Set in a fictional world occupied by terrifying creatures, the story of Resident Evil Village centers in the struggle of its protagonist, Ethan Winters, to find his missing baby daughter Rosemary while at the same time facing and surviving all kinds of dangers and threats. The village of the title is occupied by some of the most fearsome enemies in the whole Resident Evil world, but interestingly enough those are not the most intimidating and frightening when it comes to face-to-face encounters. Those creatures, at least, the Lycans, as well as their variations, are mindless entities that, like the zombies, attack because it is the only thing that they can do. They may have some degree of intelligence, but it is still limited; and although sometimes their reactions show signs of a cunning mind, in reality they are just "programmed" that way as a result of the bad outcome of the experiments to which they had been subjected when they were still humans. The most frightful and, subsequently, most dangerous enemies are those that have a human appearance or behave as humans, because they combine exaggerated physical strength with human intelligence, of course using both features for evil purposes. What is even more interesting in these cases, is that said characters have historical or cultural references, something that is obvious in the way they are depicted and, sometimes, their powers as well.
 |
| Miranda in the 1920's with her real daughter Eva |
Mother Miranda is the arch-villain of the story, and the one to have caused all the mess and chaos that Ethan encounters. Once a brilliant scientist, she lost her dear daughter during the 1920 pandemic in Spain and from that point and on she became obsessed with bringing her back to life somehow. Subjecting herself to numerous experiments, she managed to maintain her youth and achieve immortality, so as to be able to go on with her research while following the developments in medicine and technology. Naturally all this could not end well, and gradually she became a monster, but she still succeeded in keeping her activities underground, without raising suspicion. A few years before the events in Village, she discovered a strange giant fungus in the caves of a mountainous area in Eastern Europe, which had the ability to store people's memories and could also regenerate itself; Miranda decided this was exactly what she needed so as to finally bring her daughter back to life. Of course this could not happen without further research, processing and experimenting, so she set her new lab close to the source of the fungus, the Megamycete, to be able to carry out her experiments.
 |
| Miranda (third from right) with her team, including Eveline, Alan and Mia |
In her "human" appearance which is close to how she once looked, Miranda can be seen wearing an embroidered robe where the black color is prominent, with several golden and silver details. Her hair is combed back, and she has a strange object on her head that looks like a heavily decorated makeshift halo. Although the ornaments on her outfit are in fact symbols directly connected to her and her experiments, her look from a distance deliberately brings to mind a certain depiction of Virgin Mary, where she is shown with an impressive halo around her head. In her attempt to further subdue and intimidate the surviving residents of the village, Miranda would show up in this outfit so as to make them believe she was in fact a saint or, even worse, an incarnation of Virgin Mary herself. It is not random that she has the word "Mother" in her name, clearly identifying herself with the holy figure. This depiction of Virgin Mary is called "Our Lady of the Sorrows"; she mainly represents the stage in Virgin Mary's life when she was grieving for her son and, in extension, symbolizes the sorrows that humans have to endure in their life. It is clear that Miranda not only sees herself as pretty close to the holy figure because she is also in a similar situation, but she additionally believes she is equally holy. Several holy icons can be found in the abandoned village houses, which depict Miranda in her "saint" outfit, hinting that, in spite of the sacrilegious nature of her appearance, she had managed to persuade at least some of the villagers that she was not a simple human, but she had holy qualities and was a protector of their homes.
 |
| Miranda (left) and a depiction of Our Lady Of The Sorrows |
The Megamycete fungus that Miranda uses in her experiments appears to be also "responsible" for the existence of the Mold back at the Baker residence, in Resident Evil 7. In Village, we are finally able to see the main source inside a cave, as Chris makes his way towards Miranda's secret lab. The fungus appears as a huge pinkish blob attached to the rocky walls of the cave, and what is interesting about it is that its shape resembles that of an embryo, clearly symbolizing both its regenerative power and Miranda's desire to have her daughter born again. The idea of a substance that records and stores human memories is not new; we have seen something similar in The Evil Within, although there the core element was a human brain. The fungus in Village brings to mind a similar idea from Mexican Gothic, a novel by Silvia Moreno Garcia that was published a year prior to Village's release, where members of a family living in an isolated mansion in the mountains are experimenting with achieving immortality after one of them discovered some strange fungi in the caves around the house. The fungi, aided by the existence of a human core, had the ability to multiply in the walls of the house, witnessing and recording the memories of the people that they would affect with their smell and mold, causing weird behaviors and sick hallucinations to them.
 |
| The Megamycete in the caves of the village |
One of the most impressive villains in the Resident Evil world is undoubtedly Alcina Dimitrescu, the towering hostess of the ominous castle that looms at the outskirts of the village. Apart from being a vampiric creature as a result of Miranda's experiments, alluding to all the bloodthirsty characters of fiction before her, she also seems to have another, far less chilling reference: Mary Ellen Powers, declared in 1868 the tallest woman in the world. At 2,13 cm, Ellen, who was also the tallest among her male siblings, pursued a career in entertainment. She joined a famed circus and toured the world with it, being characterized a great sensation wherever she would appear. As part of her acts, and to make her look even more imposing, she would wear very high heels and top hats decorated with large feathers to further accentuate her impressive stature. She made a lot of money in this business and eventually got married. Her husband was an equally tall man and it was love at first sight for both of them when they crossed paths. A way happier and far less dramatic life than Alcina's, definitely.
 |
| Alcina Dimitrescu (left) and Mary Ellen Powers |
I have analyzed Donna Beneviento's case in another article, but the character as an image alludes to several cultural and historical elements. An eccentric presence, looking as if she comes straight from Victorian times, Donna is always seen with her face almost entirely hidden by a veil, concealing her half-disfigured face, and being accompanied by a creepy marionette which she calls Angie and she only is able to animate and make her behave like a mischievous child, a power that she gained after taking part in Miranda's experiments. In a loading screen of the game, Angie appears sitting on Donna's lap, while Donna herself is nearly totally camouflaged in the darkness. This pose alludes to the infamous "hidden mother photography" trend of the Victorian era, which was a way to have little children and babies photographed supposedly on their own: the mother would sit completely covered on a chair holding the child in her lap to keep them still and calm, and the resulting photograph was supposed to focus on the child. The final picture however was most of the times marginally disturbing.
 |
| Donna and Angie (left) and an authentic "hidden mother photography" sample |
Additionally, Donna's obsession with dolls and the way dozens of them can be found in every corner of her house, nods to the classic epic drama Raintree County by Edward Dmytryk where the mentally unstable Suzanna (unforgettably portrayed by Elizabeth Taylor) is a crazed doll collector, insisting on having many of them hanging above her bed.
 |
| Donna's dolls in the living room (left) and a scene from Raintree County |
Angie herself is a direct reference to Emily, the ghost protagonist/antagonist of Tim Burton's stop motion film Corpse Bride, although the movie's bride was just a victim and in spite of the tricks she did to gain the gullible Victor, in the end she did the right thing and allowed him to live his life happily with his beloved Victoria. Of course Angie, being just a soulless marionette, is not to blame for anything in reality; the only one to blame is Donna and her insane obsessions.
 |
| Angie (left) and Emily, the original Corpse Bride |
While trapped in Donna's mansion, Ethan is forced to play a sick hide-and-seek game with Angie. There's some discreet music playing in the background, which in fact is a dark nursery rhyme of french origin, titled Promenons-nous dans les bois (many thanks to Anthony Auzy for pointing this out). The lyrics of the song go like this: Promenons-nous dans les bois / Pendant que le loup n'y est pas / Si le loup y était / Il nous mangerait / Loup, y es-tu ? / M'entends-tu ? which means: "Let's take a walk in the woods while the wolf isn't there; if the wolf was there, he would eat us. Are you there, wolf? Can you hear me?" The nursery rhyme also has an english version, as well as a greek version, but the original comes from France. There is no mystery why a song with such theme plays during that specific scene; with her disturbed mind, Donna loves to create hallucinations made from elements of a rickety childhood. In the game that accompanies the nursery rhyme, the "wolf" is supposed to hunt the children. In Angie's version, Ethan takes the role of the wolf, and Angie plays the part of the innocent victim. Which is ironic, to say the least, since in reality Angie (and, eventually, Donna) is the malevolent spirit, while Ethan is not only the innocent one, but moreover the one who is actually being hunted.
 |
| Angie forces Ethan to stab her so as to bite him furiously afterwards |
With his rather ridiculous mutation and his constant whining, Salvatore Moreau is easily the most deplorable enemy of Village. Although he is as dangerous as his "siblings", and his attacks are quite cunning, in the end you can only feel sorry for him. Once a member of a prominent family of the region, he lurks around the grounds of what once was a clinic, although it is not clear if he was actually a physician himself.
 |
| The sign pointing to Moreau's Clinic in the Reservoir |
More likely, this must have been the profession of his parents or other
close relatives, as among the few remaining human features of his
pathetic existence are several tattoos, which may indicate that he might
have been a sailor once. A specific one reads "Mother", something that
ties well with his obsession with his "mother" Miranda and his desperate
struggle to prove himself capable in her eyes.
 |
| Salvatore Moreau's "Mother" tattoo is prominent on his arm |
Moreau's mutation is particularly gruesome, alluding to a sea monster or a mutated giant fish. Not randomly, since his territory is a flooded area complete with a dam. He can be seen walking around hunched, as there is a mess of what looks like live tissue blobs on his back. Although his full name is a mix of Spanish and French, his surname is of French origin. Anthony Auzy (thanks again!) pointed out something very interesting about his surname, which I am quoting verbatim: "Moreau sounds a lot like "Morue", which is a French term that carries two meanings: it's the name of a fish species (Cod in English), and it's also a way to call ugly or vulgar people. Both of the meanings of the term "Morue" define Salvatore Moreau pretty well, which is why I'm pretty sure it was done on purpose."
 |
| Moreau in his private cabin |
The most obvious reference for his name, however, is H.G. Wells' famous novel "The Island of Doctor Moreau". Published in 1896, it was quite innovative for its time, as all sci-fi novels by Wells actually were. The story of the book follows narrator Edward Prendick, a shipwreck survivor, who finds himself stranded on an isolated island where Doctor Moreau, once renowned physician whose reputation was ruined after his gruesome experiments became known, runs a makeshift clinic to keep on experimenting on creating humans from animals. The failed results of his experiments are several monstrous creatures, neither human nor animals, that reside on the island grounds in some sort of settlement that the Doctor has set up for them with his loyal assistants. The game's Moreau looks like such a monstrous creature, a combination of human and fish, who was also a victim of a crazed scientist and ended up a failed experiment himself. The creature from Wells' book named "The Limbless Thing" brings strongly Salvatore Moreau to mind and interestingly enough, certain "species" created by the novel's Moreau carry a vague resemblance to the game's Lycans.
 |
| The Limbless Thing (left) and one of the Beast Folk (illustrations by Lawrence Sterne Stevens, 1946) |
The most human-looking enemy in the game is notably the most terrifying.
Exactly because he looks like a normal human being, without any obvious
defects and nothing abnormal in his features, Karl Heisneberg is the
most intimidating among his "siblings" because
you cannot know what to expect from him. His mutation is limited to a
superhuman ability to control electric power and attract metallic objects with magnetism, also being able to project them to any distance at will.
Although very specific, this ability allows him to have all sorts of
machines, mechanisms, robots and mechanical men under his command, and
he has created a factory in which he produces super-powerful machine-controlled soldier
robots. The way he manages to use metallic objects around him resembles
the power of Magneto, the hero of the Marvel comics, which is pretty
similar.
 |
| Karl Heisenberg (left) with metallic objects around him, and Marvel's Magneto |
Although not one of the bad guys in the game, The Duke is definitely a mysterious figure what with his imposing appearance and his enigmatic words. Showing up for the first time as Ethan makes his way towards the Dimitrescu territory, The Duke acts as Ethan's helper and consultant, providing him also with weapons, ammunition and resources of all kinds. His design is quite impressive: he appears as an obese man who can hardly fit in his armchair, shoeless, due to the swellings around his ankles, and dressed like he belongs to another time and place. His overall appearance resembles Daniel Lambert, a famously obese jail keeper who lived in England from the late 18th to the early 19th century. He was a very strong man whose extreme weight was rather unexplainable, as he did exercise and would not eat nor drink uncontrollably. In 1805, he was registered as the heaviest person in recorded history. Later in his life, driven by poverty, he decided to put himself on exhibition, so that people could come and see him as an attraction, at a fee. As he was very smart and pleasant, he became quite popular, so he managed to make good money from his business. When he died, he weighed 335 kg, and his coffin required 20 men to be carried.
 |
| The Duke (left) and real-life jail keeper Daniel Lambert |
Unlike all previous characters, The Duke's fate remains a mystery. We can't even be sure if he is real, or just part of Ethan's hallucinations. In any event, the world of Resident Evil Village is a most interesting one, rich with elements that go beyond its gameplay qualities and call for further research and exploration.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
http://www.niagara2008.com/history144.html
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hidden_mother_photography
https://www.johncoulthart.com/feuilleton/2013/12/17/the-island-of-doctor-moreau/
