Zombies in film: Resident Evil

“Survive the horror.”

Film: Resident Evil

Directed by Paul W. S. Anderson

Written by Paul W. S. Anderson

Produced by Constantin Film Produktion, Davis-Films, Impact Pictures and New Legacy

Story: Adding to the mythology of this long running video game series, Resident Evil follows the story of Alias. A super soldier actually never named in the movie. The story of Alias and RE is very long and twisted and if you want to go into it quite a deep dive. But the story of them ovie is fairly simple. A team of Umbrella Soldiers go into a secret Umbrella building called the Hive to find out what went wrong. What went wrong is everyone turned into zombies. Alias is the soldier who was supposed to protect the mansion which serves as the entrance to the Hive. She is taken in with the team along with another man and a second man is found on the way in. These two men turn out to be part of Alias discovering her involvment in the project and trying to bring down Umbrella. Zombies, zombie dogs and Lickers (though the movie calls them Hunters) make for a very entertaining and undead filled flick.

Zombies: The zombies in this film come in three varities, much like the games the virus creates mutated versions of itself, resulting in the "Hunter" called a "Licker" in the games. This creature has an incredibly long and powerful tongue, along with huge claws that can rip through metal. The creature changes and grows as it consumes fresh DNA. Then there are zombie dogs, which some argue are possible and some argue are not. And of course normal zombies. These zombies are fairly inconsistent for being in one film. Some times they go straight for the survivors, sometimes they disapear with no explaination. The most realistic thing about them is the amount. Where there is any more then one or two zombies there are scores of zombies. And then surprise! If you look deeper into the Wesker Reports Alias' past (and future) is revealed in an interesting way.

Survival Lessons:

• If all hope seems lost, take a step back. Literally.
• Never give up on someone left for dead.
• If you warn someone that you will shoot them, and they keep coming, and you shoot them, and they keep coming, shoot them in the head, a lot.
• Shutting off the power is not always the best idea.
• You're never safe.
• If there is a cure and you're infected, it's probably too late anyway.
• If you haven't been infected there is always hope.
• Never trust corporations.
• Don't turn your back on an opening door.

Warnings: The sequels are very disapointing.

In the end this movie is an excellent addition to the zombie world. The T-virus is the perfect example of any number of real viruses being change into a bio-weapon by a corporation. It shows a fairly good course of events in which even the most elite soldiers can fall. In adition to all of this it is a fairly entertaining movie as well.

Until next time, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate,

Mike D.

Z9

Hello fellow survivors,

It is a strange world in which we live. Many theories exist that zombies would first be created as a weapon of death but in fact they now exist as a tool for life.

Within as little as two years humans may be able to come back from the dead. Resent studies have literally had doctors kill dogs and then bring them back to life. Man has finally done everything Jesus could do by defeating even death. This marks a new, hope filled and scary advance in technology. Once this can be done to a human there are endless possibilities. If this can be given to the public, spread world wide and kept out of corporate hands (will never happen,) no one need ever die again.

But this begs the question what will happen when they do this to a human? More specifically what will happen to the soul? Will it begin to go to its final resting place and then be ripped back to earth? Will this prove the soul does not in fact exist as we believe it but is mearly our brain's complicated attempts to explain its existence. Or will the soul depart the body as God intended and the body become literally a re-animated corpse, a zombie?

Re-animation in this way would not involve a virus and therefore these zombies would not be infectious. One would assume. However the bestial nature of man without a soul is still the most brutal thing ever imagined. If such a creature were to rise would it perhaps create the virus within itself? Becoming a new strain or creating a sort of parasite instead of the traditional virus we think of (Solanum, t-virus, "Rage" etc.)

Another possibility is that the human without a soul would become mindless and very much like a voodoo zombi. However very few of the animals used in these experiments suffered any side effects at all. It would stand to reason that a human would not lose the ability for brain use either and become a vegetable as this did not occur to the dogs. Dogs brains are much simpler then human brains however and they rely almost entirely on instinct and training. This only proves that a human's basic instincts and functionality would remain, not that his higher reasoning or morals would return. And a human's instincts are the three Fs: fight, flee and... mate. These primal instincts are used to fulfill basic needs involved in self preservation, most prominent of these is the need of sustenance... food.

Also is the question of if these zombies could only be killed by destroying the brain. In a way, the process of killing a zombie is the same as killing a person. When the brain stops working the person or zombie dies. Zombies do not require oxygen for the brain to function which is why the brain must be destroyed directly while a living, breathing human can die from any number of ways. Zombies re-animated in this way are done so using blood, oxygen and electricity, the three components needed to make the brain function. Therefore these zombies run off the same functions humans do, they are undead but their bodies still function in very much the same way ours do. This would lead to the possibility of zombies not unlike those from 28 Days Later, infected with "Rage."

This is actually a two part study. It also looks at the possibility of dogs as zombies, the true undead form that are so popular in films and video games such as Resident Evil. There is much debate on if animals can become undead and the answer to this is actually much simpler than it would seem. Consider that the zombie virus is just that, a virus. Viruses are able to infect any warm blooded animal, it thus stands to reason that any warm blooded animal is capable of becoming a zombie and carrying the infection further. Note that cold-blooded animals, while immune to most diseases and viruses that effect warm blooded animals can still be carriers. This is vitally important, something as innocent as a bite from an infected bug will transmit the virus!

Protect yourself, may the infection never reach you, and those close to you have the resolve to do what is needed should you be so unfortunate,
Mike D.