[For The Love Of Franchises] Resident Evil “You’re all going to die down here”

A new zombie film franchise kicking off right at the beginning of the zombie renaissance based on a beloved horror game series? Check. 

Starring an actress in a fantastic red dress and combat boot combo who kicks zombie ass and takes evil corporation’s names? Check. 

Creepy English children being the faces of evil AI? Check. Paul WS Anderson’s Resident Evil was released 20 years ago. It introduced us to the T-Virus, a bio-weapon created by the super sinister Umbrella Corporation which turns the living into the undead. In Anderson’s adaptation, it feels like he wanted to have the film be more inspired by the Resident Evil games rather than a true adaptation. This is apparent in the absence of the iconic characters from the game series. They are all original characters, and most importantly our main character Alice played by Milla Jovovich is wholly new to the IP. And in my opinion the first film works because of this. It’s tipping its hat to the gaming source material without alienating any newcomers with overwhelming lore. Is it the best film in the world? No. But it is fun. Michelle Rodriguez, doing what she does best, terrifying Licker monsters which really scared me as a child and a super silly and gory laser sequence in a corridor. Resident Evil (2002) made a $100 million so continuing with at least a couple more films makes a lot of sense if you are a big time film producer and thankfully there is a whole saga of games to take inspiration from.

The game Resident Evil was developed by Capcom and released in 1996. The games have terrified a generation or two and introduced us to a league of likeable characters (Jill Valentine), terrifying bosses (I am looking at you Mr X) and changed the world of horror gaming by pioneering different camera styles and angles. There are currently 8 main entries in the franchise, and a few remakes of the older entries. The games have generated $9 billion.  

The 2nd entry into the film franchise is Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004) which brings in more influence, Jill Valentine and Carlos Olivera are the first major gaming characters, brought to the screen by Sienna Guillory and Oded Fehr, who are the main characters of the 3rd Resident Evil (confused?). This film picks up right where the first ended, Alice being experimented on by Umbrella and Racoon City has fallen to the zombies. But as this film starts to bring in more influence from the games, the cracks of this franchise adaptation start to appear..

One of the major issues with the films and retelling of Resident Evil is the character of Alice. By shoehorning in a character who does not exist in the original IP means the stories which are already written need to bend unnaturally around her arc. This means that all the films in the franchise are forced to pay respects to the source and bring in more iconic characters like Chris and Clare Redfield (Wentworth Miller and Ali Larter respectfully) and Wesker a key antagonist of the games (Shawn Roberts) but the main focus will always be on Alice. For the game’s fans, these are characters we love to see at the centre of the plot and action, and the films relegate them to supporting roles. 

Another criticism is that, as a film adaptation of one of the most important horror games in the genre, the horror can be lacking. In the first 2 films (2002 & 2004) there are some spooky moments like when one cannon fodder character gets eaten by a group of zombie school children while a camcorder captures it all. But from Resident Evil: Extinction (2007), the focus becomes a lot more on Alice’s combat capabilities. Yes, there are still zombies, and a few T-Virus mutated bosses to defeat but there is a move to CGI blood, which in my opinion never looks great, and one or two have 3D effects which add precisely zero scares.   

But, despite the above, I really love this franchise. I do have to separate the Resident Evil films from the Resident Evil games, because then I will be disappointed that the films don’t follow the games stories. But at the same time, if I wanted the Resident Evil games stories, I could just play the games. The films need to do something different to separate but pay homage. 

I find the franchise super absurd which I believe makes it more fun. It is proper popcorn material. The plot goes in wild ways for example Alice is cloned, Alice’s clones all die immediately in the next film and then we find out Alice herself is a clone of some top tier Umbrella suit. In one film, Umbrella have built incredibly large sets of major cities like Moscow and Tokyo in an underwater base where they continue to test the T-Virus but it's not controlled by Umbrella anymore, actually it's the evil English child AI the Red Queen introduced all the way in the first instalment.  Fan favourites, Oded Fehr and Michelle Rodriguez come back after being killed off many many films previously – its bonkers and entertaining. Audiences seemed  to be more along for the ride than critics according to Rotten Tomatoes;

But I appreciate this is not a franchise for everyone. If you want an actual retelling of the games in a film then 2002-2016 films are not for you. And if you don’t know the games then you might actually get lost, for example when Jill returns to the series in Resident Evil: Afterlife (after being absent for 2 films) but she has been “brainwashed” by Umbrella and now has blonde hair, this is a nod to her character in the Resident Evil 5 game but if you don’t know that, then you might not even recognise her. 

To try and overcome the criticism of the films not being true to the games, when it was announced they were rebooting it in 2021 in Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City, directed by Johannes Roberts, they stuck to the source material like glue, kind of. An adaptation of the first and second games, we have the main characters you would expect, Chris and Claire Redfield (now played by Robbie Amell and Kaya Scodelario), Jill Valentine (Hannah John-Kamen), Wesker (Tom Hooper) and Leon Kennedy (Avan Jogia). But, and I say that as a fan of this property, I find this film so boring. There is nothing new added here to the world of Resident Evil. 

The game series also knew it needed a refresh as their own leaning into more action than horror had its detractors and Resident Evil 6 was released in 2012 to poor critical reception. With a soft reboot with Resident Evil 7 (2017) moved from the usual third person view to a first person view, meaning we were now playing the game through the eyes of our new protagonist Ethan Winters. And the game went back to its horror routes, taking place in a derelict plantation with an infected and insane family chasing you around while you as Ethan try to find your missing wife. We don’t even have zombies, but “moulded”. The games have gone in such a different route while maintaining some of the lore like Umbrella is still the bad guys and Chris Redfield is a supporting character. They have chosen to champion horror over all else. 

I believe if film studios still want to drink from the Resident Evil well, the obvious way forward is to jump to the Resident Evil 7 and 8 games for inspiration and to keep the horror front and centre. 

My biggest advice for anyone wanting to rewatch the series, especially on the 20th anniversary of the first instalment, is to bask in the absurdity and go with the wild flow. 

* There is a Netflix series that came out in 2022 based on Resident Evil, but I have only seen 2 episodes so I don’t feel I can include this in my analysis. However the fact I have only watched 2 episodes and you can see I love this IP probably tells you all you need to know!

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