So, this past Monday, Crimson and DarkWolf and I took in a special screening of the new Screen Gems release "Resident Evil". For those of you who don’t know, "Resident Evil" is based on a video game of the same name that spans 4, soon to be 5, video game platforms. There are 5 games to the series thus far that chronicle the adventures of a handful of survivors that were first introduced to the "evil" in a small Midwestern locale by the name of Raccoon City. To understand the film, you must first be given a small education of the games.

Resident Evil

It seems that there were some weird reports coming out of Raccoon City about groups of people wandering around a nearby forest and attacking any and all who came close. There were also reports of half mauled bodies found as well. This forest surrounds the Spencer Estate. A large mansion owned by a big time executive for the Umbrella Corporation. A special task force called S.T.A.R.S. sent it’s Bravo team in to investigate these reports. 16 hours have passed and there’s been no word from them, so Alpha team suits up, gets in the chopper and checks it out. Among the team, we meet Jill Valentine, Chris Redfield, Barry Burton, Joseph Frost, Brad Vickers and Albert Wesker. Upon landing in a field by the mansion, Alpha team finds the remains of one of their Bravo team mates and just then are attacked by what looks like a blood covered dog. The dog takes out Joseph and chases after the rest of the team. Brad Vickers, the pilot, takes off without the team leaving them little choice but to find refuge in the Spencer Estate.

I could go into more detail here but it might ruin the game if anyone decides they wanna give it a try. Let’s just say that in the course of the game, you find out what evil has consumed the rest of your team mates and what the Umbrella Corporation is really all about.

Resident Evil 2

Takes place not too long after the first game. We meet our new heroes. Leon S. Kennedy, a new recruit to the Raccoon City Police Department and Claire Redfield, sister of Chris. They both arrive in to the almost too quiet of a town on the same night and are greeted by the same terror. All of the people in the city are acting really strange. Shuffling around, skin rotting and attacking other people on the street. They appear to be zombies. Claire, looking for her lost brother, finally gets an idea of what he got himself into when he accepted his Raccoon City assignment. Claire and Leon are split up and both make it to the Raccoon City Police Department where they uncover more of Umbrella’s secrets. Talk to most Resident Evil fans and they’ll tell you this is the best of the series.

Resident Evil 3: Nemesis

Takes place the same time as Resident Evil 2. In fact, the opening of Resident Evil 3 takes place the day before Leon and Claire arrive into town. The events of this game take place during the events of Resident Evil 2 but in a different part of town. We meet back up with Jill Valentine. She and her team have been suspended from the S.T.A.R.S. team pending an investigation into their reports of the events at the Spencer Estate. Chris, Barry and Bravo team medic, Rebecca have gone on an expedition to investigate Umbrella’s European offices and Jill waits back in Raccoon City for word from them. As she waits, all hell breaks lose in the city. The Umbralla Corporation’s antics have affected the whole city and the place is overrun with the walking dead. Those who aren’t turned into these zombies try to fight against it but this only leads to chaos. Add a little mercenary group sent by Umbrella to cover the whole situation up and you got yourself a war. And Jill is caught in the middle of it. Jill must now escape Raccoon City but if she thought zombies and the like were the worst of her problems, she’s got another thing coming. Umbrella wants the rogue S.T.A.R.S. team shut up for good and they send Nemesis to do it.

Resident Evil : Code Veronica

Claire Redfield’s search for her brother has led her to an Umbrella Facility in Paris, France. In the course of infiltrating this compound, she is discovered. Her daring escape is thwarted and she is flown to a secret prison island owned by Umbrella. As she comes to in a dank and dark cell, she hears sounds of explosions and crashing overhead. As if there’s some kind of war going on. It seems that Umbrella has some experiments in the works on this remote island and somewhere, somehow they’ve gone bad. Claire’s captors let her go but insist that she’ll never make it off the island alive. With that, Claire dives headlong into the fray. This description does this game NO justice at all. I feel that this is the best of the series. A LOT of loose ends are tied up.

Resident Evil: Survivor

No, it’s not what you think it is. Nobody gets voted off an island or anything. This game has very little to do with the main Resident Evil continuity. It’s all done in a first person perspective. You play a man with amnesia who’s also caught in the midst of an Umbrella experiment gone terribly wrong. It’s a decent stand alone game, but not too important to the story.

So, there you have it. A quick run through on the games. Which brings me to the film.

I was hesitant when I first heard that the story of the movie was to serve a s a prequel to the first video game. I asked myself the same questions over and over again. "What is it supposed to be?" "Is it about Bravo team?" "But nobody on Bravo team did this or that". I was sure that this film was gonna be just like most video game to movie concepts. A dud. Much to my surprise, I was dead wrong. The film succeeds. The film was more than a treat to Resident Evil fans and to those who weren’t even familiar with the games, they were treated to a truly chilling and frightening film. It starts off with a nice little mystery element. Someone down in the Umbrella Labs has stolen samples of the T-virus and sabotaged the labs to shut down as soon as they make their escape. They expose the entire lab to the virus and let the facility’s defence computer, The Red Queen, take care of everything else. The Red Queen locks up the personell and seals their fate down in the depths of the lab. People are drowned, suffocated, smashed and worse.

We then open up on a naked Milla Jovavich, lying in a shower trying to remember what the hell happened to her. See, she lives in the Spencer Estate, above the labs and, apparently, the Red Queen’s defenses affected her too. A special gas that knocked her out and induced temporary amnesia. It isn’t too long before a mercenary group from Umbrella is sent in and we discover that Milla’s character, Alice, is actually working with them. What role she plays, she and the audience doesn’t know. The mission is this, go underground to "The Hive", the collection of labs and offices underneath the estate, reboot the Red Queen’s system and discover what caused the catastrophe. It’s all easier said than done. If they can get past the Red Queen’s defenses, then they have yet to brave the horrible creations birthed from the poor souls exposed to the T-virus.

The movie is played out just like if you were sitting in front of the T.V. and playing the game. Between some scenes, we cut to a nifty map layout that takes us from location to location. With a cast of no names, there are some really good performances. Don’t expect anything Oscar caliber. It’s Resident Evil folks.

Anyone who knows ANYTHING about Resident Evil knows the main focus.....Zombies. And boy are there zombies. Holy shit are there zombies. This movie is lousy with ‘em. George Romero would be proud. The make up and effects in this film were stunning. The visual effects blew me away. You have a simple concept that we’ve seen before in films like Night of the Living Dead and Aliens, so the crew was hard pressed to make this film stand apart. The attention to detail was impressive as hell. Things from the game that they threw in the movie were done seamlessly. Without blatantly making it stand out or anything.....we didn’t need a sign saying "HEY, GUYS!! LOOK!! THIS WAS IN THE GAME!" The fans of the game recognized it. The people who’ve never played it....didn’t have to worry. It was a fun, horror genre film. You knew what to expect. A handful of people go in.....less than a handful come back out. The style and cleverness of how the unfortunates meet their doom was outstanding. Truly elaborate and fun. Plenty of gunplay and some nice little martial arts moves from Milla.

In a film like this, you gotta expect the dialogue to be pretty cliche. Was it? Yeah. But dammit, I had a lot of fun with it. For someone to look in a monitor and see this horrible monster that you recognize from the game doing something you’ve seen a million times....I mean, you’re like numb to this creature...but to hear the character go "What the fuck was that?" It’s almost funny....because it brings you back to reality. Makes you think "Oh yeah, I may be sitting in here with someone who has no idea what that is." Ya know what I mean?

There’s a whole lotta zombie killin’ and a nice little bit of twists and turns. It’s a fun movie and if you’re in the mood for some mindless violence and fun....SEE IT.