Film Review - Resident Evil

 

Film Title: Resident Evil

Year of Production: 2002

Director: Paul W.S Anderson

Genre(s): Horror, Action, Sci-Fi

Brief Plot Outline: Zombie horror. After a viral breakout at a secure facility, a specialist team, along with an amnesiac woman, Alice, a police officer and a mysterious man, delve into the facility to find out what occurred, as well as shutting down the potentially homicidal A.I, the Red Queen. As their numbers are decimated and they face the zombie horde held within the facility, their only hope lies in the hands of Alice and her sinister, forgotten past.

Which two Scenes impressed you the most? Why?:  The shutdown of the Red Queen – The dialogue by the Red Queen “You’re all going to die down here” is offputting and creepy, seeing as it is seemingly coming from a little girl. Coupled with this line, after the power goes off and the doors all open, we hear a faint, but growing louder, sound fx of the zombies groaning. This connection gives the audience a source of dramatic irony, as the protagonists believe they are now safe, when in reality they have potentially just doomed themselves.

The end sequence – After Alice and the police officer are captured by Umbrella, Alice wakes in a hospital environment. She escapes and exits into a cityscape. The performance, by actress Milla Jovovich who plays Alice, shows the audience that something is already wrong, outside of her being potentially experimented, which also acts as both an establishing shot and a destablishing shot. It establishes the open ending to the film, as well as the premise for its sequel(s), as well as ending our film.

How has watching this film helped you understand this genre of film making? Which features on this genre check list did you spot in the film? When? How?:

Creepy Locations – We have several different locations in this film; we have the mansion, the underground facility, the hospital, the city. The underground facility itself has lots of different locations inside itself including sewers, laboratories, elevators, offices, train stations, the A.I core etc. The use of so many different and varying locations in this film has helped me understand that, with the correct lighting, props, sound, editing etc., potentially any location can be made creepy, including those which in normal life would be seen as boring, such as elevators and offices.

Collision Cutting – We have several instances of collision cutting in this film, mostly used to intensify feelings of fear and shock in the audience. The elevator scene in the opening scene, where the woman sticks her head out of the doors, only for the elevator to rise up and, as implicated by the sound fx, resulting in her head being cut off – it is slow and quiet while she is near the floor, then everything speeds up and gets louder with the cutting and blood spurt sound fx being the loudest and last sounds in the scene.

Blood and Gore – Throughout most of the movie, we see a lot of blood and gore in the form of the zombies, who primarily show the gore through the use of make-up and special effects. We also see blood and gore whenever a character is attacked or dies, such as when Rain Ocampo, played by Michelle Rodriguez, is bitten on her hand and when Spence, played by James Purfoy, is maimed by the ‘Licker’ zombie and is discovered by Alice, half-alive and severely bloodied. We also have the laser tunnel scene where four members of the specialist team are sliced apart, with one losing his fingers, one being decapitated, one being cut in half and the final member being sliced into several small diamonds.

Restricted Narration – While strange for a movie which displays a high level of blood and gore, this film also uses restricted narration to a high degree. In the train station when Alice and the other survivors are escaping, Alice kills the undead corpse of Spence, but we do not see her do so; instead we see her face, hear a sound fx and then the scene moves on. Similarly, in an earlier scene, we see one of the members of the specialist team open a door, only to be swarmed by zombies on the other side who drag him into the crowd. While we see initial parts of blood and gore through scratches and bites, he disappears from sight before the scene becomes excessively gory.  

Character Roles – We have the female survivor/final girl in the character of Alice. The male hero is shown in the character of Matt, the police officer, played by Eric Mabius. The psycho killer is prevalent in the character of the Red Queen and the slow-moving monster is shown multiple times with the many zombies.

What aspects of the film would you like to INCLUDE in your own trailer?:

Lack of a ‘female victim’ – In most horrors, there will always be one character who fits the stereotype of the female victim, who is most always often blonde, unintelligent, skimpily-dressed and dies first, usually after having sex. With the advances in equal rights and the recognition of sexism in modern society, many audiences view the female victim as an insult to the female gender. This films lack of female victim means that the female characters are equal to the male characters and when/if they die, it is not due to unintelligence, but rather simple human error or heroism.

Psychological horror – The character of the Red Queen is a very off-putting character to the audience. It/She is a little girl, or rather the holographic image and voice of one, who is responsible for the deaths of hundreds of workers in the underground facility. This creepy character hits a more psychological fear in the audience as seeing a young girl, which would usually be viewed as the picturesque image of innocence, as a psychotic killer is not common in modern society or in many films. The infamous quote of “You’re all going to die down here” further reinforces this disturbing bit of psychological horror as the audience would not expect to hear a young girl say this.

What aspects of the film would you like to AVOID in your own trailer?:

Body Horror – Body horror is a very overdone sub-genre in horror and doesn’t generate the same style of fear as psychological. Body horror focuses on nauseating the audience, which only lasts for a short time. Psychological horror can create fear which can last for an indeterminate length of time. Also, many body horror films focus solely on blood and gore while mostly ignoring the plot, whilst psychological horror’s put great detail into the plot, as it closely links with the horror element of the film.

What was the best aspect/more enjoyable moment in the film? Why? Can you recreate this in your own film? How?: 

When the Red Queen in her little girl ‘form’ remarks “You’re all going to die down here.” This is almost a form of contrapuntal sound, as it is not something the audience would expect to hear from a little girl. It also reinforces the psychological horror side of the film; there is no gore, no blood, no death, just a little girl, a figure the audience would instinctively trust and/or care for, telling the protagonists that they are going to die.