Rebecca Booth

In Resident Evil Village (2021), the eighth installment in the longstanding Resident Evil (RE) video game series, the (unnamed but Romanian-coded) titular mountain village is ruled by matriarch Mother Miranda and her subordinates, a council of House Lords from four noble families. In her quest to find a compatible vessel to house the consciousness of her deceased daughter, Eva, Miranda has created a parasitic and mutagenic organism, the Cadou, from a fungal strain with regenerative properties known as Mutamycete, or The Mold. She offers chosen villagers and each of the House Lords this dark gift (Cadou means ‘gift’ in Romanian), which mutates the host to varying degrees, depending on compatibility: transformations range from the bestial lycans to the nefarious Lords, with the latter retaining ‘enhanced’ individual characteristics with a predilection for cruelty.

While the villagers and Lords are not viable matches, Ethan and Mia Winters’ exposure to a strain of The Mold in the previous game, Resident Evil 7: Biohazard (2017), resulted in a favorable mutation in their one-year-old daughter, Rose – marking her as a perfect vessel for Eva’s resurrection. Kidnapped by Miranda, Rose has been divided between the four House Lords until the resurrection ceremony (made possible by her regenerative powers), and Ethan must defeat each Lord to secure parts of his child.

Each representing a subgenre of horror, the Houses and their monstrous Lords thus structurally correspond to four distinct levels in the game. House Dimitrescu is a gothic castle filled with vampiric women; House Moreau is a semi-aquatic blend of body horror and Lovecraftian horror; and House Heisenberg is an underground factory containing an army of bio-chemical “soldats.” The house this essay is concerned with, House Beneviento, is a psychological horror puzzle of haunted memories and repressed secrets disguised as childish play – a life-size doll house that the player must escape. Its Lord, dollmaker Donna Beneviento, has divided the Cadou parasite among her dolls, allowing her to psychically puppeteer them (an extension of her parasitic-psychical ability to implant hallucinations in the minds of others).

Donna was an introverted child due to the scar across her left eye. The daughter of a dollmaker, Donna’s father made her a porcelain marionette doll (Angie) for companionship. When her parents died, she spoke only to Angie, and in her seclusion continued her father’s craft by transforming House Beneviento into a living doll house. Angie, however, is different from the other dolls: not only is she the sole named doll, but she is also present in a portrait of the pair (with Donna’s face tellingly restored), and she remains close to Donna at all times, as the only doll to travel outside the house (she is introduced in a council meeting in the Cave Church). While it could be argued that the parasitic attachment has cleaved Donna’s emotional dependency to her favorite doll to the extent that Angie has become the projected physical and psychical manifestation of Donna’s identity, it must be noted that Donna was speaking to Angie before she was transformed by the Cadou, which offers a more nuanced reading of their relationship.

Donna’s medical report, found in Miranda’s laboratory, refers to her as “mentally underdeveloped,” noting that while her brain function is normal, she has “severe mental illness.” Donna’s tragic background suggests that she is actually displaying symptoms of undiagnosed dissociative identity disorder (DID). Formerly known as Multiple Personality Disorder, DID is a trauma disorder involving identity fragmentation (rather than a personality disorder). Developing in childhood as a result of severe or chronic trauma, DID is thus characterized as fragmented parts of a single identity, known as an intrapsychic system, rather than fully separate personalities. It should be noted that all trauma-related disorders involve some form of structural dissociation. We develop a cohesive identity in early childhood (rather than being born with an integrated identity) by merging fragmented ego-states (internal states that everyone has and shifts between, from emotions to trauma responses). When this process is acutely disrupted, ego-states can remain divided, leading to the development of dissociated self-states (van der Hart, Nijenhuis & Steele 2–7).

The host in DID is the part who fronts the most and thus leads daily activities, but this is not always the original part of the self who existed before the development of other personality parts, also known as alters. Various degrees of dissociation can occur when parts switch and another fronts, and alters can have different voices, mannerisms, and even personal histories:

The alters may be few or many, of various ages, including older than the body, same- or cross-gendered, hetero- or homosexual, alive or dead, with either or both coconsciousness and copresence to varying degrees, which may not be commutative (i.e., may be one-way), communicating not at all, or through hallucinations, or through direct thought transfer, manifesting different physiological signs in the body when out, clustered in various arrays of dyads, subgrouping, layers, purposes, and so on. (Dell & O’Neil 301)

The fact that Donna conversed with Angie as a child suggests that Angie is an alter who developed before Donna was infected with the Cadou. As Paul F. Dell and John A. O’Neil note, “Subhuman, animal, or imaginary alters are not uncommon, with likely links to children’s fantasy” (301). Returning to their assertion that alters may interact via “either or both coconsciousness and copresence to varying degrees,” the close relationship between Donna and Angie suggests that the latter is the only alter and that the pair collectively form a two-part system.

A few points must be considered here. Miranda’s report details that Donna’s implanted Cadou was shared between her dolls, allowing Donna to puppeteer and fill her (doll) house with a surrogate family. This is distinct from her ability to project specific hallucinatory desires or fears into the minds of others, which she doesn’t appear to be able to experience herself – surely, she would have brought her parents back if so? Instead, she animates the dolls to appear ‘alive,’ even if puppeteered by her, to create a familial façade. Angie the doll presents an additional external factor to the pair’s dynamic. This tangible, separate physical form is the result of parasitic-psychical projection through the Cadou and is still therefore a form of puppetry (interestingly, Angie derives from the Greek angelos, meaning ‘angel’ and ‘messenger’); however, Angie is different to the other dolls in that this preternatural physicality is an extension of (alter personality) Angie’s fragmented identity: when Angie fronts, the system animates the doll as a manifested part of their two-part system. Further, it could be argued that Angie is the host in the system, in that notes within the game suggest that Donna only spoke to Angie before being implanted with the Cadou (with potential communication through hallucinations or direct thought transfer), and only through Angie after: as the Gardener’s Diary reveals, “Mistress Donna came to me in the garden today and used Angie to talk with me. We had a mighty fine conversation.” Their unique dynamic and coexistence suggest coconsciousness, however. Specifically, that Angie has primary control as the system’s host but Donna is copresent and thus aware when Angie fronts (as opposed to amnesia or various degrees of dissociation that can often occur when parts switch and front). This accounts for Angie’s incarnate independence via the doll; when she fronts, she is both the puppeteer and the puppet, and the doll is a physically separate, yet psychically connected, conduit within the collective system.

This symbiosis is revealed in several ways, notably in Angie’s design. Her face is composed of a moon and star, replicating the Beneviento family crest. The interlocking pieces form a fracture similar to the placement of Donna’s scar, a physical nod to her trauma disorder. The design makes it seem like Angie has a ‘third eye’ on her forehead, symbolic of the mystical concept of an invisible eye offering sight or perception beyond our physical realm. When taking into account Donna’s psychic powers as a result of Miranda’s gift, and the fact that one of her own eyes is damaged, Angie ‘corrects’ Donna’s missing sight. The regenerative properties of multiple biochemical strains are detailed in previous RE games, and the fact that Donna’s only physical change after being infected was that the scar has been replaced by the fleshy mass of the parasite, in addition to the fact that Angie’s Cadou resides behind the ‘third eye’ on her forehead, suggests that The Mold has regenerated Donna’s ‘sight’ to a heightened degree, and that Angie the doll is the conduit for this power.

This connection continues with Angie’s tailoring. Angie wears a lace wedding dress, complete with a lengthy veil, which could reflect the traditional hopes that Donna’s family had for her, particularly due to their aristocratic lineage, and by extension Donna’s own childhood aspirations. In stark contrast to Donna’s black dress and mourning-veil, this pairing could therefore signify life and death, with Donna perpetually dressed in mourning clothes (rather than the month-long period associated with modesty, familial respect, and loyalty in many historical European customs) to lament not only the loss of her parents but also the life she never lived. Like the star and moon crescent, this duality reinforces the fractured identity that each represents, as well as their interdependence: light and darkness, hope and despair, day and night. The style of the wedding and mourning dress, and the traditional values they represent, suggest a Catholic influence, particularly when considering that Donna’s name is of Italian origin: ‘Donna’ was historically used to denote the ‘Lady of the House,’ and ‘Beneviento’ (‘good wind’) is a surname linked to the southern Italian city of Benevento, a Latin archdiocese of the Catholic Church that was the southernmost Lombard duchy in the Italian peninsula until the eighth century.

This historical significance is intertwined with Benevento’s folkloric reputation as the City of Witches (La Città delle Streghe). This connection is particularly interesting when considering Donna’s psychical power as a result of the Cadou residing in her body: the secretion of a “signal producing substance” that enables her to control plants exposed to The Mold. When pollen from the infected plants is ingested, Donna is able to project powerful hallucinations into the minds of the afflicted. Benevento was associated with legends of the Janere, women blamed for local misfortunes who were said to transform into wind (again harking back to Donna’s surname) in order to enter homes and work their evil. Despite aiding neighbors as Domina Herborum (Mistress of Herbs), Matteuccia di Francesco of Ripabianca in Italy was executed for sorcery on 20 March 1428. During her confession (under the threat of torture), she admitted to creating an ointment that allowed her to travel ‘out-of-body’ and attend nocturnal gatherings at a sacred walnut tree in Benevento (Snodgrass 36–37). Local plants in the region with psychoactive properties included variants of Datura. Part of the Solanaceae (nightshade) family, ingestion can be fatal and induces a state of delirium, particularly surrounding the sensation of falling – or flying – and transformation. The path to Donna’s house is filled with yellow flowers that bear a strong resemblance to Datura, which are confirmed in the Gardener’s Diary (his last entry) to have a hallucinogenic effect:

Mistress Donna gave me yellow flowers and told me to plant them in the garden.

[…] I don’t know if it was the scent of the flowers, but I felt light headed. Then, like a dream, I saw my departed wife.

I mentioned this to Donna and she seemed thrilled by it. She told me to go to the house tomorrow and see her. She said I could see my family once more.

It is this flower that causes the player-as-Ethan to experience potent hallucinations; House Beneviento is not only a homage to RE’s psychological horror and eponymous puzzles, but it uses dolls, psychical puppetry, and illusion to explore the level’s themes of repressed and internationalized memories and trauma.

House Beneviento is built into the mountain next to a waterfall; along with the constant rush of water blanketing the house with white noise, this natural fortress creates an almost liminal space. While fitting for Donna’s introversion, the setting also hints at structural issues (damp, mold, erosion) symbolic of repressed trauma for both Donna and Ethan. This is reinforced by the fact that the main area in this level, Donna’s dollmaking studio, is accessed by taking a lift underground – from which Ethan must descend even further via a pitch-black well as part of a series of psychological games.

The most notorious puzzle involves his (supposedly) dead wife, Mia; not only does Ethan hallucinate her ghostly image holding Rose several times, but her ‘corpse’ is cruelly replicated as a mannequin that Ethan must dissect as part of his journey to discover the terrible secret she has been keeping from him – that he was murdered in the previous game, and The Mold has been temporarily animating his body, having collected his consciousness, in a perverse (psychologically repressed) form of psychical puppetry. Donna’s role in this reveal is complex, given her own psychological trauma and how this has manifested. The game makes it clear that the Cadou alters the host to varying degrees, depending on the success of assimilation, with a distinct correlation to a(/im)morality. While Donna is not exempt from this (when the hallucinatory effects of her ability lift upon her death, the ‘dolls’ hanging from trees on the path leading to House Beneviento are revealed to be villagers she has lured with the promise of seeing dead relatives), her appearance, backstory, and the childish nature of her games reveal her to be the most tragic character.

After Ethan bests the level’s psychological torment, Donna finally appears and speaks for the first and only time in the game. Her words, “Don’t leave . . . I can’t let you,” form a pathetic plea. The fact that Donna, rather than Angie, utters these last words is significant – particularly as Angie the doll is on the floor, folded and inanimate, suggesting that Donna has fronted to speak directly to Ethan in this moment of vulnerability. Donna then gestures to Angie the doll, which rises into her hands. Notably, Angie moves before all of the other dolls also levitate, and Donna disappears. This timing suggests that Angie has fronted and is again in primary control of the system, reinforcing her role not only as the host but as a protector during times of emotional stress (especially given her taunts in the resulting game of hide-and-seek, in which Ethan must hunt Angie specifically). Repeatedly stabbing the doll in the eye with a pair of scissors, Angie’s final scream bleeds into a white screen. The hazy filter indicative of the level’s hallucinatory effects is gone, revealing Donna’s dead body, her veil removed and tumorous eye bloody and gouged. Angie the doll lies motionless next to the body. Each defeated Lord leaves behind a calcified trophy of their remains that can be sold within the game, and the only remaining part of Donna is the doll.

This symbolism is a fitting end to her sad story: puppeted and discarded by Miranda, the surrogate mother who abused her vulnerability after losing both of her own parents as a child and living with undiagnosed mental illness, Donna is thus herself no different from the dolls she breathes artificial life into; she is frozen in time. In accepting the dark ‘gift’ of the Cadou from Miranda, her psychical powers ultimately reinforced her psychological prison. She dies alone in her childhood home – a life-size dollhouse filled only with the ghosts of memories.

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Works Cited

Dell, Paul F., and John A. O’Neil, “Dissociative Multiplicity and Psychoanalysis.” Dissociation and the Dissociative Disorders: DSM-V and Beyond. Routledge, 2009.

Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. Directed by Kōshi Nakanishi, Capcom, 2017. PlayStation 4.

Resident Evil Village. Directed by Morimasa Sato, Capcom, 2021. PlayStation 5.

Snodgrass, Mary Ellen. Witch Trials: A Worldwide Chronology. McFarland, 2024.

van der Hart, Onno, Ellert R. S., and Kathy Steele. The Haunted Self: Structural Dissociation and the Treatment of Chronic Traumatization. Norton, 2006.