After Capcom’s debut Resident Evil game scored its first wave of notoriety in the late ’90s thanks to a controversial depiction of graphic violence – earning it one of the industry’s first “M for Mature” ratings – gamers with a taste for the splattery living dead epics of George Romero (and their Italian clones) lined up in droves, as the game finally offered a chance to play a virtual starring role in a real-time interactive zombie flick. RE‘s subsequent sequels, along with the expected advances in imaging and animation, also upped the gore quotient, offering a more inventive variety of super-moist kills.
Not only was gameplay bloodier than ever, but the video cut-scenes which tied it together became increasingly cinematic in scope. Naturally, a transition to the big screen was inevitable, and while Romero himself was attached to the project at an early stage, it was ultimately Paul W. S. Anderson who fused his previous experience in staging video game action sequences (Mortal Kombat) and gothic sci-fi horror set-pieces (Event Horizon) for the first Resident Evil feature film in 2002.
That one scored some sweet box-office coin, and before long a steady stream of hit-and-miss sequels followed, with production budgets and effects sequences stepping up with each installment. Since part of the game’s mass appeal is the visceral thrill of gunning down zombies and other boss beasts in massive quantities, the filmmakers pivoted the sequels’ (admittedly flimsy) plots around scenes of maximum carnage, inventing some visually memorable kills of their own.
Even for non-gamers, some of these sequences do manage to capture the same excitement of the RE gaming experience – and it doesn’t hurt that the films’ heroine Alice, played by the lithe and lovely Milla Jovovich, is not only easy on the eyes, but has since joined the ranks of horror cinema’s all-time badass monster hunters.
Since the body counts in these films are nearly impossible to tabulate (especially when it comes to zombies), I narrowed my list down to those scenes which depict the most fist-pumping, heart-stopping and gut-wrenching kills from the RE films. If you have a favorite death scene not listed here, be sure to add it in the comments!
[P.S. Spoilers ahead. Like, ALL the spoilers.]
