Capcom has been riding high on the success of the recently released Resident Evil Village, which is being hailed by both fans and critics as an action-horror super-hit. But it seems that the developers have hit a bit of a speed bump due to some hiccups in the monster design department. According to Dutch filmmaker Richard Raaphorst, the game has plagiarised several of his monster designs from his 2013 film Frankenstein’s Army.
We must warn you that there are potential SPOILERS AHEAD for RE Village. So if you’re yet to dive into the game, proceed at your own risk.
In a chat with Eurogamer, Raaphorst said that the Sturm boss, that appears in the game in Heisenberg’s factory, is a “one-to-one” copy of a monster he created for his 2013 horror film Frankenstein’s Army. As you can see in the clip from the film below, the humanoid has a propeller for a head which is very similar to Sturm’s design.
“This is just one-to-one, really,”
Richard Raaphorst
“It’s just the same scene as in my movie, except that in my movie you have to cut loose the fuel tubes. That’s the only thing that is missing. But the whole thing is getting into flames, and then it explodes, and then the way it rotates through the camera – it’s all the same, really. Even the environments, the whole colour palette. It looks like an animatic for my movie.”
Richard Raaphorst
Rapphorst alleges that Capcom never approached him for permission to use his designs. He only found out that his design had been used after he received messages from fans on 7th May, the day of the game’s release. Obviously, this displeased the filmmaker greatly.
“At first I felt pissed,”
Richard Raaphorst
“Then I felt proud. Now, I see all the reactions and I feel pissed again, and insulted. It’s so difficult to come up with a great design. It’s really hard to actually think about something that communicates as a cool design. It’s not just that ideas are floating around that you can grab. It’s actually hard labour. Then they just grab it and put it somewhere in the game. It’s creative abuse.”
Richard Raaphorst
This development prompted fans to take a closer look at some of the other monsters in the game and many other similarities to the ones in Frankenstein’s Army have come to light. It will be a stretch to claim plagiarism on most of the monsters featured in the thread below, but it is clear that Capcom is in a bit of an uncomfortable situation.
As it is not Raaphorst but American production house MPI Media Group that own the rights to the film, the Director does not expect any royalty payments to come out of this ordeal. But while Raaphorst is considering all options, he did outline how he would have loved to collaborate with Capcom for RE Village.
“If they had asked me, ‘hey, Richard, we’d love to have your design in our next Resident Evil, and we will give you a credit or some kind of royalty payment,’ I would have been honored and flattered and proud. It would have been a super positive experience,”
Richard Raaphorst
So far, Capcom has kept silent on these accusations. The next few days should bring some answers on how the company plans to deal with this situation.
About Resident Evil Village
Resident Evil Village is a survival horror video game developed and published by Capcom. It is the sequel to Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and the tenth major installment in the Resident Evil series.
The story begins with Ethan Winters and his wife Mia living happily in a new place, free from their past nightmares, a few years after the horrifying events in the critically acclaimed Resident Evil 7 biohazard. Just as they are starting their new life together, they are once again struck by tragedy. When Captain Chris Redfield of the BSAA attacks their house, Ethan has to go to hell again to get back his kidnapped daughter.
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