Resident Evil

Alternate titles : Biohazard.

Tagline : "Evil never dies."

When confronted with a film based on a computer game, one automatically thinks of the appalling kids film that was "Tomb Raider". So I was more than a little apprehensive when I approached this particular foray into the zombie sub-genre. However, as the film started, I soon realised that this wasn't half bad.

Milla Jovovich stars as the film's central character, known only as Alice, who awakes to find herself collapsed on the floor in a seemingly deserted mansion. As she wanders around trying to work out how she got there, she is surprised by the sudden arrival of a special forces unit, lead by a Commando known only as One (Colion Salmon), who burst in and lay siege to the place.

We learn that the house is actually a frontage to the entrance of a top secret underground bio-weapons facility, known as "The Hive", and Alice is one of their operatives. The special forces unit have been sent to investigate why all contact has been lost with the 500 strong crew that operates below. Taking with them a cop named Mathew Addison (Eric Mabius), who they captured wandering round the house grounds, the group descends into the depths of the facility.

After dodging some highly dangerous booby traps in the Hive, they discover the horrific truth about what happened to people there, and getting out is going to be murder. Mutants, mad computers and hoards of zombies are the order of the day, as the remaining members of the crew attempt to fight their way back out of the Hive, before the computer seals it off from the outside world forever...

With elements reminiscent of "Cube", "Death Machine", "The Relic" and even "2001 A Space Odyssey" (mad computers you know), this was actually quite an enjoyable zombie film, with some decent action sequences. If your a zombie film fan you should like it, and if your a fan of the computer game, you should definitely love it. Just a pity about the CGI animated Nemesis beast though.

This may not be the best zombie film to date, but as far as video game adaptations go, it's definitely one of the best of the bunch, with a thumping hard rock soundtrack, featuring the likes of Marilyn Manson, Slipknot, Coal Chamber and Fear Factory to boot!

Overall Marks : 5/10.

Terrifying Trivia

• Alternate tag lines "Survive the Horror", "No one is immune", "Death is not the end... just pray so", "A secret experiment. A deadly virus. A fatal mistake"
• George Romero, director of "Night of the Living Dead" and its various follow-ups, was originally assigned to direct. But was fired, following disputes over the script. The film was subsequently shelved for over a year until Paul Anderson was eventually hired to write and direct.
• The films budget was $32,000,000.
• Paul Anderson also directed the 1997 sci-fi shocker "Event Horizon". He also directed the movie adaptation of the video game "Mortal Kombat", which is probably how he got the job in this film.
• The Presidents of US and Japanese branches of Capcom games, who created the Resident Evil games, both have cameo roles as zombies in the film.
• The newspaper at the end of the film that says "The Dead Walk" was a reference to George Romero's "Day of the Dead" in which a paper with the same headline appears (of all the blooming cheek!).
• Though the movie is full of the living dead, the word "zombie" is never mentioned once during the entire film.
• The film was originally titled "Resident Evil : Ground Zero", but the name was changed following the terrorist attacks in New York, on September 11th 2001
• Eric Mabius also played The Crow in "The Crow 3: Salvation".
• The close up of Alice's eye near the end of the film is a direct reference to the first "Resident Evil" game. The close up eye shot was the logo/title screen of the game.

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