This is the #2 entry in the Resident Evil and Frankenstein series on the blog and contains spoilers to all Resident Evil lore and Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein; Or, the Modern Prometheus.
In the first text of this series, which I recommend you to read before this one, I explained how Resident Evil holds a lot from Frankenstein with its creatures and experiments violating the rules of nature. Scientists obsessed with their destructive creations and victory over death are the cornerstone of the devastation in both narratives, so it is possible to think that Resident Evil has, after all, several Doctors Frankenstein. Today we’re going to talk a little about each of them.
Since the beginning
We can start with Ozwell Spencer himself, the “father” of the Frankensteins from Resident Evil, who started his journey precisely willing to create a new being – an evolved version of humans with superior intelligence and genetics (and that’s where the Wesker Children project was born). Totally aligned with eugenics ideas, the old aristocrat included himself among the people worthy of being called superior, as his last words to Wesker make very clear:
[“I was to become a god…..creating a new world with an advanced race of Human beings. (…) Now my candle burns dimly. Ironic, isn’t it? For one who has the right to be a god! To face his own mortality…”]
Before that, Umbrella’s founder thought he could even dodge death, demanding from Alex the perfect formula for living forever. The favourite daughter even managed to achieve something close to that with T-Phobos, but walked away with her experiment, leaving Spencer behind.
William Birkin is perhaps the most similar case to Victor Frankenstein. Obsessed with his work, he forgets about the rest of the world, including neglecting his family, just like Victor. When the scientist is on the verge of death after being shot by the U.S.S. soldiers, he tries to circumvent the end by injecting himself with the G-virus: “My creation will save me”. His RE2 Remake version gives us a hint that he regrets this, as we can hear him screaming for help and asking Leon and Claire to kill him. In this he differs from other scientists, who show no regrets, bringing him closer to Victor.
Alexia Ashford, meanwhile, turned out to be a Frankenstein of herself and on her way she created monsters like Infected Steve and Alexander Ashford. Although Ashford father in his monstrous form is named after a vampire (Nosferatu), he bears strong physical similarities to Mary Shelley’s Creature. And Alexander himself is worthy of mention as Victor Frankenstein too, after all, Alexia and Alfred are his “creatures” developed through genetic engineering. And we know he regretted how he handled this, given that he went as far as creating a special weapon to destroy his daughter’s obsession with the T-Veronica.
A lesser-remembered Frankenstein, but one that really catches my attention, is Greg Mueller, from the Decisions, Decisions scenario from Resident Evil Outbreak. The Umbrella scientist didn’t accept the company’s will to mass-produce his Tyrant Thanatos, which was perfection for him. For him, a biological weapon should not only be “brute force”, but also be beautiful, be “God-like”. A scientist who creates a monster that is “god-like” probably feels like a near-god himself, doesn’t he?
Greg Mueller admires his Tyrant Thanatos praising its perfection: “Too much growth weakens an organization. What should be important becomes overshadowed by greed. Mass production? Ridiculous! (…) One masterpiece is enough”
More recently
Derek Simmons is a very particular type of Frankenstein. Instead of cheating death, he tried to recreate his beloved, in the style of The Skin I Live In [La Piel que Habito] (and there is a great text about this in the late Resident Evil SAC by Felipe Demartini). The way he violated nature is perhaps even more grotesque than Frankenstein’s Creature; after all, he turned one living woman into another and made her believe she was the original. Tyrants, at least as far as we know, are not even aware of the person they were, which makes their original subjects at least dead.
Among the most recent Frankensteins added to Resident Evil, we have one that was directly based on Mary Shelley’s scientist: Karl Heisenberg. The Lord’s unfortunate factory was the stage of various man-machine creation experiments. However, Heisenberg doesn’t have that obsessive research madness – his goal is to build an army to fight Mother Miranda, not to dodge death or be seen as a god. So, ironically, the character based directly on Victor Frankenstein ended up being the least Frankenstein of all the mad scientists in Resident Evil.
Much more Victor than Heisenberg is his foe, Mother Miranda. The villain of RE Village aims literally and directly to cheat death, but not her own (she was already immortal herself thanks to the megamycete); it is Eva’s, her daughter who is already dead. In order to do this, she creates several new species, starting with the parasite Cadou, which, by infecting other organisms, can generate mutations that bring to life new generic beings such as lycans or unique beings such as Alcina Dimitrescu. We can say that Eveline herself is kind of a Miranda creature in this sense, even though not directly.
Miranda has the help of a very peculiar type of Frankenstein who is also based on another mad scientist from 19th century literature: Salvatore Moureau, named after The Island of Dr. Moureau, a novel by HG Wells that deals with a scientist who tries to transform animals into humans. The book is a strong heir to the legacy of Frankenstein and its mad scientist has several characteristics common to Victor, such as obsession, playing God and unethical experiments. Salvatore Moureau, in his turn, wants the recognition of Mother Miranda, and he spares no effort with his guinea pigs to please her. Thus, he created many lycans and also the Vârcolac, a hybrid between common lycans and wolf DNA.
It is notable that, in most of the cited cases, creators are destroyed by their creations, as the creatures lose control or acquire a will of their own. Birkin is overpowered by G and ceases to be himself; Eveline infects everything she sees and kills many people along the way, proving not to be a reliable weapon; Miranda’s mutamycete makes Ethan “nothing but mold” and it is he who kills her; Heisenberg, though unsuccessful, turned against Miranda with everything he could; Simmons doesn’t succeed in making Carla his Ada, and she even creates a terrorist organization that causes him a lot of trouble and infects him with the C-virus; Alex leaves with the project that could give Spencer eternal life and it is Albert who kills Umbrella’s founder with his own hands.
A long legacy
We could go after the minutiae and look for many more Frankensteins in Resident Evil. But covering the main ones, I believe we can get a good idea of how, in fact, there is a huge proximity between the creators and creatures of the two stories. All biological weapons are creatures and all scientists are Frankensteins. For all of them reveal the violation of nature through the creation of new species and the attempt to overcome the most natural process of life, death.
The fact that Resident Evil is basically composed of Drs. Frankensteins is a clear demonstration of how the figure of the mad scientist creating a hideous creature with absurd goals conceived by Mary Shelley was powerful and transformative in its time. It influenced pretty much everything that came after, even our favorite franchise. Thanks for that, Mary Shelley!
