Dutch director Richard Raaphorst, known for the found footage horror film Frankenstein’s Army, accuses Capcom of copying one of his monsters for a Resident Evil Village boss fight.

According to his post on Linkedin, he said that is a “one-to-one” copy of a monster he created in the 2013 film he directed. Since this RE Village boss happens late in the game and the title is still fresh, we’ll put these spoiler warnings up.

So Frankenstein’s Army features a humanoid with a propeller for a head, which is killed by a group of soldiers in an explosion of flames.

In RE Village, you fight a boss monster named Sturm late in the game in a factory setting. It’s a humanoid with a propeller for a head. When it’s near-death, it overheats and goes in flames.

Raaphorst told Eurogamer in an interview that the recreation in RE Village is “just one-to-one, really”.

“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. 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.”

Capcom did not approach him and only found out about the similarity after receiving messages from fans on 7th May. In fact, someone from Twitter pointed out the many similarities the factory level’s monsters share with the director’s horror film.

pic.twitter.com/z8ij0bUhci

— Clone A – improv Comedian/3D Artist (@CloneKorp) May 9, 2021

He said the following:

“At first I felt pissed.

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.”

Raaphorst said that he would like a credit in RE Village for the monster design. Though he does not expect to receive royalty payment from Capcom; the creative rights for Frankenstein’s Army belong to MPI Media Group.

Capcom has yet to make an official statement about this accusation. For more on RE Village, check out our coverage.