The moment the Resident Evil Showcase was announced, and we saw a brief yet breathtaking glimpse of a tall vampire lady in the upcoming Resident Evil Village game, the Internet (myself included) instantly fell in love with her. Actually, more like thirsting after her, and being “horny on main” because of her. Everyone was referring to her as the “tall vampire lady” and wanted to know more about her. On January 22, Capcom finally hosted the Resident Evil Showcase which included a longer trailer for Resident Evil Village, so we were all treated to even more footage of this mysterious, beautiful creature; We even saw a stunning blonde hooded witch giving us serious Sarah Sanderson from Hocus Pocus vibes. Suffice it to say we did not expect to walk away from a Resident Evil showcase feeling this… excited.
The real question here is why is the Resident Evil franchise taking this type of direction now? In a series that has always focused on the grit, grotesque world of zombies and monsters, this new direction seems to be leaning more towards the classic creatures of the night. The style features vampires and werewolves – with an extremely gothic overtone – rather than the typical zombie affair we are accustomed to. It appears that the series is branching in a new path and it’s very refreshing to see this happen while still maintaining its survival horror roots. It is not only a departure from the norm of the franchise, but it fits in better with the narrative of this particular installment which Resident Evil Village seems to be going with.
We’ve already seen that Resident Evil Village is going to have that gothic, victorian-esque aesthetic and that the focus will be more vampires. In classic literature there is almost always the dark and mysterious countess, and the tall vampire lady fits that bill perfectly. The attire she wears fits into the idea of an olden day’s countess. She exudes that upper-class superiority of high society with her attire of a long white dress, jewels and a large hat. I mean, she also lives in a mansion. There is power and charm in her design, but rather than have her be a typical villain hiding behind the curtain to jump out at you, she can grab you and slaughter you with her finger claws, which is a brilliant adaptation on the expected norm of villainous women.
Here is what we have learned so far about our vampire queen. Her name: Lady Dimitrescu. The tall lady vampire does have an official name now via the Capcom blog and it appears to possibly adapt the concept of the Hachishakusama, which is a Japanese urban legend. The Hachishakusama’s description in the legend is that she is a tall woman who dresses in white and kidnaps children to eventually eat them – which sounds very reminiscent of our Lady Dimitrescu. But we will have to wait to see more about her concept and story when we play Resident Evil Village. Vampires, by nature, were originally designed to be seductive creatures of the night. This idea has further evolved to be more animalistic, concerned only with feeding and survival; a combination of beauty and violence. Resident Evil Village could very well blur all these different lines together and is reinforced by the fact these are attractive, tall, dark women. They have a sense of being proper, upper class, and superior, yet also incredibly deadly. Attractive and could kill you in a second if they wanted too.
The trailer goes on to reveal the vampiric woman of everyone’s dreams. She’s talking to someone named Mother Miranda and is talking about how Ethan has escaped. He’s apparently in her castle and is giving her daughters a tough time. Seems that there is some kind of ceremony coming up and before she can give away any details she hangs up the phone. Maybe Ethan is needed for this ceremony, we will have to wait to find out.
Honestly, the overwhelming positive public reaction to these beautiful creatures must make Capcom extremely happy because it proves to them that they have nailed both the theme and this new direction for Resident Evil Village. I think it’s important to note Capcom also did not make these women decrepit old zombies or monsters and that was taking a chance. Their entire design has a purpose, they are enticing vampires which fits so much better to reflect the nature of the new aesthetic and direction.
As part of the showcase, current-gen players are now able to play a stand-alone Resident Evil Village demo, called Maiden, which offers us a brief look at Castle Dimitrescus and our gorgeous vampire love. Resident Evil Village is set to release on May 7, 2021 and will be available on both past-gen AND current-gen PlayStation and Xbox consoles, PC. Until then, we will just have to lust over our tall vampire lady in our dreams.