RESIDENT EVIL

UK, 2002, 101 minutes, Colour.
Mille Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius, James Purefoy.
Directed by Paul Anderson.

Resident Evil is based on a computer game. British director Paul Anderson (Shopping, Event Horizon) already made the computer game film Mortal Kombat in 1995. It was sheer action using the characters and the problems of the computer game.

Resident Evil is much more of a horror film than the computer game, even though it keeps close to the details of the game. George A. Romero, director of The Night of the Living Dead and its subsequent films, originally signed to write the screenplay. When he withdrew, Paul Anderson came to do the screenplay as well as direct the film? It is clear, especially in the visuals of the zombies in the biotechnical laboratory, that there are influences of the Living Dead.

The film is basically a horror film of a small group trapped in a confined place, trying to get out, gradually being killed off. Mille Jovovich is the gun-wielding heroine with amnesia. As she gradually takes leadership of the group, she begins to remember that she was to infiltrate the Umbrella Company in Raccoon City which was developing viruses and experimenting with biotechnology. James Purefoy is with her - but he emerges as the villain, trying to get a virus to sell on the black market. Eric Mabius, who seems initially suspicious, emerges as the brother of the woman infiltrating the company. Michelle Rodriguez (Girl Fight) is part of the military team.

The film builds up its tension but is very much a horror film relying on shock tactics, the gradual elimination of the members of the group as well as the rampages of the Living Dead. (An Australian film, very close in plot outline, is Esben Storm's Subterrano.)

1. The popularity of computer games like Resident Evil? The characters, the situations, the dangers, the destruction, the emergence into the light and safety?

2. The work of Paul Anderson, interest in computer games, horror in confined spaces? Futuristic films?

3. The Raccoon City settings, the Umbrella Laboratory, the trains? The technology, the horror of the virus being let loose, the water flowing on the trapped technicians? The corridors, the laboratories? The flashbacks giving some sense of realism along with the heightened horror?

4. The special effects, the queen, the holograph of the young girl representing the queen, the zombies, their pursuit, the horror destruction? The musical score?

5. The title, the film as a fable about excesses of scientific experimentation and biotechnology? The destructive aspects - with echoes of the Frankenstein story? A film of action but with moral message?

6. The situation in Raccoon City? The Umbrella technicians and their work, the virus and the hive? The spill, the computer system going down, the sprinklers and the destruction of the workers? Their coming alive again, desperate to survive, destroying the humans? The Living Dead?

7. The train, Matt and Alice, Spence? The mysterious background? The amnesia? The flashbacks to the relationship between Alice and Spence? The emergence of the truth, Alice and her work, Matt and his sister, Spence and his betrayal?

8. The team and O1 as the leader, Raine and her work, the other members of the team? Strategy and tactics? Discoveries, going into the corridors, the laser beams - and cutting the members to pieces? The emergence of the Living Dead? The pursuit? The group trapped?

9. Devising ways to come to the surface? The appearance of the young girl and her threats? The vicious dogs and the pursuit of Alice, her using the techniques, locking them out, destroying them?

10. Matt's sister and her reappearance, jogging Alice's memories? The continued escape, Raine and her being infected, the other survivors? Getting to the surface, the monster unleashed and its destruction? Spence and his selfishness, betraying the group, his being destroyed?

11. Finally getting to the train, the escape, Matt and his wounds, Alice and her being under observation in the laboratory - and her seeing Raccoon City destroyed?

12. The entertainment value of this kind of film for computer enthusiasts? In the tradition of the horror films? Of the moralising films about the excesses of science?