Capcom finally unveiled Resident Evil 8: Village at the PS5, proving that much of the rumors over the last few months appear to be spot-on in truth. Previous Resident Evil 8 rumors made many claims about the game, the most prominent among them claiming Resident Evil 8 would take place in a remote village with werewolves. That all appears to be confirmed, based on what is shown in the new Resident Evil 8 trailer.
But many fans may be wondering whether Resident Evil 8’s storyline, setting and enemies will be of a new flavor with supernatural origins, or stick to biological-based horror. No doubt, Resident Evil 8 has its own unique flavor that looks and feels detached from the main storyline of previous Resident Evil games.
There is a case for the possibility that Resident Evil 8 could take its universe and its canon in a new supernatural direction, especially given the presence of what appear to be werewolves in the Resident Evil 8 trailer. However, more evidence is still needed to make a persuasive case that Capcom is moving in a new supernatural direction. Such a move could be controversial to some long-time Resident Evil fans who want a plot that is constructed on the trajectory that the Umbrella corporation and its downfall set in previous Resident Evil stories.
Resident Evil 8: The Case for Supernatural horror
The Resident Evil 8 trailer starts with a narration of a story about a village girl searching for berries in the nearby forest, a long time ago. It is not clear how long. However, it sets a tone for a storyline with origins that date back to older times, seemingly or strongly possiby long before the fundamental plot-themes and origins of the Resident Evil universe were set in motion by the Umbrella corporation. The trailer’s short story concludes itself with a grown woman, the female narrator, explaining that the story of the village girl is a “local tale” which strongly suggests Resident Evil 8 could have a more self-contained story set in a mysterious village, similar to Resident Evil 4.
The original Resident Evil 4 was also set in a village plagued by cultists infected with deadly Las Plagas parasites which, up until recently, were believed to stand on their own as separate monstrosities unrelated to previous elements of Resident Evil’s biological terrors. But new revelations from Resident Evil 3 Remake’s design team have confirmed the parasites in Resident Evil 4 are connected to the overaching story.
By having a more self-contained story set in this isolated village with its own internal strife and issues, Resident Evil 8 can more easily dabble in the realm of supernatural horror and could take the series in a new direction. Set in its own enclosed space, the village, Resident Evil 8 can build its own roots without the overarching storylines of previous games interfering with a potentially supernatural paradigm present in Resident Evil 8, including a new set of Resident Evil villains with their own origins potentially.
Still, the notion that Capcom is actually taking the series in a supernatural direction, despite the aesthetics and themes shown in the trailer, needs more evidence, and seems unlikely. To take Resident Evil in such a completely new direction would run contrary to the architecture and mythos of the series and its canon as a whole, which is themed around biological-terror. In other words, in the Resident Evil universe and its reality-paradigm as we know it, based on all previous titles, the supernatural realm simply does not exist.
However, the possibility for a supernatural direction is still present. While it is rare, other games have experimented in overhauling their worlds in drastic ways. One such title that comes to mind is Red Dead Redemption: Undead Nightmare, which turned its semi-realistic cowboy-themed base game into a zombie-apocalypse set in the wild west.
Resident Evil 8: The Case for Biological Horror
Overall, it would be very surprising if Resident Evil went into the realm of the supernatural for the aforementioned reasons. Furthermore, at the two minute mark in the trailer, there appears to be a horse’s corpse, with dark liquid strewn all over which resembles some of the visual aesthetics from the fungus in Resident Evil 7, better known as the mold.
Some fans believe Resident Evil 8 is heading in a supernatural direction because of its inclusion of werewolves, which are normally creatures of the supernatural. If the enemies in the game are indeed werewolves, or werewolf-like creatures, the Resident Evil universe can easily explain the matter using the themes of its biological-fiction. Actually, very long ago, Resident Evil: The Official Comic Magazine included a werewolf in its series, themed around mysterious night-time murders of students on Raccoon City’s college campus.
The idea of humans mutating into wolf-like humanoids would not by any means be the first time Resident Evil has introduced monstrosities that were biologically engineered through some sort of fusion between animal and human biological matter, or DNA. In theory, a human could essentially be turned into a werewolf-like creature in similarity to the way Umbrella’s T-Virus works as a bonding agent between different species to create monsters such as Resident Evil’s Hunters, which are various hybrids of humans and amphibian animals.
Take, for example, the C-Virus in Resident Evil 6, which portrayed many insect-like properties among the infected. The C-Virus was created using a sample of the T-Veronica virus, the latter of which required the DNA of a queen ant to create. Furthermore, it appears Capcom is making moves to deepen Resident Evil’s roots in its core canon, as a recent meeting with Resident Evil 3’s development team revealed that the Las Plagas parasitic creatures in Resident Evil 4 have previously unknown historical links to Umbrella corporation and the original creation of the Nemesis monster in Resident Evil 3. It would seem unlikely that Capcom would tighten Resident Evil 4’s lore to the rest of the series, while sending Resident Evil 8 off in a totally new direction.
One very likely scenario for Resident Evil 8 is leading the players to believe there is a supernatural essence in their presence, but upon further investigation, it may be discovered to actually be biological horror when the full picture and story becomes clear. Until Dawn did this very well, in convincing both players and in-game characters that the game’s main threat could be supernatural, which turned out to be a totally different case in the end.
Resident Evil 8: A Case for Psychological Horror?
Another likely scenario is that Resident Evil 8 delves into psychological horror. This allows Capcom to tell a story that sticks with biological explanations for the villains and threats encountered, while providing a ghostly experience that lets players experience the world through a protagonist who is going through very dark mental tribulations. In cases such as this, they may be seeing, hearing, and experiencing matters that may appear supernatural in the character’s mind. One could argue that Resident Evil 7 took the series in a new direction that also had elements of psychological horror, especially in changing the game into first-person view, which is the common camera style for most modern psychological horror games such as Amnesia, Outlast, Layers of Fear, Silent Hills demo and others.
In moving further into the past, at one point Capcom had shown strong interest in moving the Resident Evil series in a direction that was more reminiscent of psychological horror. Take, for instance, the original alpha version of Resident Evil 4, which was never released and was cancelled, but released a trailer from 2002. In the trailer, a black fog is shown trying to chase after Leon Kennedy and engulf him. In the plot for this never-released version of Resident Evil 4, Leon is infected by a virus which would thereby play tricks on his mind and influence his brain’s functions, causing horrible hallucinations.
Ultimately, the original version of Resident Evil 4 was scrapped and the fog monster was removed from the series altogether, because the animation technology at the time was not sufficient enough to efficiently create it the way Capcom envisioned it. In the new trailer of Resident Evil 8, there is a particular snippet after the two minute mark which shows what could be mistaken for hundreds of bats flying around a room in close density. Comparing it to animations of the original Resident Evil fog creature from 2002, there is a very close resemblance, and perhaps it is not a coincidence that both games include a giant medieval castle where it seemingly appears.
While some fans of Resident Evil may be feeling worried that the series is changing course altogether, it is still too early to make the case that Resident Evil is becoming supernatural horror. Psychological horror is a strong possibility, and Resident Evil 8 certainly appears to focus itself in themes that may be reminiscent of folk-horror and the supernatural, with the trailer’s snippets of werewolves, what appears to be a witch in Resident Evil of sorts, and other cues that suggest miscellaneous forms of occultism, such as an ominously dark looking goat.
But this style and formula is actually very much a routine for Resident Evil games, which typically lead the player to believe the titles’ premise is based on one particular notion, only to surprise players and quickly put to rest all that is assumed about the matter. Resident Evil 7 did this most boldly, leading players to believe their biggest danger was a crazed Baker family reminiscent of characters from the Texas Chainsaw Massacre, only to discover the danger was a failed biological-weapon that had used the family as puppets. Similarly, fans may very well discover that Resident Evil 8’s supernatural vibes and visual aesthetics on the surface are not all that they seem, and like all previous games, the culprit is likely bio-terror.
Resident Evil 8 will launch in 2021 for PC, PS5, and Xbox Series X.
