Widescreen: 'Resident Evil Village' celebrates franchise and history of horror

Coming 25 years after the original “Resident Evil” game, “Resident Evil Village” (PS5, PS4, Xbox Series X/S, Xbox One, PC) celebrates the revolutionary “survival horror” franchise's history and the entire horror lexicon. It's a must-own for adult gamers who can handle its nearly constant dread.

Ethan Winters (voiced by Todd Soley), the unseen protagonist from “Resident Evil 7: Biohazard,” is back for another first-person fright-fest alongside wife, Mia (Katie O'Hagan), who spent most of the last game in a murderous trance while being held captive by a family of swampland mutants. Ethan and Mia have a family of their own now, and have moved from Louisiana to an unnamed region of Europe that looks and sounds an awful lot like Transylvania. Nothing scary ever happened there, did it?

Also back are the usual trappings of the franchise: Byzantine buildings, locked doors, inexplicable puzzles and hulking villains who enjoy talking to and torturing the player.

That last group includes the striking Lady Dimitrescu (Maggie Robertson), a 9-foot-tall vampire countess who stalks the player with her three demonic daughters and some seriously long fingernails - Freddy Krueger would be jealous. As you explore her decadent castle, she suddenly bursts through doors, sending your avatar running while you shout at the television. The fear builds as you can hear her stomping feet chasing you, much like Mr. X in “Resident Evil 2.”

Most of the marketing campaign and all of the online hype centered on this character, but the game itself has plenty of other terrors in store - perhaps the developers were paying tribute to Alfred Hitchcock's “Psycho” misdirect?

It's a safe assumption, seeing as “Resident Evil Village” lovingly borrows from just about every horror story you can imagine. There are zombies, of course (no “Resident Evil” game is complete without them), but also werewolves, insects, living dolls, ghostly hallucinations, foreboding messages scrawled on walls, the town witch, a cult leader, a guy with a giant ax and - the scariest of all - an evil global conglomerate that desires even more power and control.

“Village” has the usual gunplay, but one of its most exciting sequences takes your weapons away and puts you in a home built like a puzzle box. Solve it, and you win the chance to hide under a bed while something that looks like Toxic Avenger Jr. slithers after you on a trail of blood.

This is the fourth home run in a row for the franchise, starting with 2017's “Biohazard” and continuing with the 2019 and 2020 remakes of “Resident Evil 2” and “Resident Evil 3.” Each boasts beautiful graphics and level design that may best be described as “page-turning” - you won't want to stop at the save point, even if the last thing you completed sent your blood pressure through the roof. “Resident Evil 3” suffers a bit from brevity, but that's not much of a problem when the entire franchise gets attractive sale prices from the PS Store, etc., every other month.

Is the 12-hour experience of “Resident Evil Village” worth full price? Yes, particularly as a showcase for what your new next-gen console can do. The franchise has never looked or sounded this real, a far cry from the first game's PS1 polygons and painful voice acting. (“Stop. It. Don't. Open. That. Door.”)

The masterstroke might be bringing back the relatable couple of Ethan and Mia, not the series' usual lineup of supercops and soldiers. Ethan isn't trying to save the world - he's trying to save his family. A more personal “Resident Evil” is an even scarier “Resident Evil.”

Sean Stangland is an assistant news editor who has bought a copy of “Resident Evil 4” for at least three different consoles, and will do it again if the rumored remake happens.