Review of Resident Evil (2002) by Brandan W — 03 Jan 2011

"Resident Evil" was a smart and scary game. The darkness and the surprises were huge scare factors. In that famous game, you find yourself trapped in a mansion crawling with the undead because of a mistake made by the Umbrella Corporation.

Director Paul W.S. Anderson makes a fast, dark guilty pleasure of a film from this game with "Resident Evil".

Milla Jovovich is Alice, who wakes up in a creepy, poorly lit mansion at night in a remote forest. She has no memory of who she is or why she's here, but after a group of soldiers bursts in and takes her to a hidden lab underneath the mansion with them, she quickly begins to realize a terrible secret. She and the others find themselves locked in "The Hive", an enormous, elaborate underground structure that was sealed by the supercomputer controlling it. It soon becomes evident that an experiment called "The T-Virus" escaped into the air and killed everyone. But nobody really stayed dead. Now the remaining survivors must fight their way back out of The Hive before the door seals permanently... and at the same time they must contain the virus before it reaches the surface.

The film moves at a breakneck pace, with some elaborate sets and great cinematography that sets the dark mood well for this atmospheric sci-fi thriller.