The evolution of horror in the world of video games is quite clear in the history of Resident Evil. Analyzing its origins as ‘survival horror’, its passage through unbridled action and transformation in FPS, we can discover how the games of the genre have changed over time.
The eighth installment of the saga does something very special with the genre. Instead of following a new path or repeating something seen before, each of the scenarios in Resident Evil Village it’s focused on a different kind of horror. We are going to discover what kind of terrifying experiences we will find in the village, Dimitrescu Castle, Beneviento House, Moreau Dam and Heisenberg Factory.
Although we are going to talk about some enemies and scenarios, this article does NOT contain any ‘spoilers’ of the story. We will also not show the transformations of the villains.
The rural world of Eastern Europe
Same as in Resident Evil 4, the arrival in a strange town abroad, full of unknown murderers, is inspired by films such as The Texas Chainsaw Massacre, The Hills Have Eyes, Road to Terror and many more. Because the village of Resident Evil Village is located in Romania, we do not deal with murderous ‘rednecks’, but with creatures that evoke the legends of those lands about werewolves, vampires and the darkest fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.
Usually, these kinds of scenarios represent a slightly classist fear of leaving the cities and against their “uncivilized” inhabitants, who tend to participate in disturbing religions or ancient cults. On Resident Evil Village there is a different tone due to the previous experiences of the protagonist and his rescue mission.
Since the village is the central hub from which we travel to the areas controlled by Dimitrescu, Beneviento, Moreau, and Heisenberg, it becomes less scary with each visit.
The gothic horror of Dimitrescu Castle
A visit to the home of the huge and attractive Alcina Dimitrescu brings back memories of the Spencer Mansion from the first Resident Evil. Instead of being inspired by the walking dead trilogy By George Romero in a way that seems out of tune with the opulence of the place, Dimitrescu Castle and its inhabitants seem taken from the quintessential gothic horror novel: Dracula, the Bram Stoker.
The development team of Resident Evil Village confirmed that they were based on Bran Castle, located near Brasov, Romania. This is considered “the true castle of Dracula”. Alcina Dimitrescu is clearly vampiric and the plot explains that she must constantly feed on blood and human flesh to retain her power and immortality. Another reference to Dracula They are his three daughters: Bela, Cassandra and Daniela. They represent the famous earl’s brides and the flies that accompany them are also important in the novel, specifically for his servants.
In literature and cinema, the gothic style pretends to find beauty in the terrifying. It is no coincidence that the women of Castle Dimitrescu are as attractive and elegant as they are creepy. But the Gothic also focuses on the decline of said beauty. The elegant floors of the castle and its impressive towers want to distract from the prisons and torture chambers that hide the basements.
Dimitrescu is a traditional surname Romanian. It may be a reference to the painter Stefan Dimitrescu, who represented the rural life of his country in his works. Capcom fans could see a relationship with another famous vampire: Demitri Maximoff, from Darkstalkers.
The psychological horror of Casa Beneviento
The House inhabited by Donna Beneviento and her dolls is the most terrifying setting in Resident Evil Village
But Donna’s dolls are not why Casa Beneviento is so creepy, but rather what we found in the basement.
There we experience a very effective psychological horror sequence. Use tricks typical of the genre of ghosts and haunted houses, such as the voice of the dead, to plant doubts in the protagonist’s head Ethan Winters about the secrets his wife kept for him and the fear that his daughter is actually a monster.
You don’t need us to tell you that the section in which we run away from the monstrous fetus is a metaphor for Ethan’s fear of his daughter. More deeply, it represents the inherent fear of not being good parents or that a child will alter our lives. We see good examples of monster babies in movies like Its alive!, Eraserhead Y Rosemary’s baby, to which Resident Evil Village makes a pretty straightforward homage. The videogame Catherine he also does something similar with one of his bosses.
At the playable level, the puzzles, the lack of weapons and the need to hide in closets or under the bed make Casa Beneviento temporarily convert to Resident Evil Village in a horror game ‘modern style’. They use disempowerment to cause fear and distress. P.T. It is one of the games with which this section has been most compared. These titles also often use the horrors the protagonist faces as metaphors for dark secrets from the past and his mental problems.
The surname Beneviento is italiano and refers to a well-known legend about witches.
The monstrous horror of Moreau
Giant fish are a cliche of Resident Evil. In the fourth installment we face the enormous Del Lago, the 5 It has its own sea monster and we can’t forget the sharks from the first game. On Resident Evil Village we see how Salvatore Moreau becomes one of them.
The dam is an action-packed sequence in which we have to go through the water avoiding being eaten by the huge fish. Visually, Moreau is similar to creatures from previous installments of the saga, full of eyes and tumors that represent the most grotesque side of the ‘biopunk’ subgenre..
This being reminds the monster of The Host, the Korean movie by Bong Joon-ho (yes, the same from Parasite). But Moreau is not just a mindless creature. There is a Frankensteinian tragedy in him. He hates his appearance and the uselessness of his powers, which make it impossible for him to become “his mother’s favorite.” Although we must kill him, we understand the physical and emotional pain he feels. This is something that became common in modern horror. They ask us to try to understand “the feelings and suffering” of the monster, sometimes making it more sympathetic than the protagonists themselves.
Surname French of this character is a clear reference to The island of Dr. Moreau, considered the first ‘biopunk’ novel.
The biomechanical horror of the Heisenberg factory
Karl Heisenberg’s specialty in Resident Evil Village it is the fusion of technology with the human body, but not in a ‘cyberpunk’ way. He creates ‘Frankenstein monsters’ by reanimating corpses with electricity and fusing flesh with metal. Build your creations by replacing arms with drills or torso with a turbine.
Biomechanical nightmares like these are directly related to the subgenre of body horror (‘body horror’). Most movies and games in which we see humans ‘enhanced’ or turned into monsters using mechanical parts tend to belong to ‘cyberpunk’, but Heisenberg’s creations are inspired by the Japanese horror classic Tetsuo: The Iron Man. There are also similar elements in the 2013 movie, Frankenstein’s Army.
The first of these films is a surreal look at the body as a dehumanized machine and a world consumed by industrial metal. The second focuses on unethical experiments that They seek to keep the human body useful after death, similar to Umbrella’s goal with her zombies.
The surname Heisenberg makes us think of the scientist German Werner Karl Heisenberg, one of the fathers of quantum physics… That’s a lie. We all think of Breaking Bad.
Don’t forget to read our review from Resident Evil Village and the guide to find all your treasures.
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