Resident Evil

To keep things entirely transparent, I’m a Resident Evil: Apocalypse truther. In that movie, Milla Jovovich literally runs down the side of a skyscraper just to beef with a cadre of Umbrella troops more quickly. She could’ve rappelled down like a normal super soldier, or even taken the elevator down, but she opts to do that instead. It’s a choice that doesn’t work for everyone, but it works for me, and is emblematic of how far Paul W.S Anderson drove his Resident Evil movies away from the source material, though it is oddly prescient about the series’ turn to ludicrous action in later titles. The original movie is far more measured, genuinely good, and still incredibly campy.

Have you ever seen a dude’s eye dissolve? Resident Evil has got you covered. That laser hall sequence that folks love so much from Resident Evil 4? Yeah, you can probably thank this movie for that. It also has more in common with the actual games than most of the movies that follow, including Lickers and a nod to the hounds that stalk Spencer Mansion and the streets of Raccoon City. Resident Evil is the genuine article: it is the defining video-game adaptation of a generation. —- Moises Taveras