Resident Evil Village mod replaces Sturm with a 'copyright-free' floor fan

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The "Copyright Free Sturm" mod unofficially addresses a complaint that the monster's design was lifted from a 2013 horror flick.

Resident Evil Village - Sturm
(Image credit: Capcom)

There was a spot of controversy in May when Richard Raaphorst, the director of the 2013 film Frankenstein's Army, claimed that the Resident Evil Village boss named Sturm—essentially a radial airplane engine with legs—ripped off a monster design from his film. Even the manners of their deaths were almost identical, he said.

"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," he told Eurogamer. "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."

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Resident Evil Village - Frankenstein's Army comparison images
(Image credit: Capcom/Richard Raaphorst)

The original Sturm model remains in the game, which prompted a modder named Pumpkinhook to create a model replacement called Copyright Free Sturm. The mod takes a very simple yet effective approach to addressing Raaphorst's complaint by turning the character into the world's most dangerous pedestal fan.

You can see the new beast in action below, courtesy of IGN:

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An oscillating fan from Walmart won't mess you up as badly as a 1,900hp BMW 801 in real life, but the remodeled Sturm functions identically to his original iteration, despite the safety cage around its blades and, you know, not having legs. Even so, I can't help but feel like the new look takes a certain edge off the encounter. Not that Sturm appeared particularly frightening in the first place (I think "confusing" is a better adjective), but getting chased around by a $39.99 Home Hardware special seems like the sort of thing that would be best accompanied by Yakety Sax.

As for the original Sturm design, Capcom hasn't commented on Raaphorst's complaint, but Raaphorst said in an email that he hasn't had any contact with the studio since his complaint. The lack of a response "is more evidence that what they did was wrong," he added, although he declined to comment on whether he is pursuing further action.

Thanks, GamesRadar.

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Andy Chalk
Andy Chalk
US News Lead

Andy has been gaming on PCs from the very beginning, starting as a youngster with text adventures and primitive action games on a cassette-based TRS80. From there he graduated to the glory days of Sierra Online adventures and Microprose sims, ran a local BBS, learned how to build PCs, and developed a longstanding love of RPGs, immersive sims, and shooters. He began writing videogame news in 2007 for The Escapist and somehow managed to avoid getting fired until 2014, when he joined the storied ranks of PC Gamer. He covers all aspects of the industry, from new game announcements and patch notes to legal disputes, Twitch beefs, esports, and Henry Cavill. Lots of Henry Cavill.