Capcom accused of stealing Resident Evil Village monster design from 2013 horror movie

[midian182]

A hot potato: There are plenty of monsters in Resident Evil Village, obviously, but one in particular has angered the director of a 2013 horror due to its uncanny resemblance to a creature he created. Richard Raaphorst said the Sturm boss is a "one-to-one" copy of the propeller-headed mutant he created for Frankenstein's Army.

In a later section of Resident Evil Village, players face a monster called Sturm, which has a spinning propeller attached to its head. In Frankenstein's Army, one of the many creatures encountered by the soldiers is a humanoid with a whirling plane propellor instead of a head. Much like its game doppelganger, the movie version is killed off in a fiery explosion.

https://t.co/Nqs0fuBUJT

— Richard Raaphorst (@RichRaaphorst) May 10, 2021

Speaking to Eurogamer, Raaphorst alleged that Sturm is a shameless steal from his found-footage feature. "It's just the same scene as in my movie, except that in my movie you have to cut loose the fuel tubes. That's the only thing that is missing," he said. "But the whole thing is getting into flames, and then it explodes, and then the way it rotates through the camera - it's all the same, really. Even the environments, the whole colour palette. It looks like an animatic for my movie."

Raaphorst said he only discovered the similarities between the two creatures when fans informed him on the day Resi Village went on sale. "At first I felt pissed," he said. "Then I felt proud. Now, I see all the reactions and I feel pissed again, and insulted. It's so difficult to come up with a great design. It's really hard to actually think about something that communicates as a cool design. It's not just that ideas are floating around that you can grab. It's actually hard labour. Then they just grab it and put it somewhere in the game […] It's creative abuse."

As Raaphorst doesn't own the rights to Frankenstein's Army—those belong to MPI Media Group—he isn't expecting to receive any royalties but would like to be credited.

"If they had asked me, 'hey, Richard, we'd love to have your design in our next Resident Evil, and we will give you a credit or some kind of royalty payment,' I would have been honoured and flattered and proud. It would have been a super positive experience."

As a horror fan, this writer has watched Frankenstein's Army—twice, for some reason—and rates it as one of the better found-footage horrors, though that's not a difficult achievement given some of the crap populating the genre. Whether Capcom plagiarized the movie monster, took inspiration from it, or the similarities are just a coincidence is unknown, but this won't be the last time a game is accused of stealing a design from another medium.

Permalink to story.

https://www.techspot.com/news/89647-capcom-accused-stealing-resident-evil-village-monster-design.html

 

[madboyv1]

I got bored watching the boss fight after about 45 seconds and started skipping around the video. I would have expected more out of a boss battle than basically a "lead the bull into a wall" mechanic. The flame attack was kinda cool though.

But yeah, you'd be hard pressed to not think one was heavily borrowed/copied from the other.

 

[Misagt]

For all those "creators" who thing they are genius because you came up with an idea to strap some sort of mechanical object onto a body. Get over yourself, our IP system has become insane. Anyone could come up with this idea all on their own. If they lifted the idea who cares it's not well own enough, it doesn't effect the value of a 8 year old unknown movie. The only reason it's being brought up is to try and get attention for their products.

 

[eTheBlack]

For all those "creators" who thing they are genius because you came up with an idea to strap some sort of mechanical object onto a body. Get over yourself, our IP system has become insane. Anyone could come up with this idea all on their own. If they lifted the idea who cares it's not well own enough, it doesn't effect the value of a 8 year old unknown movie. The only reason it's being brought up is to try and get attention for their products.

Yeah, if you copied anything from Capcom you would get sued. Dont be hypocritical, because you know Capcom would sue if you copied anything of theirs.

 

[VaRmeNsI]

Yeah, if you copied anything from Capcom you would get sued. Dont be hypocritical, because you know Capcom would sue if you copied anything of theirs.

How is he being hypocritical?

 

[Mr Majestyk]

Come on, scientists have been labelled propeller heads for decades, it's an old concept.

 

[fadingfool]

Spinning chainsaw blades on a rotating radial engine is not quite the same as the propeller head though there are obvious similarities. If it drive up sales of Frankenstein's Army (hmm wonder where they got that name and ideas from.....) then surely everyone wins.
Being first doesn't mean that someone else couldn't come up with the same idea in complete isolation - not everything is a copy just because it came later.

 

[Digitalzone]

Why are you guys defending Capcom? The WarnerBrothers took down that one man's Unreal Engine demo of Burton's Batman and when bigger company steals someones ideas you're all thirsty to blame the guy. I smell losers' envy. Capcom copied. Period.

 

[Fluffie]

Why are you guys defending Capcom? The WarnerBrothers took down that one man's Unreal Engine demo of Burton's Batman and when bigger company steals someones ideas you're all thirsty to blame the guy. I smell losers' envy. Capcom copied. Period.

I'm not defending Capcom. I'm saying that this objectively isn't copying.
As an artist, this is, at most. Inspired. It has the same idea of a monster with a propeller on it. And you'd have to be blind to say its a one to one 'copy' when there are a LOT of differences.

This simply put isn't a copy. Its not the same. Similar ideas; and I would certainly say they may have drawn inspiration, but its not a copy; a copy would have been nearly identical; but it's not. Its outline is drastically different so its not as if it's some subtle detail.... its just not???

If it was a copy then yeah absolutely they should be called out on it??? But saying Resident Evil is copying is like saying anyone who draws an elf is copying J RR Tolkien...

Actually you would have much more ground for that, because our modern perspective of elves came from his works. So we should really be mad at anyone drawing an elf, because they are copying his idea of a fair, elegant, human with pointed ears.

How about IT? That was literally BASED off of a book written and published by someone else.

Werewolves, vampires, zombies, xenomorphs. They are all the same idea. "monster, that uses humans to create more of its own kind."
But they are all so differently executed. As we don't call each zombie movie plagiarizing the previous ones despite the fact the core concept is still the same.

Go look up Genshin impact. Look familiar? The art style and world design is ACTUALLY one to one with breath of the wild. But Nintendo hasn't claimed they copied them- AND THIS IS FREAKING NINTENDO?!?!?!
The reason that game isn't a copy, despite visually looking identical; is that the world, story, and characters are something else entirely.

Also id like to point out that the person calling this plagiarism... when the movie they came from was FRAKENSTIENS army.
They didn't really come up with that name. And names are HARD to make.


And look. I hate how corporate centered we are. The fact we are calling them Capcom instead of naming the head designer who approved it; I hate it.
But this is simply a case of artistic freedom. Everyone has the right to be inspired; to take someone's idea and put their own spin on it. Because that's how we evolved. Imagine of the person who invented the wheel fought someone else over them changing the material, and using it on a wagon.