Written by Paul W.S. Anderson
Directed by Paul W.S. Anderson
Runtime 100 min.
4.5 out of 5
When Alice (Milla Jovovich) wakes up on a shower floor inside a mansion with no memory, she has little time to try and get herself together. Soon the place is infiltrated by commandos, who then take her down beneath the mansion to a secret train and into a place called the Hive, a hidden underground facility where the powerful Umbrella Corporation was conducting secret experiments.
The problem is something had gone wrong before the team got there.
And the dead are coming back to life.
Alice and the commandos dodge zombies, the Hive’s super sophisticated security system—called the Red Queen—and teammates who have secrets of their own.
It would be a miracle if anyone makes it out of the Hive . . . alive.
This movie is pure suspense. Every little sound, thump and bump make you wonder when a zombie’s going to pop out of nowhere and devour one of the living. Keeping things even creepier is the Hive itself. It’s location: a half mile below Raccoon City. Space is limited. Time is running out. You feel the tension all the way through, right from when Alice wakes up ’til the blood-soaked climax.
I loved this movie. The only reason I’m knocking off half a point is because the plot is super simple (though they make you feel otherwise). However, this flick serves as an awesome back story for what’s to come because there have been two sequels so far (Resident Evil: Apocalypse and Resident Evil: Extinction) and a fourth one to come in 2011, currently called Resident Evil: Afterlife.
This movie definitely served its purpose of setting things up for the saga to come, and wasted no time going through zombie origin stuff before getting hardcore into the action, mystery and carnage. Director/writer Paul W.S. Anderson nailed it with this film. Though—according to my Mrs—this flick was different than the game, I enjoyed it big time and have been a fan of the franchise since. Guess I owe my wife one for introducing it to me back when this film came out.
Zombie fans will love this movie and it’s easy to see why Resident Evil has the following it does.
Recommended.