242: Resident Evil (2002)

SPEAKER_02 0:04

Alternate titles. Ready? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Fuck around and find out. Greetings and salutations, and welcome to the spooky season with Hacker Slash. If you're joining us again, welcome back. You're gonna have to work for your meal. If this is your first time listening, welcome to the party. We are a horror movie review podcast dedicated to telling you whether a movie is a hack, a total joke, waste of time, or a slash.

SPEAKER_00 0:34

Totally killer. Unintended.

SPEAKER_02 0:35

We believe horror is for everyone, and as such, we're writing these movies with the perspective we've gained from our varying walks of life and the flavors of fear we fancy most. My name is Chris, I'm your friendly neighborhood slasher enthusiast. This week I'm joined by the Superfly Space Guy Mac.

SPEAKER_00 0:50

That homicidal bitch killed my team.

SPEAKER_02 0:52

And the gore lover Alexis. You're all going to die down here. This episode and the entirety of our 2022 spoogie season is brought to you by our friends at Commstrips. Comstrips is helping us celebrate our 2022 theme of comfort horror. And in that spirit, today's film is a comfort pick from our resident gore lover. Now, each week this month, we've given our co-hosts the opportunity to inject their comfort horror movie into the lineup. As the month concludes, you'll get the opportunity to vote for which movie and episode you favored, which will make one of our co-hosts the winner of the second annual Co-Host Clash.

SPEAKER_03 1:25

They did the clash. They did the co-host clash. The co-host clash. They did the clash. And they were talking trash. The co-host clash tonight on Hack or Slash.

SPEAKER_02 1:43

Our final contender is a 2002 film loosely based on a popular video game franchise. The film follows a heroine suffering from amnesia as she joins a group of commandos attempting to contain an outbreak in an underground facility. This week, after being nominated by Alexis, we're talking about Resident Evil.

SPEAKER_01 2:02

Alexis, why is this a comfort movie for you? I can tell you it's such a comfort that I watched it a few months ago when I had COVID. It was the first thing I decided to put on. But this movie, it's a tight 140. It's good. It's it's nothing too deep, but it starts a great franchise off. You know, you have a badass final girl, you have a twist, you have gore, you have zombies, and you have action. So I think it just has a recipe for everything that I like in a movie, but it's not too extra, like too much I have to pay attention to, you know, too much gore. It just has a you know sprinkle of everything I would love in a movie.

SPEAKER_02 2:40

Well, we'll see if those sprinkles are some things that we enjoyed, but for now, Mac, have you seen this movie?

SPEAKER_00 2:46

Oh yeah. I owned this on DVD when I was younger. I s I've seen it several, several times. This was one of my favorite movies in college that I would also put on as a comfort movie.

SPEAKER_02 2:58

I have some memories of the Resident Evil franchise. And by that I mean more so the video games. I used to love playing Resident Evil 2 specifically, but I remember with most of the Resident Evil games, I would really annoy the hell out of my brother trying to just watch him play or watch what my cousin play at my grandma's house. There was a lot of nostalgia wrapped up in just the experience of how terrifying that game is. And I know for sure we own this movie, and I've seen it before. I remember enjoying it, but in my mind, for some reason, Resident Evil and Underworld were two competing priorities, and Underworld really took it for me. And I could never remember why. Like I haven't seen this movie, probably in at least 15 years. I won't say I haven't seen it since it came out, but it's been at least 15 years since I've watched this. So I was expecting to settle back in for this and to be reminded of why this franchise is as prominent as it was. But what were you expecting, Mac?

SPEAKER_00 4:00

I didn't know what to expect. I had a fear going into this that I would watch it and realize that I hate it as an as like a fully grown adult, you know, because I watched it as a young adult a bunch. Um, but I I kind of knew what to expect. I've seen it a ton. I could almost in my mind like pick out scenes that are are very memorable to me, but I don't remember everything like play by play. Um I just think I expected it to be kind of cool for 2002. That's what I expected. That's what I remembered about it. Is in that time, it was just like a really cool futuristic movie.

SPEAKER_01 4:36

It is a very 2000s movie. Also a reason why I enjoy this movie. And while I was watching this movie, like I mentioned, I had watched it a few months ago, so it was pretty fresh in my mind. But I was like, I wonder if this movie is gonna stand alone, like as a single movie, seeing as every time I watch it, I usually watch the whole franchise after it. But I can't believe how much like utter chaos just happens within 30 minutes of this movie, and it just it it happens pretty fast. You know, you see in other movies, bam, you have action. This one, you know, gives you a little story, sets it up, but I mean it's utter chaos. It's cut chaos in the beginning, but you know, 30 minutes in, you're just like, what is going on? The guns are brought out, you know. The people you thought would be helped may or not be be the helpers or helping anything at all. For me, it really twists on its head, if that makes any sense for what I thought was gonna happen.

SPEAKER_00 5:34

I I wish I could say the same. I think when I was when I was watching this, my memory of it is just too strong. I think I've seen it at least a dozen times, all within like a four-year time span. So while I was watching this, I realized like I could kind of look away and really still follow it if I wanted to. And there was points that like while I'm watching it that I still wanted to, you know, see what's happening. And I turned on I certainly I turned on close captioning because it is a little bit hard to hear in spots, um, especially when there's a lot of action going on, you have to kind of listen to what they're saying. But I think it's an easy movie to follow. And I think that's what I enjoyed about it when I was younger, and I definitely enjoyed it now because our brains have like limited capacity to like track anything these days, and it's it's a good kind of watch if you don't need to follow too closely. Now it's easier for me because I knew what was going to happen, but I did like want to pay attention to see if there's like little things that I was missing out on, little little tidbits that I like didn't catch, you know, when I watched it in my early 20s.

SPEAKER_02 6:33

So I think it's an interesting take, Mac, because I found this to not be something that you can watch if you don't need to follow too closely. I think there's a mechanic that's used in this movie that makes it really easy for you to be like, what the hell's going on here? And then obviously you're right alongside at least two characters in this movie also wondering what the hell is going on here. But there's still so much that gets like packed in here. You're kind of dropped in the middle of the chaos. And I found this to be something that goes so far on the action side of the genre that it kind of moves at a pace where it can be difficult to keep up. Now, it's weird to say that because there is so much exposition, so much of like what's happening in this story and the motivations for things, they're all said out loud, like it's no secret, but you do have to pick it up as you go, and there are even subtle things like certain characters not being named at all the entire movie, even though they go on to be like such huge parts of the franchise. So there there is a lot that you can dig into in this, but I found myself having to re-watch this movie twice. So I watched it the first time and I was like, Oh, this is what this is, hmm. Why'd I like this so much when I was younger? And I remember being thrown off by that and thinking, like, yo, this is it, it's gotta be a me thing, it's gotta be a mood thing. This isn't right, this is Resident Evil, right? Like this is an umbrella corporation, you can't just feel ambivalent towards this franchise. And then I re-watched it again a little while later and thought, okay, all right, there's more here than meets the eye. But I was kind of bored watching it. I was like, yeah, rah-rah, action, shoot them up. Ah, okay.

SPEAKER_01 8:22

I won't disagree with that. It definitely is heavy on the action, which is interesting because I don't typically go for those type of movies. I'm not a Rambo chick. I'm not, yeah, I don't I don't even know an action movie really, but I just like not my forte. You said Rambo, that counts. Yeah, I guess I know what that is. Same with rom-coms, it's like not my thing. But what did surprise me about this movie is how well it stood up with its like technology that it's used. So it's obviously supposed to be in the future. And I say that because I think we've seen so many movies where it's so far of what people would think the future looks like that it's not anything close to it. But this to me seems like something that would be more realistic, something that would go not would go on, but per se. But nothing seemed like too digital in this that it was like kind of out of the realm of possibility.

SPEAKER_02 9:18

Man, I I don't know. I thought this shit was way outside the realm of possibility. And the technology was so fucking weird. But that's just me. Like, there are so many movies that kind of like go in this direction, and I think this movie is the least offensive of those. Like, there are a lot of early to mid-2000s movies that really get ambitious and l and like they really take some great liberties with their creativity, with like imagining what kind of weaponry we can use. But this one, I mean, man, for as crazy as a lot of the things in Resident Evil could look, I found the graphics in this movie to be exceedingly terrible. I imagine in 2002 they were stunning, right? Like none of us were complaining about that shit back then, probably. I know I wasn't, but I didn't feel like it aged well. And I know you're talking about the technology, and I'm starting to think more about these zombies, but I think that was a disappointment for me. Resident Evil, the games are so fucking scary, and I was so disappointed that these weren't scary because it was so far on that action side.

SPEAKER_00 10:19

You know, that's literally the the note that I wrote myself. Um, I was disappointed that the effects didn't age well, like they didn't come alongside me and and still look good.

SPEAKER_02 10:28

They didn't age like fine wine.

SPEAKER_00 10:30

Yeah, just like me. I'm I I age like like milk. But there's a CGI character, and CGI stuff is so dangerous because it can look so cool, um, or it can look so cool for about I don't know, three weeks until somebody does it better, then you realize, oh man, we should have not done that in CGI. But there's one character or thing that is CGI, and parts of it seem like they could be practical, and the practical parts look amazing, and then the CGI parts that are clearly CGI look so bad now. And that just I think that just has to do with with the time in which it was made and what was available technology-wise, because we've come a long way. Like we have another Avatar movie about to hit, and that's probably gonna blow up CGI once again. So I think just a lot has happened since then. So that kind of sticks out like a sore thumb. I think what you mentioned, Chris, about like some of the other effects, like the zombie, the zombie makeup is is pretty weak compared to some other zombies that we've seen. And we've seen some really bad zombies, but we've seen some amazing, really amazing zombies. And I think back then we watched this and we were like, oh, this is so cool. And now we see it and we're just like, you know, you could have done a little bit better, could have done some cooler stuff, could have done a little bit gorier, could have done some gnarly looking walking dead kind of stuff.

SPEAKER_01 11:43

I guess I can see where you guys are coming from. I was specifically just talking about the set design because this movie can do no wrong, so I am going to back it up uh no matter what. And I know this movie is based on a video game, and I know we've seen zombie movies before. You know, we've seen all this stuff, but I feel like this movie is somewhat original. I mean, you have this idea of this umbrella corporation, this hive. To me, it feels original even though its pieces are very familiar.

SPEAKER_00 12:14

I think the the interesting thing about Resident Evil on its own is like it's obviously based off of a video game, so you can't say it's truly original because the video game probably has more cinematic footage thanks to its cutscenes than this movie has in its entire runtime. Um, but I think its execution of a video game to movie transition is what kind of set it apart because previous attempts were like cheesy, basically. They were just way too cheesy. And I think this this did it in a way that got other people interested in making video game movies all over again.

SPEAKER_02 12:48

Yeah, I'm right there with you, Mac, because look, we can't ignore the ridiculousness that was the 90s Mortal Kombat movies. And I'm someone who loves the first Mortal Kombat movie. It's an unconditional love, the kind of love that only a mother could have, now that I birthed it. But this movie is a deviation from Resident Evil lore. Not entirely, but it was a different experience instead of just a rinse and repeat of you went out, you bought the game, you beat the game. Okay, this movie is just the game. And it doesn't cannibalize the sales of the movie or the game, like these two things can exist in the same universe, which is a a really wise take. So I'm I'm 100% there with you, Mac. I think where this movie made its best step was in its ending. Because I think this movie ends, right? Where if you're a lover of Resident Evil, Resident Evil 2, this movie ends where you would have almost hoped it would have begun.

SPEAKER_00 13:48

Yeah, this is an amazing ending. And I think you get to a point where you think, okay, the movie's gonna be over and we'll kind of be left hanging, and then it like keeps going with it. It takes it a little bit further to really kind of get you interested in what's gonna happen next. And I I just love the way that it ends because it has like two phases to the very end of the movie. Like one's like, let's wrap up this story, and the next one's like, we're gonna set you up for whatever's gonna happen next. And at the time, I'm sure they were like, maybe we don't make another one, we don't know yet, but we want there to be a stage set, and I think they did an amazing job at doing that.

SPEAKER_01 14:20

Yeah, typically it is something that is annoying when you just set it up for another movie, but the way this franchise continues is my favorite. It kind of does the same thing throughout. But especially when I think about Resident Evil 2, just the fluidity from one to the other is great. Not that I'm already just giving props number two to anchor movie number one, but it is true. And I I just love some of the visuals you get towards the end of the movie as well.

SPEAKER_02 14:51

Well, let's see if the success of its ending can secure some good ratings for us. But before we actually get into the scoring of this film, Alexis, how would you rate the gore score?

SPEAKER_01 14:59

You know, you got a zombie movie, so you know, it's it's gonna be pretty high. Um, I'd say medium in this one. You still got the graphics of kind of not the best zombies that you can imagine. There isn't too much going on with Flesh in this, but you know, I think it's bearable to watch. And what about the animal report? Just like in every zombie movie that has animals involved, it it's gonna be tough to watch.

SPEAKER_02 15:23

All right. Well, let's go ahead and get into our ratings then. Resident Evil from 2002, the gore lovers' comfort pick for this, our 2022 spooky season. Was it a hacker or a slash?

SPEAKER_01 15:33

I am going to slash this movie. Like I mentioned before, this movie is from a time frame in horror that I absolutely love. It has a lot of the qualities I love. Gore, zombies. Did I mention 2000s? Yes. It has action. And I think my favorite part of this whole ass franchise is Alice. She's such a badass. She's kicking zombies ass in a fucking dress, for God's sakes, and Combat Beach, which I might say is a great look. The way this franchise goes, too. I think it also helps me give this a slash, is just because this is just a great foundation for the rest of this movie, for the rest of this franchise. Visually, characters, antagonists, protagonists, the story continues, and I just love how they interweave parts and moments of this movie throughout the franchise as well.

SPEAKER_00 16:26

Well, I've mentioned that I owned the DVD when I was younger, and I watched it a bunch. This was a part of a few movies that I think I watched like over and over. This one, Army of Darkness, uh, was another one. Um, but I just enjoyed the hell out of it back then. I remember I played another video game called uh SWAT 3 with mods for character skins based on this movie, even though I never actually played Resident Evil itself. Um, it was so cool at the time, and Mila Jovovich was the pinnacle of beauty amongst the dudes in my friend circle for like, I don't know, a good two to three years. That being said, it didn't age incredibly well. Um, but you know, I understand why this is a great comfort horror pick. I think about it more from like the sci-fi action point of view. I never really considered it that much of a horror movie because it's just not that scary. Um, but it's got zombies, it's got jump scares, it's got Milo Yovovich in a red dress and combat boots, like you mentioned. It's got Michelle Rodriguez. Uh, so it's not the strongest slash on Earth by any means, but it's a slash because it's a good time.

SPEAKER_02 17:25

I'll take that. You know, Mac, you riddle off a list of compliments for this movie, and the more you go and the longer you go, I'm like, oh yeah, yeah, yeah. It does have all these things. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Michelle Rodriguez, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Fast and the Furious, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But man, what a sensation it was watching this movie. To the point where I actually think I text a couple people in my life, do I not give a shit about Resident Evil? It's so weird because it feels like sacrilegious to say. It really does. Again, such a tie to appreciating the moment of Resident Evil and like a video game culture. But I think for me, when I look back at that com that competition between Resident Evil and Underworld, one of those franchises is markedly more horrific than the other. And Resident Evil is a great movie. It's fine, it's fun, you got some zombies in there. It doesn't take much for a zombie movie to be good, in my opinion. And I'm not saying that as like a backhanded compliment. I enjoy zombie movies and they can be very, very simple in a great way. But I think for me, this is so far into the action side of things that I lose interest. And that's where I think I draw the line here. This is not the hackiest hack I've ever had. It might be even a hack that I redact at some point in the future, but it's not a slash because I had to really talk myself into watching it a second time to give it a fair shake, and I still didn't have that much better of a of a time with it. I am not hacking the whole franchise by any means. Alexis, you say this make this marks a great foundation, and I do think it does that. But similar to the way that I didn't really love the original Friday the 13th, but then Friday the 13th part two was fantastic, that might be this. But for now, Resident Evil 2002, Alexis' Comfort Horror Pick, has earned two slashes and one hack. Now you can find this movie streaming on Netflix, at least in the USA. So go ahead and check it out. Then join us in the second half so we can break down the zombie kills together. We'll see you in a bit.

SPEAKER_00 20:02

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SPEAKER_01 21:17

But that that is doable. I don't know. When you get into zombie movies, it's kind of just like an exponential death that you get.

SPEAKER_00 21:25

Yeah, I mean, I I feel like at a certain point you have to go, the number is, well, it's a zombie movie, so figure it out. Like there's a lot.

SPEAKER_01 21:32

That is true. That is true. I do love um what you do see in this movie because I feel like, like I mentioned, it's a great starter for the franchise, but I feel like someone who's like into action and horror could also love this movie just because I mean the g there is gore there, but it's not super crazy. Like someone could watch it and be like, Oh, okay. Like obviously you know what you're getting into in zombie movies.

SPEAKER_00 21:55

I think the the gore is interesting to me because there's a lot of opportunities to increase it. But I'm curious if it would just would have added like too much complexity or too much to the budget or or whatever, or if it just wouldn't have helped the story in any way.

SPEAKER_02 22:08

See, I feel like what they lacked in using for gore in terms of it gets kills, etc., they really just diverted all that budget to CGI or makeup for the zombies or the creatures. And some of it looked really, really good, like the dogs, for example. And then some of it looked really, really bad. So I don't know. I feel like this is a movie where oddly enough I could be like, yeah, I could use more gore because shit was kind of weak.

SPEAKER_01 22:35

I do I do feel like that, but you definitely get it in the rest of the franchise. Um, you get the eating of the flesh more, you get all of that. And it's it's funny because because I've watched this movie never just standalone and always I've watched like the next one that I'm like sometimes get the second movie confused with the first one, or there's just one movie in general.

SPEAKER_00 22:58

Yeah, that that makes sense to me as well. I think the the the first one, like the way it ends, really ties in to the to the other movie. So sometimes like that kind of gets a little mixed up. But the there's enough, I think there's enough gore, at least in my favorite kill.

SPEAKER_01 23:11

Interesting. What is your favorite kill?

SPEAKER_00 23:13

I think it's just the the biggest, brightest, and most outlandish one, and that is the crosshatch of laser beams.

SPEAKER_01 23:20

Ah, of one, yes. So recognizable. I feel like this movie it's just it's known for that kill.

SPEAKER_02 23:27

It is the most iconic kill in this entire film. It was my number one, but I'll go with my number two, which is the subtle reference to Alice in Wonderland off with her head. It's the woman who his head gets uh decapitated, presumably in the elevator.

SPEAKER_00 23:45

That one is such a crazy way to start this movie. And they could have showed it. I'm glad that it didn't show too much because the way that it like builds the suspense of it moving like down first and then keeps going up and then boom, like cut away from the shot is is so smart.

SPEAKER_01 23:59

I appreciate that. I do love those two. I think the decapitation was my favorite too.

SPEAKER_02 24:06

Yeah, man, you actually say that, and Mac, something about what you just said just triggered this memory from my second rewatch of it recently, which is that holy shit, this movie has so many final destination deaths. We have that death, and then we have the other death with the big metal pipes. Well, not that it was a person who was dying and more of a creature, but we have some final destination level shit in this film.

SPEAKER_01 24:31

I would agree. Same time frame too, so they could be similar. I do appreciate Rain, though, in this movie in general, but mostly her death. I do feel bad. I think that was the one that really like gut-wrenched me the most because you get this group of people who are supposed to come in, take care of business, and leave, and they're all stuck in this hallway, and half of them are gone. So you're like, okay, who is the savior at this point? Because you don't know much about Alice, and Alice doesn't know much about herself. So Rain being that integral part and being throughout the entire movie, I just loved, and it just made her death a little bit more sad.

SPEAKER_02 25:12

I guess I can relate to feeling sad about that death because she is someone who really just showed up to do her job. You know, the employee who clocked into work and didn't call out sick really just came through for the employer, and the employer just said, Well, you're gonna die. You know, and it reminds me that this movie, I had two initial thoughts while I'm watching it. Alternate titles. Ready? Play stupid games, win stupid prizes. Fuck around and find out. Those are the two things that you could call this fucking movie because the level of absurdity that takes place when in this corporation, obviously, you cannot let anybody fucking leave this building.

SPEAKER_01 25:50

Yes, and it only gets a more absurd, truly.

SPEAKER_00 25:55

And what's interesting is like I think you mentioned earlier that this place is supposed to just like seem so futuristic, right? Like it's supposed to just feel that way. To me though, maybe because I lived in Europe for a couple of years, like right before this movie came out, it just felt really European.

SPEAKER_01 26:14

How did this feel European?

SPEAKER_00 26:16

Um, there's there's a lot to it that feels European. So it felt European but with like American-ish accents, right? So like the combination like just makes it really not kind of fit in. But like we've got HK weapons, we've got the design of the lab, we've got the wardrobe, the set, the setting, the dressing, everything like just makes it seem like kind of cool and kind of futuristic, but not really. Um, but it's still like modern weapons and stuff aside from like you know, laser beams and holograms. Um, but it really felt like you went to some like very cool German factory, even though it's like modern times, but for some reason everything is very precise. That's that's truly what everything felt here. And that was honestly my favorite visual of this movie was just like all of that. The setting, the the saturassing, the wardrobe, all of it. Just like it doesn't necessarily feel like 2050 or anything, it just seems like if if cool modern design labs meeting like industrial-looking, I don't know, trolley systems like combined into one.

SPEAKER_01 27:17

Yeah, and especially in that final scene where Alice, you know, is back at the Umbrella Corporation and the facility per se, and you have that stark white room and the lights and the needles and the tubes, and it to me, it's just like wow, it doesn't feel out of place, it doesn't feel anything like that. I do appreciate though the look of this hive. It's my favorite part. When you get the close-ups of the lab, you can feel this intricacy. It almost reminds me of a deep blue sea, but it's like the I guess it's a similar hive, different layers, different levels, different just little places you can go and hide and do things. And even when they are transported out on the map portion and you can see where people are at, I appreciated that because it gave me a perspective of how large this underground laboratory is.

SPEAKER_02 28:13

You know, Alexis, that was also my favorite visual, and it was decidedly my favorite visual over the alternative, which was the 3D map of the hive, because I thought that shit was terrible. But I think a backup favorite visual would be the very satisfying packaging of the T virus itself and its anecdote. The little blue spiral, the little green spiral. That's a vibe that I can get into. There wasn't a whole lot more though that aesthetically really pleased me. Obviously, we talk about the iconic kill with the lasers. Obviously, there's some good quality makeup or effects in this film, but so much of it was so jarring or just very dated. Like you can't look at this movie and not think early 2000s, and it doesn't age well in that respect. So aesthetically, this movie isn't a big thing for me, but what was a big hit for me was my favorite scene. And it's actually the opening moments of the film when we have everything just go into shit in the hive, and we see these folks at their seemingly mundane job. Obviously, there's something else going on, and you see how they're walking into work with their coffee and having small talk in the elevator, or settling in at their workstation, and then things just start to unfold. You have the virus that's released into the air, you have the security system locking everything down, you have everybody thinking that it's just a drill, not realizing what's really at stake. So to see the escalation from the mundane to the holy fuck, we're all gonna die here was so satisfying to watch. And it was honestly, I think, one of the more scary parts of this movie.

SPEAKER_00 29:55

I think it's just done so well. Like the pace of it is really great to start a movie off like that because you could take your time with it and really draw it out, but they didn't. They were like, no, no, we're gonna get into the action right away. And I and I love that. Like sometimes you just have to jump in.

SPEAKER_02 30:08

Yeah, and you make such a great point. And what kills me is that we started the movie this way. It's a great, hey, come along for the ride. We told you what the corporation is, look at this shit happen. And it kills me that moving away from that, you're you know, using two characters that have amnesia as your vessel to understand what's happening. I feel like we could have picked up on what was happening had they just allowed us to figure it out versus having to just frame it through Alice and Spence having amnesia and having to tell them what their jobs were, tell them what's going on, give all this exposition. You know what I mean? I feel like it could have gone a different way.

SPEAKER_01 30:52

I see where you're coming from. They definitely gave you a lot and some you could have figured out. I don't think it took away from the story per se. And I think that's why it's an easy watch for me because I can look up and then someone's telling me what I missed. But my favorite scene's definitely going to be, and it was referenced earlier, is that light chamber. You get to a point where you're there, you think they're gonna do something, and you're like, nah, but then I really thought, like, I think what kills me is I really thought some of these characters were going to make it. And I'm just flipped on my expectations. And you know, you think a movie's gonna go somewhere, and not that this is like the best movie all time and really gives you a twist right in the middle of the movie, but I was really expecting these people to at least some of them make it out of life, or at least have zombies kill them, at least. But instead, you have this intricate light beams that are killing people. Did I expect it to turn into a lattice? No, I did not, which I thought was kind of ridiculous, but I did appreciate that.

SPEAKER_02 31:54

Man, and poor dude who really just thought, okay, I can do some pull-ups, I can really just maneuver my way around this whole situation. And that one look of just knowing that shit. There's no way he's gonna get out of that. There's absolutely no way. And you think, because this other guy is almost done disarming everything, that maybe, maybe we'll have a moment like we had at the elevator where the woman just drops right before the floor. But no, he got got. And I felt real bad for him.

SPEAKER_00 32:23

What a great way to eliminate half of the team, though, right up front. And that's one of those pacing things that I think is is a great choice here because we jump right into the movie with a high speed, we kind of slow down here and there, but like this is one of those scenes that just accelerates things. Because if you have a big team going into this, you gotta slowly pick them off, like one by one. So everyone's gonna get bitten by a zombie and then turn and have to shoot them or whatever it is. And instead, it's like, no, we're gonna literally kill like three or four of these guys with lasers, okay? The death laser hallway is just it's fantastic. What a fun choice that I it just lives in my mind to this day. And that was my favorite choice. So I have to pick another one. And my favorite, I think, is when the Red Queen reveals the liquor as soon as like Spence thinks he's gonna make it out, and she's like, Oh, oh no, I've been an outy girl. And they're like, Okay, what the hell are you talking about? And we've we've you know, here we've already heard some stuff going on. We can hear some scraping and some sounds and all that. We know something's out there. Um, but she just I wish she kind of would have like chuckled to herself almost because it it is kind of a uh a nasty little surprise. And Spence, I don't really understand Spence's character, like his motivations. I get that he's kind of greedy and wants to make money off of it. Um, but I feel like there's probably there's gotta be more to him than that. I don't know. But to see him go out in that way literally made me laugh on this viewing. I don't know in previous watches like how I felt about it, but when we cut to the small screen and the audio of him like getting bitten by the liquor, it was it was like comedy to me. It was hilarious.

SPEAKER_02 33:54

Yeah, see, man, that would have been one of my favorites, Mac. But the liquor is such an iconic monster. And maybe iconic is is a bit of an exaggeration, but personally for me, when I think of Resident Evil, I think of the Umbrella Corporation, I think of Leon, I think of Claire, I think of Raccoon City, I think of the liquor. And I remember it's just because of how terrifying these fucking things were in the game, and you can see them out on the roof, and you just hear them, but I think before you could see them. At least this is the this is the story that I've built in my mind. And I was so underwhelmed by the appearance of the liquor because of the graphics, but I did enjoy its like the mechanic of its use in his death. Because I'm like, yeah, you fucking deserve to go out nasty, dude.

SPEAKER_01 34:41

Talking about another iconic antagonist in this movie is when Matt's character turns into the nemesis, and that's how I think of him throughout the entire franchise, or specifically in the second movie. But these characters, I mean, you're right, Mac, they just like drop off, and I think that's probably where I'm just like kind of unsettled about this movie is you have this group, then they all just vanish, and the people that you didn't think would be commanding are commanding. And to be honest, it's gonna be Alice and it's gonna be your girl Rain. And I appreciate having two powerful women in this movie. You even have a red queen, too. So, I mean, three powerful women in a movie, I I completely enjoy, and I just love that you have a protagonist that stays throughout the franchise. Usually you don't get the same actor actress, so it's nice to see her throughout the entire franchise.

SPEAKER_02 35:38

Three powerful women, one of them's an AI.

SPEAKER_01 35:42

Still matters, right?

SPEAKER_02 35:44

Yeah, but okay, yes, the women in this movie are fantastic. I did enjoy Rain. I did enjoy Alice a hundred percent, but I do find myself struggling to give a fuck about anybody else. I know we have Matt who turns into Nemesis, or at least the the hint there. If you have not seen the sequel or any of the other movies and you haven't played the games, you don't know what Nemesis is or anything like that. But I truly didn't give a shit. Like, yes, it was an emotional moment when he finds his sister. That was the only moment that I could start to care, and that was a really big string to pull on us. But I just found myself feeling like he was kind of like a labor the whole time. But I think that's what it is about these action movies, right? In horror movies, you get people who are there to pad the body count, and sometimes they feel a trope, or sometimes that you are endeared to them in such a way. But when it's just like get in, get out, do your business, this is the mission. We gotta carry on the mission, we gotta complete the objective. It just feels so work-oriented. I'm like, ugh, I'm so bothered by this. What's the sit rep, guys? I don't fucking know. I just did not feel connected to anyone besides Alice. And even Rain. This was not like my favorite Michelle Rodriguez movie, I think.

SPEAKER_00 37:02

It's still a good one for her because I didn't know about her at all until I saw this movie, and then I knew who she was afterwards. And going into Fast and Furious, it was like, oh yeah, there she is. Oh, yes, and and even honestly, Emila Yovovich, I I didn't really know about her at all. I know most of our probably age group like didn't know who she was either. Um, but afterwards we did, and we knew that red dress and we knew those black boots, and later on we saw some amazing other outfits and ass kicking going on. And I think what's weird about her character is like she's this this operative, she has these skills, but they have to hold it back. And I think that's why they made that choice of like having her go through the amnesia thing, because if she was herself the entire time, the movie would have been over in 20 minutes, and it would have been like really quick and really boring because she would have just killed everybody, and that's no fun. So there might be other ways of slowing her down, you know. Maybe they just couldn't think of more creative ways to do it. Um, but it worked because when they finally like she like realizes, oh, I know it's like kind of like the matrix where it's like, oh, I can just load karate into my brain. That's basically what happened. She's like, Oh, like I have martial arts training, I can do this, I can kill zombie dogs with my feet. Awesome. And then from from there on out, just do it, just kill everybody. There, the Red Queen, I think is an AI, but uh is entertaining. I think if it was made now, the Red Queen would probably be like the comic relief almost. Because if you're omnipotent, you know, if you're omniscient, eventually you just have to have like fun. I I think I think you just have to have fun because what can you do? You don't have a real body. You can you can point laser beams and stuff though. But the the one character I'll say I'm sad about is one. I don't know why. For some reason, I just like the guy, he just seems really interesting to me. And I love his really bad American accent because it's actually not that bad. Man, it's actually really good, except for raccoon.

SPEAKER_02 38:55

That is hilarious. I do love his voice, even his like modulated voice underneath the helmet. I really, really enjoyed the presence that he had. And I again I feel bad for him because again, the employee who clocks into the job and is just trying to get in and go back home and do it all over again some other day. And while his death is, I think obviously one of the more intense things that you can appreciate aesthetically about this movie, I think what his death does is one of the best parts of it. And it has nothing to do with just the visuals of it, it has nothing to do with how cool it is for the lasers to go into the design pattern that they do or the goopiness of his eye as he disintegrates. What it does is show how anybody is vulnerable. As if we needed a reminder, because clearly you have the entire hive that just got wrecked, right? But when you have this tough group of commandos and you have the, you know, presumed leader of this group get taken out just like that. So almost like inconsequently. Not to say that it's the same exact thing as like a Jen Lee and Psycho, but it does say all bets are off. You have no idea who's gonna make it out of here. I think that's a strong decision that was made in the positive direction by this film.

SPEAKER_01 40:12

I do have to say negative, and you guys have brought uh a plethora of negatives, so fortunately I'm not gonna choose any of those. I think the worst part of this movie is how much of the antivirus they used on that tram or whatever they were on. I was like, literally, they're just giving everyone the antivirus right now. And don't we need this to save humanity? I guess at that point they didn't know that anything was going on outside, but still I would save a little bit. Like, it's fine. Save humanity, just kill me. It's fine.

SPEAKER_00 40:45

Well, I think one of the worst parts of the movie, and it's such a small thing, because I think it's just a fun movie, but the bad accents. There are some pretty weird, not like terribly bad accents, but there's a couple ones where like you'll hear a word or a phrase and just think, like, what was that supposed to be? Because your accent completely just changed from one sentence to the next. And I think the one I'm thinking of is very specifically is when Spence wakes up and realizes who he is, and he says a phrase, and it just like doesn't sound like the rest of his character the entire way through. And I don't know what that's about.

SPEAKER_02 41:22

Yeah, don't you know that famously, when you are cured of your amnesia, you begin to speak in whatever accent you chose to speak in in the decades before? It's kind of like in our birthday episode where Ryan Parris and I just kept swapping accents the entire time.

SPEAKER_00 41:34

Sometimes I you know what? Hey, I get it. Yeah, you gotta have fun with it. You're an actor, you gotta do interesting things. It's okay.

SPEAKER_01 41:39

Speaking of interesting, this franchise does get very interesting throughout, and it intertwines so much. Even the Netflix series that they have, R.I.P., they only had one season, but I will say I obviously will watch this again and the rest of the franchise, just like I did a few months ago.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

You know, as a young adult, I watched it like often, like every couple months. I don't think I'm gonna do that. I don't think it aged that well for me, but I would watch it again.

SPEAKER_02 42:09

Oh, I have zero interest in re-watching this, but I am interested in exploring what comes later. I haven't given this entire franchise a shake. I know I did see a few of them when they came out in theaters in the 2000s, but I I I'll hold off on this one. What I am curious though is what kind of value Mac can bring us in fact or fiction and see if I can be swayed by some fun Easter eggs.

SPEAKER_00 42:31

Number one, Mile Yovovic accidentally punched the director in the face while shooting the sewer scenes, giving him a black eye.

SPEAKER_01 42:37

This seems like one of her first roles in some sort of fashion. I'm sure she's not punching anyone, so fiction.

SPEAKER_00 42:44

This is a fact. Oh. And she ended up hurting like three other people during filming.

SPEAKER_02 42:48

Interesting. Unhinged Maniac Mile Yovovic, yep.

SPEAKER_00 42:51

Number two, she started out with makeup for her bruises and scratches, but she actually got beat up enough during filming to the point that the makeup team had to cover up her real bruises and scratches.

SPEAKER_01 43:01

I'm assuming that's a fact.

SPEAKER_00 43:03

Yes, it is. It's a fact. Apparently, this was a pretty rough thing to shoot. Lots of action in filming this. And she basically did all of her own stunts except for the one scene with like the pipe in it, because when she had to jump, there was some wires, and her agent was like, uh, don't like hang yourself on these wires, dude. And number three, several of the actors were excited to be a part of the film, but were not familiar with the video game itself until after the release.

SPEAKER_01 43:26

Seems like a fact.

SPEAKER_00 43:27

I just made that crap up. It's a fiction, but Miliovovich was into the film because her brother was a huge fan. Michelle Rodriguez straight up told her agent, I want in on a film if it's made of this video game before there were even any plans to make it.

SPEAKER_01 43:40

Oh wow. There are some people that have played this.

SPEAKER_00 43:43

And number four, the main actors were told to get ready for this film, they need to actually play the games.

SPEAKER_01 43:49

I'm gonna say fiction.

SPEAKER_00 43:50

This one's a fact. And they were concerned, because you know the games can get a little lengthy, that they wouldn't have enough time to actually play through them before they had to start filming. So some of them started watching videos of other people playing them, which is now basically Twitch.

SPEAKER_01 44:04

I do love that though, because I don't necessarily like to play, but I like watching other people play a game.

SPEAKER_00 44:09

Yeah, you're a video game voyeur.

SPEAKER_01 44:10

Exactly.

SPEAKER_00 44:11

And that's fact or fiction.

SPEAKER_02 44:12

Well, there you have it, folks. Resident Evil, as chosen by our gore lover as her comfort pick, has earned two slashes and one hack. Now we've certainly had a lot to talk about here, but it doesn't end here by any means. You want to know what you think, so let us know. You can join in on the conversation by hanging out with us for free over in our Discord. Click the link in our show notes to sign up.

SPEAKER_00 44:31

If you've enjoyed listening to this episode, consider becoming one of our patrons during our New Blood Drive. Visit patreon.com slash hackerslash to continue enjoying more of the show with early access, extended episodes, bonus content, and live shows. If you join during October, you'll also receive our limited edition fifth anniversary poster.

SPEAKER_02 44:49

We'll see you next time, folks, and remember, even in death, the human body is still active. Bye. Okay, so here's the thing. There are so many movies out there that are made after or inspired by video game properties. And I dare say most of them are not great. But I do think that more often there are great videos that come from prominent movies.

SPEAKER_00 45:25

Okay, so I think by and large, most video game movies are bad. That that is just absolutely accurate. But when I look, I'm looking at the list on Wikipedia of English language movies based on video games. There's a couple that I think gave me a lot of like nostalgia. You know, just I'm looking at this list going, oh, this is so great. Like Super Mario Bros., I think is one of the more well-received video game movies, even though it's ridiculous. Uh Double Dragon, that's another one. Street Fighter, Street Fighter 2, both interesting. Um, Mortal Kombat, a lot of vibes there. Okay. Wing Commander, one of my favorites.

SPEAKER_02 46:01

I don't know about Wing Commander or literally anything else you said except for Super Mario Brothers, but Mortal Kombat was gonna be like the thing that I like the only thing I could contribute to this conversation because Mortal Kombat is my favorite video game series ever. And the first movie was adequate, the second movie was terrible, but the most recent one that came out I really, really enjoyed.

SPEAKER_00 46:25

That was fantastic. I think the best video game movie.

SPEAKER_01 46:29

Definitely not a video game player person, not a part of my personality, but I do appreciate the Mortal Kombat movies. And I'd even know, surprisingly, that this movie was based on a video game. Isn't that weird?

SPEAKER_00 46:43

It's I that's actually kind of funny, but I think it stands alone like as a just as a movie. Like if you just watch this for fun, it's like what is it, less than two hours, so it's kind of it's kind of no big deal.

SPEAKER_02 46:54

Yeah, I mean it's different enough from the game. Like, okay, I loved playing the Resident Evil games when I was younger, well before this movie came out. That was like classic 90s action, and then when this came out, I remember being very confused in the theater, like, but where's Leon? Right? And it's not even like Leon is such a small footnote in so many so much like Resident Evil property and lore. But I think that I can understand why this movie has its own identity because the movies I think inspire a lot that for the games that come later, but it itself was very loosely based on the game. But uh I cannot imagine how you saw this movie without hearing, oh yeah, like the game. Even if you hadn't didn't have personal experience with the game.

SPEAKER_00 47:42

Yeah, that's kind of true. I never actually played the game. This was not one that I ever got into. Uh, these kind of games to me felt like they were movies on their own, just with how many cutscenes they had, and I just hated that kind of gameplay when I played a lot of video games, and so I just I never got into it. I didn't have a PlayStation. Well, I had a PlayStation, but we didn't really play like this kind of stuff on there. We played like Spyro, so more like fun-loving kind of stuff. But I don't know. I think there's a lot of movies that came after this, of course. Like this really helped kick things off for video games and movies, and and video game movies are mostly horrible in the early to mid-2000s, and they don't really get better as they keep going, which is the saddest part. Like, I'm I'm looking at this list of games here, and Doom is one that springs to mind, and Doom was so bad.

SPEAKER_02 48:27

Dude.

SPEAKER_00 48:27

Offensively bad.

SPEAKER_02 48:29

The game, Doom, amazing, loved it. The movie, I was very confused what the fuck I was watching. I'm like, this isn't this isn't it. This isn't the whole thing.

SPEAKER_00 48:38

It it seems like they just were like, hey, you can kind of riff on the idea of the video game, and that'll be good enough. Silent Hill, I think, was actually pretty good if I remember correctly.

SPEAKER_01 48:47

The movies are so good, they're my favorite.

SPEAKER_02 48:50

See, I was a big opt-out of both the video game and the movie. The only exposure I have to Silent Hill is playing the Silent Hill chapter of Dead by Daylight.

SPEAKER_00 49:02

Yeah, horror horror video games never really got me until I played Dead by Daylight with you and then realized I was horrible at it, and so I just let you guys kind of own that.

SPEAKER_02 49:11

Not true. You're a great killer in that game.

SPEAKER_00 49:13

Yeah, I can't play one of the survivors. That's just not for some reason I can't do it. But the killer thing, I always just I don't know, I just found it to be easy. Looking at some of the other games though, Hitman as a as a as a movie, um, not good. Like that. I love Timothy Olyfont though, let me tell you, but the movies themselves were were not good. The one that really upset me was Max Payne. This made me angry because I played the Max Payne video games and they were fantastic. And then to see the movie, it was like you just made stuff up and put it on film. This is horrible.

SPEAKER_02 49:43

Yeah, I got nothing. But uh one that comes to mind immediately, again, not because I saw the movie or played the fucking game, but because I was very aware of the overlap there. You remember when Tomb Raider had its moment and Angelina Joe Lee became Laura Croft?

SPEAKER_00 49:58

Honestly, though, it was actually kind of fun. Those movies, I don't know that they're necessarily great movies, but they're still fun. They might be more fun than some of the video games.

SPEAKER_01 50:07

You remember Prince of Persia?

SPEAKER_00 50:09

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 50:10

I'm just remembering the movies. I'm are you saying yes to the video game?

SPEAKER_00 50:14

I I remember both the video game and the movie, but I didn't watch the movie.

SPEAKER_02 50:18

I love the video game. Wait, was Jake Jillenhall the Prince of Persia? Yes. Oh yes. And hot. Jesus Christ, Jake, take a seat.

SPEAKER_00 50:27

I think Resident Evil though probably takes up more, like percentage-wise, takes up more video game movies that I've seen because there's several sequels that I've seen. I haven't seen all of them. There was one, I think like the most recent one that came out as a movie, not the show, and I saw a clip of it on TV one day and I was like, oh, I didn't, I guess I never got the DVD of this one because I have no idea what the hell's happening right now. But like at least two or three of them, I've I've definitely seen a bunch.

SPEAKER_02 50:51

Yeah, I'm I'm gonna be real. Resident Evil has this perfect nook in my childhood where I remember very limited things about it, and it's tucked away and preserved forever, and that's it. I didn't explore the rest of this film franchise, so I don't really know what the fuck was going on.

SPEAKER_01 51:08

Yeah, it's just interesting to see that something that I love so much that people have seen very little of. And I could tell you I've even watched the franchise that's on Netflix that got canceled after the first season.

SPEAKER_02 51:20

After the first hour being released? No, I'm kidding.

unknown 51:23

Yeah.

SPEAKER_02 51:24

Okay, it really was that was a few days after. But great video games that came from movies. Lord of the Rings. Obviously, Lord of the Rings didn't start as the movies, but the video game that came from that, I remember it gave me just oodles and oodles of fun for hours at a time. And then obviously uh the Battlefront series from Star Wars. Star Wars, Battlefront, and Battlefront 2 specifically, amazing.

SPEAKER_00 51:48

I did play a little bit of that, and that was fantastic. And I I played one of the other more recent ones. I played a couple hours of when I say hours, I think I made maybe two hours of it. Um, but it's like one that's just based on the idea of Star Wars, it's based in in the like the concept of it, but not based on the movies, and that was like surprisingly cool to have a lightsaber and stuff. That's a lot of fun. Yeah, Star Wars video games have been Rogue Squadron back in the day, like the original one. That was a like a fantastic game. So they've they've done well for themselves.

SPEAKER_02 52:18

You know, it'd be great. Hear me out. There is a book that takes place in the Star Wars universe called Death Troopers, and it basically involves Han and Chewie stumbling upon like a deserted prison where everyone has died, but they're zombie stormtroopers, and it is a good read. I would love some zombie stormtrooper action in a movie or a video game. Give me either of those numb down.

SPEAKER_00 52:44

Yeah, I feel like that would be interesting to see on screen, that's for sure. And then with video games, of course, it you would just be blasting them away, so that'd be cool too.

SPEAKER_02 52:53

And the gore lover Alexis.

SPEAKER_01 52:55

You're all going to die. That's not the I was trying to do English. I thought for sure you were gonna say, I've been a naughty naughty girl, or whatever the fuck she says. Maybe I'll go with the other one. I can't do an English accent.

SPEAKER_00 53:07

Just say it in your regular accent.

SPEAKER_01 53:08

You're all going to die down here. No, that's not how she says it. No, I'm just gonna read the other one. Commit, just commit to saying it. It's fine. Was it a hack or a slash? Would this be funny if I hacked it?

SPEAKER_00 53:21

It would be a a a real Ryan move to pull.

SPEAKER_01 53:24

It really would. Well, I'm not pulling a Ryan tonight.