Resident Evil (Cinema: July 2002)

Resident Evil is the world's first thrash metal movie.

The picture is literally, from start to finish, a cacophonic sledgehammer to bludgeon the senses & bleed the ears. For those of you unfamiliar with Slipknot, it's probably how you'd imagine an evening with the band currently elbowing their way onto the Radio1 playlist with the fabulous My Plague track would be.

As has become the norm recently with big summer movies out go all plot & reason & in comes anything violent, superficial & visually titillating. But in Resident Evil's case this is where the movie answers the many critics that have rubbished it - for jumping genre - by making a pretty competent celluloid alternative to the knob-jocky classic. It is what it is: an unpretentious, mindless distraction that at heart offers no more than a cheap escapist thrill. Resident Evil's target audience is obviously that dumbest of stereotypes: 14-24, drunken, video game-playing, weird, pierced, masturbating, doped, movie-obsessed, heavy metal, serial killer fixated geeks. And being as your modern cinema goer fits into at least one of these categories at some point during their average day, the film is a perfect diversion. A heady mix of loud music, bloodthirsty action & a tough cast make for a stereotypes wet dream.

The non-stop visual onslaught is complemented by an full-on aural assault, conjuring up a few forgotten treasures (like NIN's Gave Up remix from their Fixed album) which make it no surprise to find Marilyn Manson's name attached to the musical score.

But perhaps Resident Evil's finest achievement is the resurrection of the zombie flick. That most brilliant, silly & timely metaphor for modern culture's apathetic virtues sits perfectly atop the anti-globalist backstory. Of course, this is about as deep as it gets & we aren't treated to anything as intriguing or sublime as Romero's wandering stiffs from the latter two Dead movies but the final sequence literally begs Romero or some gifted protege to dig up the genre - it's been way to long.

Perhaps the most nagging question coming out of all this - apart from how'd Tim Henman get to play the hero? - is whether Resident Evil is a cult film or not? Well, in the modern context you'd have to say yes. It's a fine piece of relentless stupidity that in all it's scopophilic lunacy accentuates everything that is wrong with modern filmmaking. And this is exactly the point, deliberate or not, that ensures its merit. However, compared to other apocalyptic classics like Escape From New York, THX 1138, The Thing & indeed Dawn of the Dead, Resident Evil doesn't even come close.

RATING:

(c)Limer 2002