaven Hospital.
 * In Silent Hill 3, Lisa Garland is often mistaken for Fukuro Lady. However, they are not the same.   Fukuro Lady does not appear in the game, but her character model was repurposed a few times. However, when asked about the creature in the elevator Masahiro commented that "They are another Fukuro lady and another lying figure." Masahiro Ito wanted to make Lisa look more like she did in the first game, but did not have time to design a new character model.
 * In Silent Hill 3, Lisa's voice in the Brookhaven scene is removed in the PC version, while it is present in the PS2 version. In the HD Collection, it is re-dubbed with another, unknown voice actress.
 * The reason for her lack of voice in the PC version is probably because it was released after the PS2 version, and Konami/Team Silent didn't notify Thessaly Lerner. Lerner's agent also sued Konami, and Lerner won a mini-settlement.
 * In 2006, composer Akira Yamaoka cited Lisa Garland as his favorite Silent Hill character.
 * In Silent Hill 4: The Room, there is a character named Steve Garland. However, it is not established that he has any relation to Lisa.
 * In the original Silent Hill, Lisa wears a badge on her white dress and a wraparound on her arm with "SP" on it, which is believed to stand for "Specialist Practitioner." In Silent Hill: Origins, Lisa wears a badge with "LPN" on it, which stands for "Licensed Practical Nurse".
 * Despite Lisa not being a major character in the series, she is the most recurring character in the franchise, appearing in five games: Silent Hill, Play Novel: Silent Hill, Silent Hill 3, Silent Hill: Origins, Silent Hill: Shattered Memories, and Silent Hill: Book of Memories; in one comic: Cage of Cradle; as well as in the Silent Hill film. Her role as a nurse and caregiver always remain intact throughout each incarnation.
 * The words "It's a wonderful world" in the ladder scene of Silent Hill 3 are a reference to The Exorcist III. It is written ironically to Heather and may have been put there by Alessa or Lisa in the Otherworld.
 * Thessaly Lerner reprised the role of Lisa Garland in the 2021 fan game Whispering Hills which is a mod for Fallout 4.  Similar to Silent Hill, Lisa is approached by a parent (the Sole Survivor) searching for their missing child, albeit a son named Shaun.
 * Among fans, "Fukuro Lady" and "Brookhaven Nurse" are common epithets for Lisa Garland in Silent Hill 3.