I Can’t Stop Thinking About House Beneviento In Resident Evil Village

In Resident Evil Village, Ethan heads to House Beneviento and is probably one of the scariest levels ever created for a Resident Evil game, and I can’t stop thinking about it. 

It’s not only what you encounter when you enter the house, it’s everything about the level that just sticks with you for days. It’s a short section of the game but an effective one that if you do reach this portion of Village, I suggest you wear headphones, suck it up, and just experience the whole section in its glory with no information or expectations set. 

[SPOILER ALERT]

If you haven’t played Resident Evil Village, I highly suggest you turn back right now.

You head to House Beneviento after completing the castle level that houses everyone’s favorite big mommy Lady Dimitrescu and her three daughters. It’s a small house and you will eventually find yourself in the basement, trapped, and stripped of all your equipment. It’s a scary moment as you are now all of a sudden defenseless in a room with hanging doll limbs and an adult sized doll placed in the middle. 

If you’ve played Resident Evil 7 and recall a certain level that played out like some sort of escape room situation then you have an idea as the level in House Beneviento is somewhat similar, but it builds up nice and slow towards a horrific cat and mouse chase that I wasn’t prepared for. As you slowly piece together the clues and unlock other sections of the basement, you are given snippets of context regarding Mia, Ethan’s wife. At the same time, the atmosphere gets heavier, eerie to a point that it felt at any moment I will be served a jump scare. From the sound, the lighting, the visual cues, everything worked well to create this unsettling encounter that made my mind wander as to what could possibly be in the basement with me. 

I started to see environmental changes in certain parts of the basement as I progressed. It eventually leads to you heading through a dark hallway with what looks like an umbilical cord on the floor that stretches all the way to where I’m headed. You then hear a baby crying and before you know it, you see a grotesque baby monster slowly creeping towards you. I was shocked to the point that my girlfriend had to stop what she was doing to see what the commotion was all about, and to see what happens next. 

Double the creepiness once it starts crying and gets clingy.

This encounter reminded me of the fantastic playable demo P.T. on the PS4 for the now cancelled Silent Hills game. The music, the horror of being chased by monster baby, crying and saying “dadaaaaa”, I didn’t think Capcom had it in them to create such a level. 

But it doesn’t stop there as once you’ve escaped the clutches of the monster baby, you now have to face Donna Beneviento herself and her creepy doll Angie, plus all the dolls found in every corner of the house. This is where the real battle begins as it’s a simple game of hide and seek where you must find the Angie doll three times. Take too long and you’ll be attacked by crazed flying dolls. What makes this unsettling is that while you are searching for Angie, all the dolls are just twitching uncontrollably, as if they are on the verge of being possessed by some entity. The music and the giggles of the dolls are all around you and it gets louder if you take too long, adding to the tension and serves as an audio reminder that you’re on the verge of being attacked. 

Once I was done with the level I had to take a break. It was quite a ride and it gave me renewed confidence with the Resident Evil franchise moving forward. Thanks to what went down in House Beneviento, it made me think that Capcom finally found the right balance between horror and fun gameplay and I'm eager to find out what comes next from a series that is now 25 years old and going strong.

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