Hotties have been part of the Resident Evil franchise’s DNA since its earliest days. Cast your mind back to Leon Kennedy in his Resident Evil 2 twink era, Ada Wong’s penchant for wearing cocktail attire in combat situations, and Albert Wesker’s smoldering sneer, and you’ll realize that Capcom’s survival horror series has always had a knack for putting outrageously beautiful people in outrageously terrifying situations. But the series’ simmering horniness broke containment and entered the mainstream with Resident Evil Village, which launched five years ago in May 2021.
Village enjoyed strong reviews and sales, but what most people immediately remember about it is the villainous Lady Dimitrescu: an unusually tall and buxom vampire with a devious grin, who wears a slinky white dress and an impossibly large hat. The world’s first look at Lady D came on Jan. 14, 2021, in a teaser for the Resident Evil Village showcase the following week. Just a glimpse of the big, sexy vampire lady was enough to ignite a spark:
The Jan. 21 showcase only fanned the flames, showing brief clips of Lady Dimitrescu. In one, she snarls into a gilded rotary phone while primping at her vanity. In another, she conspicuously stoops to enter a room through a standard 7-foot door, only to unfurl to her full height like a terrifying flower. Best of all, at one point she looms over protagonist Ethan Winters as he’s sprawled on the floor and demands to “see how special you are.” (If you’re a Futurama fan, it all feels very death by snu-snu.)
In the anxious, housebound days of early 2021, that was enough to make every internet user under the age of 50 foam at the mouth and start hooting like the amorous wolf in a Tex Avery cartoon. Even people who’d never played a Resident Evil game were captivated by the memes.
For weeks, everyone was obsessed with the idea of being stepped on by this enormous, beautiful demon-lady who snarled at the camera as she brandished her claw-like fingernails and blood-red lips. Her virality reached such a fever pitch that Capcom even admitted the attention was “far more than we anticipated.” On Feb. 1, 2021, the studio confirmed that Lady Dimitrescu was 9-feet, 6-inches tall “if you include her hat and high heels.” This revelation launched the fandom into a new stratosphere of thirst.
