Donna Beneviento is perhaps the most mysterious character in all of Resident Evil: Village. Based on players' first meeting with her (shortly after Heisenberg captures Ethan), many assume that she's a living doll but the reality is much more dangerous. Donna is actually a Doll Maker, one of the proud creators from the famous Beneviento clan. The doll seen with her often is a Beneviento creation and acts as a vessel for the real mastermind, Donna herself.
Her outfit of choice makes her even more mysterious. Donna dresses in all-black funeral attire with a black veil to match. In fact, most players won't even know what she looks like until they spot a painting of her in the Beneviento estate. Thanks to her shrouded nature and desire to self-isolate, it's easy to understand why players might not know much about her.
10 She's The Last Of Her Family
At one point, House Beneviento was a prominent and powerful house. A noble family, the Beneviento's ruled the region alongside the Dimitrescu, Moreau, and Heisenberg houses. They were renowned for their doll-making skills and built a palatial estate high in the mountains, overlooking a picturesque waterfall. Their lives and themes were very much mired in fantasy, as beautiful and haunting as the dolls they would create. But life wasn't as easy for Donna Beneviento when she was a child.
Thanks to a scar on her face, Donna kept herself isolated from the other children and spent most of her time hiding away inside the Beneviento estate.
9 She Formed An Unhealthy Attachment To Angie
It didn't take long for the effects of Donna's self-isolation to get a grip on her impressionable psyche. Because she had zero human interaction aside from her busy family, she began to create her own fantasy world at home, referring to the dolls as her friends. One particular doll, Angie, became the subject of her obsession and Donna began to use her as an extension of herself, taking the term "imaginary friend" to a disturbingly real level.
8 Mother Miranda "Adopted" Her
Donna's bitterness towards others and isolation from society continued into her adult years. As the numbers in House Beneviento dwindled and time marched on, Donna's psyche cracked even further. By the time she was the only one left alive in her family, she was so far gone that she completely shut herself off from the outside world, choosing to live in solitude with her beloved Angie.
That is, until Mother Miranda discovered her and "adopted her" as one of her own children, making her one of the Four Lords in the process. Mother Miranda would go on to imbue Donna with the Cadou, giving her powerful abilities.
7 She Can Create Hallucinations
Thanks to the "gift" from Mother Miranda, Donna unlocked some unique abilities. For one, she became capable of communicating through her doll, Angie. The act is like a supercharged version of ventriloquism, where she can "possess" the doll, taking control of her limbs and speaking through her. She's also capable of creating powerful hallucinogens, as Ethan finds out when making his way to House Beneviento for the first time. By altering the plants that line the path to her property, Donna was able to create startingly real hallucinations in Ethan's mind, in which he would see his wife Mia and their child, Rose.
6 She's Incredibly Smart
Donna is an incredibly smart individual, which makes her dangerous. She isn't as overtly powerful as Lady Dimitrescu or the rest of the lords from a physical standpoint but she more than makes up for it with her intelligence. Not only is she capable of engineering some wildly powerful hallucinogens, but she's also a wiz at crafting puzzles and traps. Knowing she can't handle her confrontation with him head-on, Donna lures Ethan to her state and locks him inside. To get out, the hero has to solve a series of increasingly difficult puzzles, all while avoiding a monster that can end his life should he venture too close to it.
5 She Uses Fears And Emotions To Defend Herself
To touch further on how intelligent and dangerous Donna really is, we can look to the mental gymnastics that she puts Ethan through during their encounter. She starts by offering the potential of saving his daughter, only to rip it away seconds later. She then locks him in a twisted maze-like Doll Workshop, located beneath the Beneviento estate. From there, she attacks Ethan mentally with hallucinations, thoughts of self-doubt, and visions of grotesque versions of his family. She's a master of mental manipulation, drawing off of Ethan's deepest fears and using them to quite literally scare him to death.
4 She Spreads Cadou Around To Control Things
When Mother Miranda gave Donna Beneviento the gift of the Cadou, she immediately realized that she could use its parasitic influence to control things. Rather than control and infect other people, Donna once again drew on her previous experiences and isolated herself from the world, choosing to influence inanimate objects and plants instead. By spreading the parasitic Cadou around, she's able to take over and manipulate dolls, almost like ghostly possession.
The Cadou will also cling to plants, allowing Donna to fill the air with spores. Anyone who inhales these spores or comes in contact with them can then be influenced by the twisted Doll Maker. A major side effect of the Cadou in her bloodstream is psychosis, which makes her unpredictable.
3 She's The Only Lord Without A Mutation
Those who traveled to House Beneviento were already expecting Donna to transform into a massive, grotesque creature. After all, any players who gains access to her house would have to pass through a mutated Lady Dimitresque to get there. But the lonely Doll Maker doesn't actually have a second transformation, even though each of the Lords after her encounter do. She's the only one that doesn't show her "true power" and it's unclear if that's because she lacks the ability to do so or because Ethan dispatches her before she has a chance to transform.
2 She Lacks Any Crystallized Essence
One hint that Donna may not be as closely related to the other Lords as first thought is the fact that she doesn't drop crystallized remains when defeated. Those who beat Lady Dimitrescu will recall her dropping an elegant crystallized torso and both Moreau and Heisenberg will drop crystallized remains when they perish. In fact, there are many enemies that Ethan will defeat throughout his journey that will leave behind some form of crystallized essence. Because of this, it's possible that Donna isn't as mutated as her counterparts.
Those looking for a worthy reward will still receive Angie when Donna Beneviento falls and the doll herself can be sold for a large sum of Lei to The Duke.
1 She Was Originally Supposed To Be Ghostly
All of the Lords and creatures found within Resident Evil: Village are meant to represent classic Horror tropes. The Dimitrescu clan are vampires (with a splash of bugs for good measure) and Moreau represents humanoid fish people, similar to the Lovecraftian horrors presented by H.P. Lovecraft. There are even werewolves running amok throughout the town. So it's no surprise that Donna Beneviento was inspired by classic horror elements too but she was originally meant to be something different.
Her original concept design was dubbed "Ghost" and it's easy to imagine that the developers were planning on making her a being from beyond the grave considering she wears a black mourning dress. Her use of Cadou in controlling dolls is a nod to the ghostly theme of possession.