In my first instalment of this REVillage deep-dive, I made my case for how villainy in this game is not always as it seems- and how Lady D and Ethan aren't too dissimilar when it boils down to it. This time, let's check out the Second Lord- Donna.
SPOILERS AHEAD!!
Upon slaying Alcina Dimitrescu (sob), Ethan collects the first of four flasks (each guarded by one of the Four Lords). Their contents is....macabre, to say the least.
A whirlwind traverse back into the village sets Ethan on a mission collect the first of three winged keys and gain access to the abode of the second of the Four Lords...
The Second Lord: Donna Benviento (/Angie the Doll)
Perched on the edge of a thundering waterfall, House Beneviento sits timidly at the foot of a laberinthine pathway. It is dotted with gravesites, china dolls, and strange fragrant herbs which cause Ethan to see visions of his wife Mia (who we know gunned down by Chris Redfield in the game's prologue).
Upon entering the house, a more modest abode compared to the opulence of Castle Dimitrescu, you find that Ethan cannot interact with items in the same way he can in the rest of the Village. You can't open drawers, cupboards, or open boxes in search of items. A quick loop around reveals the mansion to be a rather unremarkable place save for the eerie stillness of it. We see a large painting above the stairs: a beautiful young Donna Beneviento, face unveiled, with a spooky doll cradled carefully in her lap. We have only encountered Donna and Angie at this point, her face obscured by what seems like a black mourner's veil, so seeing her face only adds to the enigma; something must have happened to it, so what is Donna hiding beneath the shroud now?
House Beneviento and Angie tell us more about the diminutive Donna than she ever could herself. They act as, essentially, extensions of her.
We don't hear Donna speak more than two lines in the whole game- but they are haunting ones.
Reaching an elevator through a narrow corridor that twists behind the kitchen, Ethan descends into the basement of the mansion.
And this, dear reader, is where I mute the game until we return upstairs.
I cannot quite express the stomach-in-the-throat cold terror I felt the first time I played this section of Village.
You trot down a totally not creepy corridor before stumbling upon two large double doors leading into a doll workshop. As you enter the workshop, you are greeted by Angie the Doll. She is waiting patiently for you on her very own chair, the second coveted flask easily accessible in her lap. Totally not bait at all!
Right, Ethan?
WRONG. SO, SO WRONG.
"I'd make a much better daughter than Rose. Won't you stay with me? Forever?"
The lights black out. Angie's voice speaks to you in the darkness, burbling wickedly with that creepy childlike quality which is oh-so The Shining.
The game here takes a swift departure from the action and combat-heavy elements which have featured so heavily up until this point. It slides suddenly into true psychological horror as Ethan, stripped of all his weapons and items, has to navigate a series of puzzles in order to break free from this basement of madness.
The puzzles all concern his marriage with Mia, his baby, and the secrets Mia seems to be hiding from her husband. It is revealed later that the hallucinogenic herbs paving the way to House Beneviento cause Ethan to hear voices in his head: his wife's voice, confessing her fears about her husband and daughter to an unknown person. Are these Ethan's fears projected onto his wife, or actual conversations she once had?
The herbs affect his perception of the house itself. Moving through the rooms, the surroundings change. With the peeling bile-green wallpaper, hazy yellow fuzz hanging in the air, and the telephone which rings only after you pick it up first, Ethan is haunted by the Baker house as seen in RE7.
And then there's the baby. The grotesque afterbirth of a baby which screeches for "Dada" as it searches the hallways for Ethan. All I'm going to say here is that I genuinely cannot play this section with the volume up at all because it makes me feel so sick with discomfort.
It is, blessedly, a relatively short sequence which can be completed within 5 minutes by a skilled speed runner (and trust me, even if speed running isn't your thing, you'll want to memorise the puzzles here).
Finally reaching safe purchase above ground, you now enter the final stage of your stage at House Beneviento: a game of hide & seek.
Don't go, Donna begs softly as you stumble upon her in the kitchen. She unfolds her arms and reveals her doll, Angie. I can't let you.
As you search high and low for scheming little Angie, the muffled laughs of her "cute friends" (AKA fellow dolls) taunting you with every step, Ethan becomes more agitated and Angie's words become crueller. When you catch her, Ethan stabs her in the eye brutally, killing her- just as the fog clears for you to see that you have killed dear Donna as well.
This section of the game is oddly one of the most heartbreaking. Still processing the shocking surprise of having killed her only moments before, players feel despondent after leaving Donna's house. Shy and shrouded in mystery, Donna herself does not seem to be the bad guy. However, having shared her parasitic "gift" amongst a host of beloved dolls, she is complicit in the wickedness enacted by Angie and her other progeny. It's almost as if Angie and Donna exist as two halves of a whole, like the Sun/Moon emblem of House Beneviento itself; if Donna is the melancholic and gentle side, self-effacing and self-conscious, then outspoken Angie must represent the aggressive side of her psyche. As she is small of stature she fights using her wits rather than physical weaponry, which would explain Ethan's arsenal being taken from him to even the playing field for their encounter.
A forgiving interpretation of Donna's character is understandable when you consider the initial plans for her character. When first outlined by the Capcom writing team, the Benevientos were intended as a family of ghosts. with Donna herself the spirit of a grieving mother who committed suicide, throwing herself into the waterfall upon the death of her child. They rewrote this to simplify the lore of REVillage, supposedly, with Donna being rewritten as a reclusive and lonely dollmaker. I do wish they had retained more of Donna's story, as most of it can only be inferred by the House and its surrounding area. This does leave plenty for Capcom to flesh out if they do choose to go down the DLC route- and in the meantime, it is plenty for us to speculate upon.
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Next: the sad tale of Salvatore Moreau!