Capcom draws Resident Evil Village werewolf on hill, confuses local papers
"The outline is of a monster of some sort"
If you've ever done a long drive in the English countryside, you may have seen one of our giant chalk figures. They're huge drawings made on the sides of hills that typically represent a story from local history or some sort of legend. Most notably we have loads White Horses and one guy with his willy out. But shaking things up a little bit, Capcom have drawn a chalk lycan to promote Resident Evil Village. Ah, what a lovely piece of British history.
As spotted by Eurogamer, Capcom's lycan can be found on the Mendip Hill near Cheddar, Somerset. Last weekend, local news outlet Somerset Live reported that the "mysterious figure" had suddenly appeared overnight, and that it was "unclear who created the outline of the monster".
They sound a bit spooked in the article, which is fair enough. According to the Somerset County Gazette, the chalk creature is "58m high and more than 100m long". If I had no idea what Resident Evil was I think I'd be mildly terrified to find someone had drawn a gigantic unholy beast on a hill next to my village.
Since the local press wrote their stories on the scary new hillside addition, the drawing has been updated with the Resident Evil Village logo, so it's less of a mystery now.
Weirdly, this isn't the first time these chalk drawings have been used as a promotional stunt. In 2007, another unholy beast, Homer Simpson, was drawn next to the Cerne Abbas giant (that's the aforementioned guy with his willy out). Unfortunately, it angered some local pagans who promised to conjure "rain magic" to get rid of it. I can't imagine how they'll take to a chalk werewolf.
I kinda hope the lycan sticks around, I'd quite like to visit it. I went to one of the Wiltshire White Horses on a school trip when I was little, and we got to help the people putting down new chalk to keep the drawing looking fresh. It was pretty boring though, we have like 20 White Horses in England. A werewolf is way more interesting.
If you fancy meeting some digital lycans rather than a chalk one, Resident Evil Village is out now. Ed had a pretty good time with the first half of the game, though felt it got a little bit too action-packed in the second:
"It's a blended smoothie of horror, one that covers a spectrum of flavours to suit various tastes," he says in his Resident Evil Village review. "Those first couple of sips are delightfully complex. Dark and brooding. But as you drain the glass, it begins to taste a bit too fiery, a bit too wild, until you can't taste anything."