Editorials
How ‘Resident Evil 2’ Could Help Shape a ‘Resident Evil 3: Nemesis’ Remake
STARS…..STARS……
People have their own favorites, whether it’s a certain Time Lord, a particular Call of Duty, or a special Friday the 13th entry.
Personally, I’ve always loved Resident Evil 3: Nemesis; it’s what made me discover the survival horror series properly. I had seen the original entry being played on my friend’s Sega Saturn, and I had a demo for Resident Evil 2 from a magazine, but it was Nemesis that really reeled me in. Before people were clamoring for a remake of Resident Evil 2, I was hoping for a remake of Resident Evil 3, and I still am. This is why.
The main appeal to the game was the ‘Nemesis’ creature. It moved like The Terminator, slow like a tank but had the strength to show a ‘You Died’ screen in only three hits. It would appear at seemingly random moments, just when you thought you’d escaped its clutches, you’d see it running towards you.
Sometimes you’d even be given a choice; Would you run away, or fight it? If you were in ‘Hard Mode’, you could collect parts of a new gun if you subdued Nemesis, alongside first aid kits from time to time. But of course, this would be to the detriment of the ammo you’ve saved up and grown an unhealthy attachment to. Throughout the game the creature would mutate, making you wonder just how many incarnations you’d be facing.
I also think of the Nemesis creature much like ‘The Others’ from the TV Show LOST, a favorite series of mine. To quote a character from the show, Ana Lucia:
’They’re smart, and they can be anywhere at any time, and if you think that one gun and one bullet will stop them, think again.’
When the game was being developed soon after the release of Resident Evil 2, it was first envisaged as a spin-off to 2, codenamed ‘BIOHAZARD 1.9’ and for a time, ‘BIOHAZARD: GAIDEN’. Being developed concurrent to Dreamcast’s Code Veronica (the true Resident Evil 3), upper-management renamed it to be the third entry just after E3 1999, as they wanted the numbered entries to remain on the PlayStation platform.
The game that came out in September of that same year turned out to be a more than worthy sequel to the previous game. Critics praised it for its focus on the original game’s protagonist Jill Valentine, and the terror of an enemy always waiting in the shadows. Many appreciated the story being set before, during, and after the events of Resident Evil 2, with revisited locations to boot, but not so much of it as to feel like it was retreading the same ground from the year before. It opened up Racoon City even more, and you felt like you really were alone in an evacuated city, looking for an escape.
Survival Horror is a line that’s used throughout the series to described its blend of terror, but I like to call this particular entry ‘Paranoia Horror’. The persistent thought of something being nearby, constantly on your tail. In Resident Evil 3, you almost felt like you were in a panicked hurry at times, especially when you hadn’t run into the creature for a while.
The game, in my opinion, had just the right amount of length. There are no extra scenarios with another character, it’s only Jill Valentine and then a small section where you play as Carlos; a mercenary who aides Jill as she recovers from illness. It felt tightly-structured and you’re challenged by the puzzles and the areas without feeling like it was dragging.
There’s now rumors abound that a remake is indeed happening, and after the success of Resident Evil 2 last month, fans are starting to think of how that style could be applied with Resi 3. Here’s how I can see it.
I mentioned earlier of how paranoia is the main theme of this entry, and after playing Resident Evil 2 Remake, I can’t help but feel that the new and improved Mr. X is only a hint towards this.
Even though he only appeared in Claire’s second scenario in the original Resident Evil 2, the remake features him in every scenario. It’s turned out to be a masterstroke, as he’s now a meme on social media, and whatever you read related to the remake, Mr. X will very likely be mentioned.
I can’t help but feel that the more frequent appearance of Mr. X was a test to see how modern audiences would react with someone following them throughout a large portion of the game, and social media has proved that it is indeed the case; people love it.
So with this in mind, let us have Nemesis used more frequently this time. The rocket launcher he uses like a shotgun, for instance, make it cause some damage across the Police Department in that encounter. Have its voice heard across many locations in the game? On the tannoy somehow in the tram. Or as an echo across City Hall. Or whispers throughout the streets of Racoon City.
Perhaps not in disguise as a chef when Jill arrives at the restaurant, but when the choices arrive this time, I’d love for a take similar to Bandersnatch, Charlie Brooker’s Netflix series (not the Code Veronica baddie). Have an extra choice now and again, and it may cause a scene that could result in a game over. Or more branching paths which could result in multiple endings and different outcomes throughout the game.
The story can allow for Jill to meet certain characters before Leon and Claire do, and also opens up the City, the story, and RE2: Remake itself, even more, as there’s also an opportunity of having Resident Evil 3 as DLC content for Resident Evil 2. It’s set just around the events of that game after all, and to have it as an ‘event series’ across October, for instance, could be a great effect, especially as that will be twenty years since its original release on PlayStation.
The game also had its own mini-game just like 4th Survivor, a little thing called Mercenaries. You could play as a multitude of characters, and you could rack up cash to buy new weapons and unlimited ammo, dependant on the amount of time you spent and your rank. This was also retooled for a 3DS game as a Resident Evil 5 spinoff, but to have this remade as well would be incredible fun.
It’d be nice to have other characters playable, beyond Jill and the costumes that were unlock-able, such as Regina’s from Dino Crisis. To see that remade would be a great touch, and to give fans a taste of what a Dino Crisis remake could look like.
I don’t think it’s a matter of ‘if’ anymore, but ‘when’. The acclaim and success that the Resident Evil 2 Remake has shown that when done right, you can cater to old and new fans with a game that can work in the modern age, and with the third game the only one from the original trilogy left without a remaster, it surely won’t be long until Capcom returns to Raccoon City and unleash Nemesis in a new and terrifying way.
The penultimate season of Tales from the Crypt (1989–1996) aired its first three episodes on October 31, so it’s understandable that at least one of those three stories is set on Halloween.
Sandwiched between “Let the Punishment Fit the Crime” (Russell Mulcahy, Ron Finley) and “Whirlpool” (Mick Garris, A. L. Katz & Gilbert Adler) is the most severe episode of the bunch. Maybe the entire series? William Malone and Dick Beebe’s “Only Skin Deep” traded the show’s typical sense of fun for startling amounts of bleakness and kink.
“Only Skin Deep” is, apart from the Crypt Keeper’s intro and outro, noticeably unfunny. There are no considerable attempts at making the viewer laugh. Come to think of it, if those bookends had been replaced, and there was more of a sci-fi element in the story, HBO could have easily squeezed this tale into that successor anthology, Perversions of Science (1997). In Crypt, though, “Only Skin Deep” is much too grim for an audience that had become accustomed to campiness and levity.
What makes “Only Skin Deep” feel dark, among other things, is its protagonist. Showing up to a Halloween party where he’s not welcome, and where his former girlfriend (Diane DiLasco) is attending, Carl Schlag (Peter Onorati) first comes across as your standard bitter ex. You soon realize it’s much worse than that, once Carl threatens Linda (“You know, silly me, thinking I gave you what you deserved. If I’d have done that, I’d have killed you”). Now, I haven’t forgotten that Tales from the Crypt was teeming with vile men who did women harm. Yet Carl’s brand of misogynistic menace hits differently—it borders on being too realistic for this kind of series.
Mike Vosburg’s EC-style comic cover for “Only Skin Deep”, as seen in the Tales from the Crypt episode.
Despite donning a party mask for much of the episode, Carl can’t ever mask his true nature. The invitation did say “come as you are”, after all. That inability to change and be better, however, is why Carl ends up in such a karmic predicament. His outburst of anger at the party attracts the attention of one loner partygoer named Molly (Sherrie Rose, who was also in Season Four’s “On a Deadman’s Chest”). Her bone-white, featureless “mask” and body-bag costume don’t initially register as too strange, especially on a night like this. But at a party chock-full of colorful, cartoonish, and lighthearted ensembles, it does look out of place.
Darkness attracts darkness as Carl ditches the party and accompanies the mysterious Molly to her place. Which, by the way, should have been an immediate red flag. But perhaps she’s so hot, he doesn’t seem to mind the serial killer aesthetic. Resembling a warehouse that has been converted into living spaces, but never then decorated to remove the cold, industrial look, Molly’s home (or lair) is as gloomy as this whole episode feels. It’s like the set of a grungy music video, albeit a tad cleaner. The environments in a typical Crypt episode tend to be small, overfilled, and broken-in. Warm, regardless of any weird goings-on. All that empty space in Molly’s hovel, on the other hand, elicits a creepy feeling that Carl was unwise to ignore.
Tales from the Crypt featured more sex than it didn’t, but hands down, “Only Skin Deep” boasts the steamiest scene in the show’s history. Pushing it over the line, in addition to Onorati showing bare buns and the camera never turning down one of his pelvic thrusts, is the twisted dirty talk. Carl stays in the moment, whereas Molly unleashes charged lines like “the hurt, the anger, give it to me” and “take it out on my flesh like you want to”. It’s all quite kinky, as well as tied into the story’s theme of pain.
How else “Only Skin Deep” differs from other episodes is its twists. Or rather, its lack thereof. Nothing comes as a great surprise here, particularly because the deuteragonist’s ulterior motives are so obvious. By no means is Molly a wolf in sheep’s clothing; her face is a fright mask, she practically reeks of death, and she lives in what can best be described as a serial killer’s hideout. That last-act revelation of Molly’s mask really being her face is also nothing shocking. Cleverness is certainly not this episode’s strength.
A page from “…Only Skin Deep!”, as seen in EC Comics’ Tales from the Crypt.
While “Only Skin Deep” isn’t the most universally loved episode of Tales from the Crypt, it’s an interesting preview of William Malone’s future as a director. Most notably, he went on to helm House on Haunted Hill (1999) and FeardotCom (2002), the former of which was co-written by Dick Beebe, this episode’s writer. Dark Castle Entertainment, that genre house founded by Crypt producers Joel Silver, Robert Zemeckis, and Gilbert Adler, was instrumental in bringing out Malone’s gruesome, over-the-top vision in House on Haunted Hill. However, FeardotCom and Malone’s Masters of Horror episode, “Fair-Haired Child”, are the most stylistically compatible with “Only Skin Deep”.
As one might guess, this episode is nothing like its source material. The “…Only Skin Deep!” found in the pages of EC Comics is set during Mardi Gras in New Orleans, and save for its last couple of pages, is pretty sweet in nature. There, a man named Herbert is enamored with a woman he met five years prior to the present-day story. Every year, he has come down to Mardi Gras to see Suzanne, who’s always dressed as a hag-faced witch. Well, this time, Herbert plans on popping the question and marrying someone who is, for the most part, a total stranger. Suzanne accepts his proposal, but with one condition: they stay in costume until they’re officially hitched. You can probably see where this is going…
Once they are married, Suzanne remains incognito, even when she and Herbert have consummated their vows. A semi-predictive nightmare then rattles Herbert; he dreamt that Suzanne’s real face was as wizened as her mask. Finally, in his haste to find out the truth, Herbert winds up killing his new wife. Faceless and well on her way to bleeding out, the dying Suzanne manages to say she never wore a mask.
For more traditional EC-style ghastliness, your best bet is reading the comic. It’s wickedly sad. For something less conventional, as far as Tales from the Crypt goes, the role-reversing adaptation is worth watching. It’s not the best this show had to offer, although Malone’s visual style, plus the sexual abandon, does set the episode apart. If nothing else, “Only Skin Deep” leaves an impression that, even years later, shows no signs of fading.
Season Six of Tales from the Crypt can be streamed on Shudder, starting on June 5.
Tales from Tales from the Crypt celebrates the show’s Shudder premiere by singling out one episode from each season. So don’t even think about changing that dial, boys and ghouls. More spot-“frights” are to come.
Carl discovers Molly’s collection of human ‘masks’ in the Tales from the Crypt episode, “Only Skin Deep”.
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