Resident Evil 8: Is Lady Dimitrescu A Vampire?

Of all the mysteries that surround Resident Evil Village, the nature of Lady Dimitrescu is one of the biggest. The truth about Resident Evil 8‘s enigmatic villain is unknown, including whether her vampire-like traits really mean she’s the “tall vampire lady” fans have come to know her as.

When fans of the series found out the new Resident Evil 8 Maiden demo was available following Capcom’s Resident Evil showcase, the PlayStation 5 store crashed, apparently due to a huge influx of players seeking to get their hands on the latest survival horror taster. After being prominently featured in marketing prior to the Resident Evil Showcase, fans were likely excited to see more from the elusive “tall lady,” Alcina Dimitrescu, and to learn of her background in the Maiden demo.

While there is a strong indication throughout the demo and newly released footage that RE8‘s Lady Dimitrescu is a vampire, on closer inspection, this theory does not add up quite as neatly as first impressions would have players assume. Lady Dimitrescu does certainly embody a lot of the characteristic tropes expected from a vampire in popular culture: She clearly has a penchant for blood; she tells her maidens that she “will not bite“; the idea of an open window on a hot, sunny day terrifies her; and she has the signature pale skin and amber eyes of other pop culture vampires, such as Twilight‘s Edward Cullen. That said, there are other, subtler clues that could make the idea of her being a vampire a bit of a red herring from Capcom.

Who (Or What) Is Resident Evil 8’s Lady Dimitrescu?

While the daughters of Lady Dimitrescu are shown in both the demo and the latest trailer for Resident Evil 8 to be able to transform into a swarm of insects at will, Lady Dimitrescu herself is fully corporeal in all her scenes and does not show the same ethereal lightness her daughters exhibit. Her daughters are also depicted with bloodstained lips and dark clothing, with an overall quite grubby and feral appearance. Lady Dimitrescu, on the other hand, is always immaculate. Her makeup is pristine, her hat perfectly positioned, and her white dress spotless, making it unlikely that she bites straight down into her victims to suck their blood. She is also shown to have a something that vampires typically do not have: When on the phone with Mother Miranda in the trailer, Lady Dimitrescu sits at an opulent dressing table complete with mirror – and a reflection of herself in it.

There is also a notable difference in how she and her daughters attack the player in the gameplay reveal and in the Resident Evil 8 demo, respectively. In the demo, players must cross the entrance hall of Castle Dimitrescu in a bid to get to the courtyard. However, as they are crossing, one of the daughters proclaims they “won’t last until dinner” and swoops down on the player, proceeding to use her teeth to rip at the player’s throat. The player escapes, but upon opening the door to the outside, is greeted immediately by Lady Dimitrescu, in all her gargantuan glory. Rather than taking a bite from the now-presumably-bloody neck of her victim, she instead produces Wolverine-like claws from her hand and proceeds to stab the player before the screen cuts to black. This attack is not that of a traditional vampire. Even Capcom itself does not label Alcina Dimitrescu as a vampire on the official Resident Evil 8 website. Instead, her character is described as “a towering woman with bewitching looks.”

While the possibility of Lady Dimitrescu being a vampire may now be a little less definite, there is most certainly something otherworldly going on with her. A diary entry found in the RE8 demo tells of a maiden’s first day at the castle in 1958, surprised to find the masters of the house were “all women… a mistress and her daughters.” Meanwhile, the main Resident Evil 8 story takes place sometime after the events of RE7‘s modern-day narrative. Should the master of the house mentioned in the maiden’s note be the same Lady Dimitrescu present in the latest gameplay reveal, that would make the lifespan of Resident Evil Village‘s mysterious, youthful-looking, and very tall lady incredibly long, be her vampire or not.

Resident Evil Village will be released for PC, PlayStation 4, PlayStation 5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X|S on May 7, 2021.

Source: Capcom

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