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Life & Arts

Mysterious ‘Evil' lurks below city

‘Resident Evil' throws in some sex appeal to make 
its zombie story more attractive

by ROBYN MORROW 
The Daily Cougar

Raccoon City never saw it coming. The city opened its doors to the Umbrella Corporation, an international entity that dabbles in just about every industry from pharmaceuticals to computers to creating viral weaponry.

That's right. The scumbags at Umbrella have been hard at work in an underground facility beneath Raccoon City working to create the T-virus, a virus that reanimates dead cells. Once infected with the virus, victims die quickly and are miraculously reanimated. Unfortunately, they come back as zombies equipped with only the most basic instincts: to hunt and eat.

In the first installment of the Resident Evil film series, the virus is unleashed in The Hive, a facility buried beneath the city where Umbrella employees develop viral weaponry. When the virus is mysteriously released into the air, a computer running the complex locks all employees within The Hive's concrete walls. Once the virus is released into the air ducts, all who come in contact with it are infected. The computer, called the Red Queen, won't allow the virus to make its way aboveground.

Once Umbrella receives news of the incident, it calls in a special team to investigate the chaos unfolding within The Hive. Enter Alice, played by model-turned-actress Milla Jovovich, a security guard who lives in a mansion above The Hive. Once the virus is released, the Red Queen enables the mansion's defense system, releasing a gas into Alice's home. Alice wakes up on the floor of her shower to a group of special operatives who hope she can help them gain access to The Hive.

Unfortunately, Alice can't remember who she is or why she lives in this mysterious home. A man, claiming to be a police officer named Matt, stands before her in handcuffs, a prisoner of the special tactics team. The team takes Alice and Matt down with them into The Hive on their investigation.

Once in The Hive, all hell breaks loose. Zombies cover the complex, feasting on whatever they can find. The team, unaware of what has happened, finds itself surrounded by tons of zombies hell-bent on making it their meal.

While helping the team fight off the hungry crowd, Alice slowly regains her memory. Unfortunately, the more she remembers, the more she thinks she's responsible for letting the deadly virus loose.

Although the film shares the same name as its video game counterpart, Resident Evil follows a different storyline. After all, Hollywood always has to make everything more gruesome. Also, rather than have Alice dressed in standard-issue security garb, Jovovich runs around fighting zombies in a form-fitting, sexy red dress. 

With a story centered on crazed zombies running around eating people, filmmakers had to add some sex appeal somewhere.

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