For Love of the Red Queen

Rating: Null/10 (15 March 2002)

I don't know what movie the reviewers are seeing, and the commentaries here border on moronic babble. RESIDENT EVIL represents one thing clearly, and that is the generation gap between lovers of good b-movies and horror films and the younger folks who don't have the background to dig what RE does. What the stupid slobbering gore-twits and the "film" snobs are missing is RE's true, uncompromising nature; no self-referential, humorous one-liners or pompous revision of the Zombie Attack genre. RE revels in understanding what is terrifying about the living dead.
That understanding? The impending attacks, the coming of the zombies, their craven need. Zombie movies prey psychologically: they are out there, they will not stop, they want us, they ARE us. That's the horror behind the Zombie, that's what makes the Zombie truly unstoppable--as long as we exist, the Zombies will exist.
The attack scenes are hardcore enough, coupled with any lifelong Zombie lover's imagination, to provide the truly impressive tension that drives RE. All credit for that should go to Anderson the director and writer: he manages a strong, kinetic movie devoid of the worst of horror cliches--in fact, Anderson manages to respect the audience enough to give them genuinely eerie imagery; I had no problem accepting the world of the Hive, of the Umbrella Co, and of the T-Virus.
And Milla Jovovich is superb; a fantastic actress entering her prime gig in RE. She manages to show human frailty even as she displays very cool martial abilities. Jovovich is simply perfect as a beautiful woman discovering that she is a high-level professional killer as unstoppable as the waves of zombies that descend on her.
Anyone who loves good, solid, uncompromising horror films should check this out (uncompromising up to a point, of course; at certain points, gore in grand quantities SHOULD have come, for the story dictates it; the gore is minimized, and you can thank the same board restrictions that have voided most realistic violence and sex from films and replaced it with cartoons--a Zombie movie is a gore movie, and at some point, as Romero knew, you have to show just how awful it is to be eaten alive). But let me say this: I'm willing to pass up on the hardcore viscera in order to get a full-bodied, enjoyable, and non-idiotic horror movie. I'll even accept the poor CGI on the inhuman monsters, the non-zombies, to get zombies back on the screen again.
Certainly RE is a step in the right direction. For everyone wishing for the return of the horror film to full popularity, RE's as good as it gets. As the 1950s science fiction movies led to the '60s psycho fests and then to '70s mind-blowing blood-letting, all gore-hounds should keep in mind that good Zombie movies without the intestines will only open the door to movies that DO contain those scenes, and for all other American films to loosen the restrictions. But RE proves it isn't necessary, and even if we don't see the flesh tearing and the brains blowing out of the back of the head, our minds perceive it, and our minds are where the zombies have always fed most heartily.
Excellent movie. Don't miss it.