Resident Evil Village - What We Know So Far

Hello everyone and welcome once again!

The fact that I was gone for such a long time doesn't mean that I haven't been keeping my ears open and my nose pointed towards the wind. The backlog of werewolf-related things to talk about has been building, I'll admit. When I came back, I thought I'd take a look at good old Werewolf Theory's posts section - and the amount of drafts that I left genuinely surprised me. Most of them still require quite a bit of research and work to be ready to publish, though, so I can't say when I'll be able to go through them all. But I sure as heck can try!

In the meantime, however, there is a more pressing matter I'd like to talk about. And that is the upcoming newest instalment in Capcom's Resident Evil series - Resident Evil Village that is scheduled to release on May 7th this year for PC and both the current and the older generation of consoles. It's already way overdue that we talk about this one, so let's get to it!

The official cover artwork for Capcom's upcoming release.
Click on the image to view version for different platforms and to pre-order/purchase the game from Amazon using Werewolf Theory's affiliate link

The image above speaks for itself as to the reason why I am writing about the game here on Werewolf Theory. Ladies and gentlemen, we now have werewolves in Resident Evil. Let's take a look at what we know so far.

Resident Evil Village (also known as Resident Evil 8, since the roman numerals are incorporated into the title), originally titled Biohazard: Village in Japanese, was first announced during Sony's Playstation showcase event in June 2020. I remember being completely taken aback when the announcement trailer showed enemies that looked very much like werewolves. I was shocked at the reveal of the official cover artwork as well, which features one of the characters' face on one side and a (were)wolf's snout on the other. Because Resident Evil has always been predominantly about zombies, mutants and what have you, I was more than surprised to see the newest instalment in the series going in a completely different direction. If someone had told me that the new game was going to replace zombies as primary enemies with something else, I don't think I would have guessed that werewolves and vampires (yes, vampires) would take their place.

But, as it turned out as more of the game was shown, it was a perfect match for the setting of the game's story. Since the announcement last year, two more trailers, a developers' insight video, a gameplay showcase and a playable demo have been released, giving us more details about what's going to happen as well as a better look at the game world itself. The game's director, Morimasa Sato, said in the developer insights video that he thinks of the Resident Evil series "as horror movies with the player in the starring role". By the looks of the upcoming release, I would say they're on the right track.

A look at the village's graveyard, with Castle Dimitrescu in the background

Resident Evil Village takes place a few years after the events of Resident Evil 7: Biohazard and continues the story of the previous game's protagonist, Ethan Winters, who is shown living what seems to be a regular, normal life with his wife. At some point, however, he is called on by Chris Redfield (a character that has been part of the series since the original Resident Evil) who, for as of this moment unknown reason, murders Ethan's wife before kidnapping him and transporting him to a remote village somewhere in Europe. We don't get a precise location, but from the way it looks (and the fact that the nearby castle is called Castle Dimitrescu) I would say it's pretty safe to assume it's in Romania, or close. It has a very Van Helsing-esque, gloomy feel to it, with a sinister-looking castle towering over it in the distance. As can be expected, something wicked is going on in the village - as the player-controlled Ethan explores it and solves various puzzles, he is confronted by a woman who seems to be either a witch or a cult member (for yes, there seems to be some sort of cult present) and attacked by what appear to be ghouls, as well as werewolves.

And then there are the vampires, a female coven of whom are the main antagonists of the game. From what has been revealed so far, Lady Dimitrescu, the leader of this coven, is also the lady of the aforementioned castle. Ethan's mission is to brave the dangers in the village and reach the castle, where he is to rescue a girl who is being held captive by the vampires, a plot-line very reminiscent of the earlier Resident Evil 4. And so far that is about it when it comes to what we know of the story. Why did Chris murder Ethan's wife and bring him all the way to a European village full of all kinds of supernatural beings? Is Chris a werewolf, like the cover art would suggest? If so, how did he become a werewolf? Is he part of the village cult? Are the werewolves controlled by the castle's vampires? Who is Lady Dimitrescu and what is her motivation? Who is the girl Ethan's meant to rescue and why was she captured in the first place? It seems that we will have to wait a while longer to get all the answers.

What looks to be a glabro werewolf, as seen in one of the trailers

I can't say I've ever been a fan of the Resident Evil series (hear me out here), because I've never really played through any of the games myself. I've made several attempts over the years to finish the first one, but I never managed to do so. But I've enjoyed seeing other people play them, because their stories were always interesting to me, since I like pretty much everything horror. Maybe this time I'll give it a shot, since the newest part has werewolves in it and I really like the art style.

Anyhow, there's still quite some time before the release. Who knows what new information will be made public before then? If there is anything of interest (read: anything werewolf-related) in whatever is released next, I will make sure to update this post. In the meantime, you can view all of the Resident Evil Village content released thus far on the official Resident Evil YouTube channel. You can also visit the game's website at https://www.residentevil.com/village. And if you happen to be planning on pre-ordering or buying the game when it releases from Amazon, I would be grateful if you used my affiliate link by clicking on the first picture in this post or by using the link provided in the Support Me section at the top 😀

So, what do you think about the newest Resident Evil game? Let me know in the comments below!

Until next time! 

News From the Dark Side of the Moon #4

3:40 A.M.

*KICKS THE DOOR IN*

I'M BACK.

Okay, seriously, though... How do I even start after all this time? I can hardly believe it's been four and a half years since I last posted something here. Although I've been hovering around the place, as well as Facebook and Twitter (though less) like a ghost, posting something or other from time to time, don't think I've forgotten about the blog. I am currently both mentally and physically exhausted from trying to give the website an overhaul, but I just wanted to give you all a quick update about what's what. It's 3:50 a.m. over here, so if I can still count, I spent about eight and half hours grappling with Blogger and its themes in order to give Werewolf Theory a bit of an updated look, at the same time keeping all the features I want and making them do and look the way I want. Which has not been easy, even less so now that I've forgotten most of what I knew of HTML from back in the day. There's still a lot of work that needs to be done, so I foresee another day of work ahead of me tomorrow before I can say I'm content with the changes. I would also like to say a few words about the time when I was away, but I'm afraid I have to leave that until tomorrow - I'm just too tired right now and I can feel my fingers are trying to tell me to give it a rest for today.

Before I crash, I would like to thank all of you who have been visiting both Werewolf Theory and its Facebook page, giving likes and leaving comments. I realise that sometimes it might seem like you're throwing your feedback into a black hole, but know that I read everything. Thank you for all your support. I probably don't deserve it after all this time, but... Thank you.

Okay, I will update this post later on to say what I want to say, but, for now, I need a rest 😆

3:15 P.M.

Yes, I slept that long.

So, first things first. I'll keep this short, because I don't feel like wallowing in self-pity and it won't make for a good read either. A lot has happened in the last 4-5 years, a lot has changed in my life. Most of that time I spent coping with depression and anxiety. The former I was able to overcome thanks to my loved ones' support as well as professional help; the latter doesn't seem like will be leaving me entirely any time soon, but I'd like to think I've got it under control. So that's that. Another thing was that I slowly became burned out on writing articles for Werewolf Theory. Research, preparation and the actual writing were always a long process and at some point I simply couldn't get myself to spend a few hours at a time to publish something. A lot of my creative work, not only writing-related, fell by the wayside over time in favour of other activities. As I thought of the blog every time I would hear something werewolf-related, I felt sad, knowing that I just wasn't in the right mindset to do anything with it. I basically lost my drive. This was exacerbated by the fact that I really wanted to try making the Werewolf Movie Reviews into a video format as well as my indecision as to whether I should go forward with that idea or stick to the written format. I was also terrified of the additional workload that would put on top of what such reviews/analyses already require. And at that point I began wondering if I should start making just video content altogether or divide it between the blog and the YouTube channel. If I decided to divide, then what should go on the YouTube channel and what should stay here? And so my inability to decide and my doubts whether or not I would be able to pull the video reviews off discouraged me from doing anything even more. Days turned into weeks, weeks into months, months into years - and so here we are. So that's pretty much a general overview of what's been going on with me. I'm still kind of undecided about the reviews. What do you think?

The overhaul

Like I posted on Facebook, I decided to finally do some spring cleaning on the blog. I liked the way it looked for the last few years, but I thought it would be a good thing to change some things up a little, you know, give it a bit of a different look for a different time. Honestly, I knew it would be a bit of work, but I didn't expect it to be this much. But it was needed. I still haven't finished, but I'm definitely closer to being done than not. Going through all the elements of the page allowed me to fix some bugs that have appeared over the years due to links changing and so on. Just for clarity's sake (since you probably can see the most obvious changes already), here's what's different:

• Sections into which the posts were divided have been moved to separate pages that can now be accessed on the cross-bar below the header. It was something I had been wanting to implement for a long time, but never really knew how without building the page from scratch. Fortunately, Blogger's Pages feature turned out to be great for this purpose.
• Moving the link lists to the mentioned tabs above allowed me to cut down to only one sidebar, which, I think, is a visual improvement
• I think that at this point I've removed all Amazon affiliate ads from the sidebar. The adds after posts I left for now, because I don't think they're as annoying. I will keep an eye on them and if I don't like them, I'll do away with them as well.
• There is now a dedicated tab called "Support Me", where you can find out how you can, well, support me. I think it's far more organised and less jarring than having stuff all over the place. So check it out, if you'd like to quite literally put food on my table.
• Last but not least, I refreshed the header at the top. It's a bit different than it used to be, but still uses most of the old art.

And I think that's about it for the changes, at least for now. Tell me what you think!

The road ahead

When it comes what's next for Werewolf Theory, we will see how it goes. Coming back and looking through all the content I noticed I've got a lot of posts saved as drafts. The degree to which they are finished varies, some are pretty much outlines, others need just a little more work. I will try to pace myself this time so as not to get burned out again and if I manage that, we should be good. Because I have a veritable mountain of things I want to write about. I will take it one step at a time and see where the road ahead takes me.

Thank you for reading and I hope to see you all again soon. Welcome to what I hope will be a great new era for Werewolf Theory 🐺

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A First Look at Underworld: Blood Wars (2016)

As I recently wrote on Facebook, yesterday evening I went to the cinema to see the latest instalment in the Underworld franchise and as promised, I’m here to write my initial impressions. It’s a pretty rare occasion to be able to write a post like this, since hardly any werewolf movies are shown in cinemas around these parts (unless they’re part of a more-or-less known series like this one), so I’m pretty happy to be doing this. Also because I haven’t written anything in ages again, but I digress. Now, let’s get this show on the road!

(This is where the spoilers start, so in case anyone thought this would be spoiler-free, cease and desist right here and come back once you’ve seen the movie. Sorry! If you don’t mind being spoiled, though, keep on going.)

First off, if going to this movie you thought it was all over – well, for better or worse, it’s not. Contrary to what the trailers and promotional posters would lead you to believe, this does not seem to be the end of Selene’s tale. If you expected Blood Wars to end with some kind of resolution to the current plotline, then you’re in for a disappointment. The only “peace” that is achieved here is an internal peace among the remaining vampire covens and it very much seems like we are in for another sequel if this one sells well enough. The conflict with the Lycans, which is still the underlying reason for everything that has been happening for a while here, still hasn’t seen any lasting resolution after five movies. But let’s look at things one at a time.

So the basic premise of Blood Wars is this: Selene is still being hunted by both the vampires and the Lycans, but for different reasons – the vampire council wants her caught for her killing Victor and consorting with a Lycan/hybrid a.k.a. Michael, while the Lycans want her because they think she can lead them to her daughter, Eve, whose blood they ultimately want. Problem is, Selene doesn’t know and doesn’t want to know where her daughter is in order to ensure her safety. So why do the Lycans want Eve’s blood so badly? The overall motivation remains the same since the beginning of the franchise – they want their species to evolve (and I mean that as a plural, because they want both the Lycans and the vampires to do that), so that the bloody conflict between the two ‘bloodlines’ could come to an end. As it’s to be expected, the vampires do not want to hear any of this (even if it makes sense) and are bent on winning the war and ensuring the purity of the bloodlines at any cost.

When it comes to Selene, for most of the film she seems to be caught in the middle of all this wishing she could be left alone and in peace. I do kind of get where the writers are coming from with this – after learning that her whole life as a vampire had been based on a lie forged by Victor, becoming an outcast from her own coven, losing Michael and then technically losing her daughter as well, who wouldn’t become all mopey and resigned to their fate? She does recover from all this a little at the end, though, due to the events that transpire.

As we had already known for a while, Scott Speedman would not be reprising the role of Michael in any more Underworld movies, so the writers did the only good thing they could have done with his character, in my opinion, and got rid of him. Yes, in Blood Wars it’s finally confirmed that the Saga of Michael Corvin has come to an end. Seriously, it was high time we were done with Michael – for a while it looked like the writers didn’t know what to do with him, so it’s better this way. After all, since his introduction in Underworld: Awakening, David has been a much better sidekick for Selene than Michael ever was, in my opinion. But the hybrid saga does not end there, since now it seems we’re in the middle of the Eve Saga. While in Underworld it was all about getting to Michael and in Evolution everyone wanted him dead because of him being a hybrid, in Awakening and in Blood Wars it’s all about getting to Eve because she’s a hybrid. In other words, Selene can’t catch a break, because there’s always a person she has to protect.

Finally, I would like to touch on the subject of Lycans themselves. Ladies and gentlemen, we at last have a female Lycan! Like, they really exist. At least it seems so, because, disappointingly, we only get one and it’s for a few short scenes where not much happens and she’s not even given a proper name. So, uh, is that a yay? Yes? Maybe? I guess? But jokes aside… If I want to talk about the Lycans, I have to mention one more thing – if it wasn’t obvious already, it seems that since Awakening the Underworld series has become centred on Selene and the vampires to the point that we are encouraged to root for them. Now, this has become a problem for me, because the original Underworld as well as Rise of the Lycans provided us with a backstory of the vampires’ abuse of their sister race, which gave us a solid reason why some of us could root for them. While at the beginning the reason the Lycans wanted to create hybrids was closely tied to Lucian’s personal revenge on the vampires, now they strive to evolve and perfect their species to secure a lasting peace – of course, that would also mean they would become more powerful than the vampires – and, who knows, perhaps they would exact their revenge on the other faction by wiping them out (and can we really blame them?), but hey, nobody’s perfect. However, all their attempts at achieving this are thwarted in the end by Selene and David who eventually rejoin the Eastern Coven and actually become members of its leadership. In Awakening, Blood Wars (and even Evolution I would say) the franchise has been following a pattern that is quickly becoming predictable and mundane: the Lycans become organised and/or unified under a strong leader, try to evolve/perfect their species, but in order to do that they need something related to Selene and the vampires, so they attack her or the covens, initially it seems like they might actually succeed, but in the end are decimated by the vampires and everything returns to the status quo. And speaking of organisation, at one point Selene remarks that the Lycans are organised and have become a danger to the vampire covens because of a strong leader. She even states that “there has never been a Marius”, which should set off a red light in everyone’s who’s seen all the movies up to this point head, because have the characters already forgotten about Lucian? The last time the Lycans were competent enough to get something done was when they were led by Lucian. So saying there’s never been an (insert name here) is pretty ungrateful to the late Lucian’s memory. Ouch! Not to even mention another striking similarity between Lucian and Marius – the fact they were both romantically involved with members of the vampire coven, which was part of the reason they strived for the unification of the bloodlines, but that’s just a cherry on top. What I was getting at, however, is that in Blood Wars the trend continues, where it appears that the creators are trying very hard for us to root for the vampires only, because we know that whatever the Lycans do, in the end, they will fail.

All in all, Blood Wars is basically more of the same – vampires and werewolves still engage in bloody shoot-outs, the vampires hold out against the Lycans, whose plans inevitably fail, and the whole thing ends on another cliffhanger. I was really hoping that this would be the movie that would tie up the series and bring us a conclusion to the vampire-werewolf conflict, but that just wasn’t meant to be. While there are some good things about it, it just seems like another decent-but-nothing-special instalment in a franchise that probably should have ended already. The effects are okay (they’re pretty much the same as what we saw in Awakening), the music is pretty good, but at some points I thought the acting could have been a little bit better. For example, for the first few scenes after Thomas arrived at the vampire coven I got the impression that Charles Dance was delivering his lines into the air, because it seemed like he didn’t want to make eye contact with any of his supporting cast, but fortunately that soon changed. (I have to say, seeing him engage in a swordfight was one of my favourite moments of the movie.) There were also a couple of awkward scenes that could have been shortened or perhaps omitted altogether. It seemed like the good scenes, although there were many, always ended up being pulled down by the bad/awkward ones. It did seem to happen more at the beginning and towards the middle of the movie, though, and less towards the latter half, fortunately. We also seemed to get fewer Lycan wolf-form scenes than in the previous movies – the reasoning behind this being that the Lycans are paradoxically the weakest when in wolf form because they cannot use weapons and their judgement is clouded too much by bloodlust.

So what would be my verdict on Blood Wars? I would say this – it’s definitely not the worst movie you could go and see right now, but it’s also not the best. I’d say it falls somewhere in the middle of the spectrum – it’s a decent action movie to watch if you’re into the monster genre and of course it’s worth seeing if you’ve been a fan of the series. Just don’t expect any fireworks. It could have been worse, but it could have also been better. We will see if the story will continue in time, but until I can whip up a full-fledged review once Blood Wars has come out on Blu-Ray, I will leave you with this.

This whole article is based on my personal opinion after all, so let me know what you thought about the movie in the comments! And if you’ve yet to go see it, I hope you enjoy it anyway regardless of what my impressions were (I mean, I enjoyed it, but not as much as I’d hoped to) – after all, we all like different things and that’s what makes us all awesome. In the meantime, I hope you all have a great day. Take care and I will see you next time!

P.S.

I am still planning on releasing those video reviews, it’s just taking a lot longer than I expected to get everything sorted…

News from the dark side of the moon #3

And no, I am not dead yet, I've just been so snowed under with all the other stuff that's been going on that I've hardly any time to watch, read, or write anything related to werewolves. It's been another very dry season, I admit, but hopefully I'll be able to breathe some new life into the blog in the near future. In the meantime, be sure to check out Werewolf Theory's Facebook Fan Page and Twitter for random short updates. And, of course, a great many thanks to all the visitors who either still frequent this corner of the Internet or have stumbled upon it for the first time!
See you soon!

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