RE8’s Lady Dimitrescu is inspired by Morticia Addams

Last month, Capcom unveiled Resident Evil Village’s massive female vampire Lady Dimitrescu. At 9’6 ” tall (with hat and heels), she has captured the imaginations of many internet users – who mostly ask her to step on it. But she’s not the first tall Gothic hottie to steal people’s hearts. According to RE8 art director Tomonori Takano, she is partly inspired by perhaps one of the most famous most disturbing women, Morticia Addams.

“At the start of planning, we decided to [a] castle and vampire motifs, “Takano tells IGN.” However, we didn’t want to be constrained by how vampires have been portrayed in various forms of popular entertainment. ”

He says they went with the concept of a “bewitching vampire”, inspired by Morticia Addams of Anjelica Huston, 16th century serial killer Elizabeth Báthory and Japanese urban legend, Hasshaku-sama.

This has been a great reminder that I am very late showing the values ​​of the Addams family. Lady Dimitrescu is cool and all, but let’s remember who the real goddess is here.

As for Dimitrescu’s other inspirations, probably the scariest of the bunch is the real serial killer Elizabeth Báthory. She was a Hungarian nobleman in the late 1500s who spent her time kidnapping and torturing peasant women. Stories and speculation suggest she was a bit of a vampiric and believed that bathing in human blood would keep her young. I’ll be honest, this one took a bit of Lady D’s sparkle for me.

Then there is Hasshaku-sama, an urban legend who emerged from the depths of 2chan. She is said to be a monster who stood about eight feet tall, wore a long white dress and a wide-brimmed hat. This certainly checks out Resi’s favorite new villain. Hasshaku-sama is also said to prey on young men, so watch out for Ethan.

“I don’t think of anyone [on the team] could have predicted how wonderfully fans reacted to Lady Dimitrescu, “Takano adds.” Personally, I was particularly struck by comments like, ‘I want to be chased by her.’ ”

Unfortunately, IGN didn’t appear to ask if Takano was surprised by people comparing his size to that of an ostrich. Nate did just that in his final size chart for Lady Dimitrescu. Spoiler: Emperor penguins are bigger than you might think.