He is the conductor, the puppet master, and the central voice. He would go on to write all six films, produce five, and direct four. Legend has it Anderson locked himself away for four weeks to play the first three Resident Evil games, and emerged obsessed and desperate to refashion them for the silver screen. Anderson, and an alleged passion project. These movies are the ultimate brainchild of Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon director Paul W.S. There is so, so much to say, but shortly put, they are a must-watch. The films are incompetent, they are baffling, and they are hysterical. It is a saga of recursion, of directorial obsession, and of one man’s love for his wife. Resident Evil becomes simultaneously unbelievable and pedestrian both generic and wholly unique.
Beginning with the serviceable Resident Evil and ending on the nigh-unwatchable Final Chapter, the franchise morphs from substandard sci-fi action fare into something completely uncategorizable. That’s a shame, because Resident Evil constitutes a life-changing 9.7 hour cinematic masterpiece a filmic journey so staggeringly rockheaded and aggressively artless that it totally redefines cinema. The rest of us, myself included, seem to have written them off. If you’re one of the lucky few who caught them all in theaters, I salute you. You might remember posters of gun-toting Milla Jovovich at the AMC or Cinemark, or maybe you caught a trailer for one of the latter installments.
#VEHICLE IN THE MOVIE RESIDENT EVIL FINAL CHAPTER SERIES#
When I ask folks about these movies, I receive glowing reviews such as “I think I saw one of them in theaters,” and “isn’t that the one with the laser hallway?” Despite spanning fourteen years and grossing over a billion dollars, most people regard the series as a vast cultural shrug, or some collective hallucination. The movies barely appeal to people who play the games, and the general public deems them “critically reviled,” so who is Resident Evil meant for? The characters, settings, and plot beats are suggestions as well, meaning these films are essentially useless as fanservice. It is ostensibly “based on” Capcom’s hit video game franchise, but I would say it’s more, “once in the same room as.” While the Resident Evil games vacillate between survival horror and action horror, the Resident Evil films plant themselves firmly in the camp of straight-up action, utilizing Capcom’s iconic zombie horror as more of a suggestion. Resident Evil is the greatest film series nobody cares about.