Filmmaker Richard Raaphorst has denounced CAPCOM for some of the monster designs featured in Resident Evil Village, alleging in a LinkedIn post that they have been taken without authorization or credit from his 2013 movie Frankenstein's Army, where a battalion of Russian soldiers during World War II steps inside the lair of a mad scientist and have to deal with his flesh and metal war machines.
In 2013 I directed my film Frankenstein’s Army. 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.
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Raaphorst then proceeded to share some image comparisons of one specific monster as it is depicted in Frankenstein's Army and Resident Evil Village. There's admittedly a significant resemblance between the two, as you can see below.
We have reached out to CAPCOM for a statement and will update this story if and when they respond.
Meanwhile, Resident Evil Village is off to a promising start. It became the first franchise entry to break 100K concurrent players on Steam, with a peak of 106.6K registered last Saturday by SteamCharts. In the UK, CAPCOM's latest survival horror title was the biggest retail launch of the year after Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury and the third-biggest PS5 launch to date behind Spider-Man: Miles Morales and Assassin's Creed Valhalla, according to GamesIndustry.
Resident Evil Village also got high grades from critics, including a nine from Wccftech. Here's an excerpt from Nathan's review:
Resident Evil Village is a wild, thrilling ride across seemingly every horror genre and idea that happened to pass through the mad minds at Capcom. Not every aspect of the game is perfect, but its highs are very high and solid core mechanics and excellent presentation hold the grisly patchwork together. You may survive Resident Evil Village, but your thoughts will linger there long after you’ve escaped.