Resident Evil Village, the latest title in Capcom's long-running survival-horror series, is out now. The game takes place in a small, unnamed village in the Romanian mountains. The village has historically been ruled by four noble families, the Beneviento, Morea, Heisenberg, and Dimitrescu. While all the families appear in Resident Evil Village, it's the denizens of Castle Dimitrescu that have most captured the gaming community's attention.
Lady Alcina Dimitrescu, Countess and matriarch of the Dimitrescu family, has basically become the face of Resident Evil Village. This was encouraged through the game's promotional art and trailers, driving fans' fascination with the character. Many people refer to Lady Dimitrescu as a vampire, and while she does have vampiric traits, that's not the whole story. To find out what she really is, we have to go deep into Resident Evil Village's plot. Needless to say, there are spoilers ahead for the latest Resident Evil title.
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While we don't have an exact date of birth for Lady Dimitrescu, we can guess that she was most likely born some time in the early 1900s. In her mortal life she suffered from a hereditary blood disease, until she came into contact with Mother Miranda in the 1950s.
The primary antagonist of Resident Evil Village, Mother Miranda is a scientist, priestess, and mutant. She infected Lady Dimitrescu with a bio-organic weapon called a Cadou, which granted the Countess superhuman healing, strength and immortality. The downside of the Cadou is that it also required her to consume large amounts of human blood and flesh to survive. It's this consumption that led Lady Dimitrescu to grow to her impressive height of 9'6''.
A few years after her own transformation, Lady Dimitrescu used the Cadou parasite's eggs to create three "daughters." These were insectoid-creatures that could take on the form of human women, that she named Daniela, Bela, and Cassandra. Like Lady Dimitrescu, the three daughters had similar powers, and relied on human blood and flesh for sustenance. However, they could also turn into swarms of insects, but were incapable of surviving cold temperatures. This left them trapped in Castle Dimitrescu, unlike their "mother."
On the surface, Lady Dimitrescu's vampiric traits are rather obvious. Firstly, she has three of the powers most commonly associated with vampirism: enhanced strength, immortality, and rapid healing. In addition, she requires human blood to survive, which she drinks mixed with red wine to form a concoction called Sanguis Virginis (Latin for Virgin's Blood). This drawback was a result of her pre-existing blood condition.
Another compelling argument for Lady Dimitrescu's vampiric status is the number of references to famous vampire stories that have been woven into her own. Not the least of which is her home in Castle Dimitrescu, a Romanian fortress which bears a striking similarly to Count Dracula's famous home in Transylvania (which is itself a region of Romania). Her three daughters are also a reference to the most famous vampire in fiction, as Dracula shares his home with three "Sisters" who prey upon visitors. Finally, Lady Dimitrescu's drink of choice, Virgin's Blood, refers to a popular trope that Vampires prefer the blood of virgins to all others.
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Although it's certainly true that Lady Dimitrescu has several vampiric traits, whether she can be thought of as a true vampire is less certain. Firstly, there's the method by which she gained her powers. In folklore, vampires are traditionally "sired" by another vampire, who passes on their powers through allowing the victim to drink their blood. If there is an original vampire, they generally gained their powers by being cursed by God or another supernatural entity. By comparison, Lady Dimitrescu is more like Mr X from the previous Resident Evil.
As far as we can tell, Lady Dimitrescu also seems to have none of the traditional vampiric weaknesses. There are many different things that can seriously harm a vampire in fiction, including sunlight, garlic, holy symbols, and holy water. Although its stated that Lady Dimitrescu and her daughters are sensitive to sunlight, the entire final portion of her boss battle in Resident Evil Village takes place outside the castle during the day.
Another argument that Lady Dimitrescu isn't a vampire comes from her consumption of flesh. While drinking human blood is pretty much the core vampiric trait, actually consuming flesh is rarely associated with it.
There may be hundreds of different representations of vampires in fiction, but there are some rules that they must share to be considered true vampires. Overall, it seems that while Lady Dimitrescu certainly displays many vampiric traits, she can't be called a true vampire in Resident Evil Village. Her lack of the core weaknesses, and the unique mutation-based method which gave her her powers are enough to disqualify her.
Resident Evil Village is out now for PC, PS4, PS5, Stadia, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X.