The Resident Evil franchise is responsible for some of the most chilling moments in interactive media, forcing players to confront man-eating biohazards since the mid 90s. This massive success is ongoing, with new sequels and remakes releasing pretty much every year, but what I think is amazing is that this series of games with little to no regard for conventional storytelling is somehow the franchise that spawned seven big-screen adaptations, a handful of animated films and a short-lived TV show. Meanwhile, there’s still no sign of that Metal Gear Solid movie!
Don’t get me wrong, the Resident Evil games boast plenty of memorable characters with interesting backstories, but these titles have always been more about the player-driven narrative derived from personally outsmarting Umbrella and escaping horrific situations rather than any cohesive yarn. That’s why it’s no surprise that the first Resident Evil movie actually has very little in common with the games it’s supposedly based on, functioning as more of a self-contained action-horror hybrid that just so happens to feature a few elements from Capcom’s franchise.
While fans have come to expect more faithful recreations of their favorite gaming experiences after projects like Detective Pikachu and even Netflix’s Castlevania, two decades of IP-driven blockbuster filmmaking has led me to appreciate the bonkers creative decisions behind Paul W.S. Anderson’s strange take on Resident Evil. That’s why I’d like to take a look back on what made this iconic piece of early 2000s horror so much more than a run-of-the-mill adaptation, as I think we often take its edgy charms for granted.
There were three different iterations of the project before Anderson came onboard, from Alan B. McElroy’s relatively faithful translation of the first game to George A. Romero’s infamous NC-17 version of the script. Obviously, none of these projects came to fruition, with both Capcom and the studio fighting over unfocused storylines. It was only after Anderson binge-played the first two Resident Evil games and came up with a screenplay titled Undead, which he described as a rip-off meant to still be produced even if he couldn’t guarantee the RE license, that the project really moved forward. The investors at Constantin Film loved how this proposed action-horror prequel to the games could entertain both fans and newcomers, with Capcom also enjoying how it didn’t get in the way of their own plans for sequels.
The zombies are still pretty much the same, though.
With the exception of a few character moments, not much was changed once Undead became an official Resident Evil movie adaptation, which – alongside the prequel angle – is why the film is so different from its source material. Even with Capcom’s blessing, things here are different enough that the film might as well be part of a completely different franchise. Sure, the overall setup remains the same, with both the game and the movie telling a story about a group of combat experts becoming trapped in a sci-fi nightmare once they enter a creepy old mansion, but the similarities mostly end there.
I’d argue that the biggest divergence is in our main character. While there’s never been a shortage of competent female protagonists in the RE games (from Claire Redfield to Jill Valentine), none of them can quite hold a candle to the ass-kicking Alice. This memorable role promoted Milla Jovovich to genre royalty, but the original script described Alice as a more traditional damsel in distress constantly bewildered by the horrors surrounding her. It was only through Jovovich’s insistence on script revisions that the protagonist became more proactive in her own story and ultimately turned into a badass by the end of the picture.
While some may argue that Alice’s combat prowess would reach ridiculous levels with her super-powers in the sequels, there’s no denying that she became a genre icon – one that would never have existed if this had been a simple copy-paste job. The supporting cast is also mostly unrelated to the games, but they still stand out due to charismatic performances by Colin Salmon, Eric Mabius and even Michelle Rodriguez, who signed onto the picture as soon as she heard that a RE adaptation was going into production.
Another completely original creation for the film is the Red Queen AI, which serves as a crucial plot point as well as something of an antagonist. Not only does this childlike machine brain add to the film’s hi-tech terror, but it also ties in nicely with the whole Alice in Wonderland motif, which is another idea that’s only present in the movie. While the nods to Lewis Carroll seem to come out of the blue, with several bizarre references like elaborate beheadings and even literal white rabbits, it adds some fairy-tale flavor to the experience.
Many of these creative additions weren’t exactly well-received, with fans criticizing the flick’s focus on military action instead of slow-paced dread like the first few RE games. This problem would only get worse as the movie franchise went on, but I think the first film’s action-heavy approach is mostly justified by it trying to be an entertaining midnight movie. After all, a lone protagonist backtracking through empty rooms in search of ammo may be scary for a desperate player, but it would be dreadfully boring to watch on the big screen.
CGI just wasn’t quite there yet.
Besides, there are still plenty of horrific highlights here, such as the film’s opening moments depicting the initial air-borne T-Virus infection (a scene that hits much harder after a deadly real-world pandemic), as well as an appropriately eerie score co-composed by Marco Beltrami and Marilyn Manson.
While the exaggerated set-pieces and cheesy dialogue result in the film often feeling a little goofy, especially during a couple of instances of early 2000s CGI, none of these moments are sillier than the source material. In fact, when Capcom decided that it was time for another round of big-screen zombie-slaying in 2021, Johannes Roberts’ decision to bring things closer to the games in his reboot didn’t actually make the film any more successful, with Welcome to Raccoon City earning less money at the box office and scoring lower on Rotten Tomatoes.
I may have enjoyed Roberts’ film, but it serves as further evidence that Anderson’s peculiar approach wasn’t as misguided as most people think. That’s why I believe that, if you can accept that fact that this is a B-movie spin-off only tangentially related to the rest of the franchise, you’ll find that Resident Evil is a highly entertaining example of the early 2000s action-horror trend inspired by Blade and its sequels. In fact, the first RE adaptation would end up influencing this sub-genre for years to come, inspiring competing franchises like Underworld and even Stephen Sommers’s Van Helsing (as well as a series of adult-oriented videogame adaptations).
It may not have been what fans were expecting, but Anderson’s decision to make the very first Resident Evil movie a mostly original experience meant that the finished film was fun even if you had never heard of the games before. At the end of the day, isn’t that the best kind of adaptation – a movie that doesn’t attempt to replace its source material but works alongside it? Hell, James Cameron named the flick as his biggest cinematic guilty pleasure, and even Capcom thought that the 2002 film was good enough to be worth referencing in several of its future games (such as the laser corridor sequence in RE4).
That’s why I think it’s safe to say that this “rip-off” continues to be a success 20 years down the line.
The post ‘Resident Evil’ – The Original Movie Looks Pretty Damn Good 20 Years Later appeared first on Bloody Disgusting!.