WARNING: There are spoilers ahead for Resident Evil Village.
Monster design can make or break a horror game, and Resident Evil Village flies high in that area. Capcom’s latest survival horror megaton has been enjoying solid critical reception and strong debuts in terms of sales since its launch last week, and the vast variety and horrific creativity that is displayed in some of the enemies you take on in the game has a huge role to play in that success. But it’s been alleged that Capcom may have stolen the idea and design for one particular monster that you fight later on in the game. Before we proceed, here’s your final spoiler warning, since it happens pretty late in the game.
Towards the end of Heisenberg’s Factory, Ethan takes on a mechanical monstrosity that has a huge propeller where its head should be, and charges at the player with that propeller in full motion. Later on in this boss encounter, the as the propeller gets damaged, it catches on fire as well. Filmmaker Richard Raaphorst recently published a post on LinkedIn in which he accused Capcom of “stealing” the monster design from a similar creature that appears in the 2013 film Frankenstein’s Army, directed by himself, and using it without authorization and without any credit to Raaphorst.
“In 2013 I directed my film Frankenstein’s Army,” he wrote. “It’s a crazy monster movie filled with my own creature designs, one of which has been used – completely without authorization or credit in the newest Resident Evil game.”
Raaphorst also posted image comparisons of the similarities in question, which you can see below.
Not long after the Raaphorst’s post went up, a thread was published by Twitter user @CloneKorp showing several other monsters that show up in the Heisenberg’s Factory section of Resident Evil Village that bear resemblances to other creatures shown in Frankenstein’s Army. In response to the thread (see below), Raaphorst wrote, “This is worse then I thought. First I felt angry, then proud, but now I see this, I feel sad.”
Capcom have yet to make a statement about the accusations. Stay tuned for more updates.
Oh dude, this is worse then I thought. First I felt angry, then proud, but now I see this, I feel sad.
— Richard Raaphorst (@RichRaaphorst) May 10, 2021
