Resident Evil (Netflix series)

★★★★

Directors: Rachel Goldberg, Bronwen Hughes, Rob Seidenglanz, Batan Silva

Writers: Andrew Dabb, Jeff Howard, Tara Knight, Garett Pereda, Mary Leah Sutton, Shane Tortolani, Lindsey Villarreal, Kerry Williamson

Resident Evil is the latest adaptation of the super popular “survival horror” video game series that has spawned numerous movies as well, including the one just released in November last year. Confusingly, this series isn’t connected to that one, or the Milla Jovovich films. I guess everyone’s into the multiverse game now. No, I’m kidding. This one doesn’t have a multiverse thing attached to the story. I hope not.

The good: Unlike the film franchises, this one has a team who actually knows how to make a proper show. The story’s a lot more sophisticated, the performances are top notch from most of the cast, particularly Lance Reddick, Ella Balinska and the two young actors Tamara Smart and Siena Agudong. Despite having the same far fetched elements of the game, including all the weird science lab monsters that evil Umbrella Corporation could conjure, the show treats the story very seriously. There are quite a few exciting, pure horror set pieces to enjoy, if you can look past the occasional giant monsters and one out-of-nowhere gunfu sequence that reeked of a studio executive’s mandate, even though I liked it. For the uninitiated, this is a pretty high-quality-looking sci-fi horror streaming series that has a bizarre but passable post-apocalyptic zombie storyline.

My one big complaint is that it doesn’t “feel” like Resident Evil. Although this show is far superior than last year’s film adaptation in every way, I have to admit that the film is a lot more faithful to the game than the series. The games at their core are really haunted house stories with sci-fi horror elements, with the zombie horde forcing players to go deeper into a labyrinthian mansion to find a way to escape. The game (made by Japanese developers) also has a strong gun fetish, providing players with a large assortment of semi-automatics, machines guns, and grenade launchers to kill monsters with. It’s an ASMR of cartridge reloads and guns cocking. None of the adaptations have been able to capture this unique blend, including this one.

Originally published on my Facebook page, here.