Editorials
A Masterful Duality of Horror and Action: ‘Resident Evil 3: Nemesis’ Turns 20
As we near the end of 2019, the Resident Evil 2 remake still stands as one of the year’s finest releases. Not only does the game look incredible with its revamped visuals, but it is also a remarkable experience in survival horror. Taking the old-school gameplay and adding a modern spin has not only impressed the minds of fans, but has since got them asking for more; and what would be more exciting for the Resident Evil series than a remake of its third entry?
Having released twenty years ago on the PlayStation, Resident Evil 3: Nemesis marks a pivotal moment in Resident Evil history.
The events of RE3 take place at the same time as the events in Resident Evil 2; players took on the role of Jill Valentine (returning from the first Resident Evil), guiding her throughout Raccoon City and attempting to survive the hordes of undead. While players would find themselves in a variety of enclosed locations, RE3 involved a more open setting, with players running around the streets and alleys of the city. As Jill, you would have to navigate around broken-down cars and fires, scurrying past debris while combating or evading zombies. The open setting of Raccoon City, allowed for a more chaotic atmosphere; where there’s more of an ominous ambience walking down a shadowy hall in a mansion, the streets of Raccoon City were alive with rampant terror.
Like the previous entries before it, players would have access to different weapons and items throughout their journey. With Jill traveling to different locations, enemies would be able to follow her; to allow for a chance at survival, RE3 added faster means for players to move, such as the ability to dodge and to perform a 180-degree turn. But a lot of zombies are the least of your troubles, for if there is one aspect of RE3 that is most fondly remembered, it is that of its titular villain:
Nemesis.
The hulking monstrosity that is Nemesis is by far the most nerve-wracking threat throughout RE3. As a recurring boss, the player could decide to either try and fight Nemesis, or make an attempt to flee from him. What made Nemesis more intense was the fact that he could appear randomly; at certain points in the story, the player would be provided some choices to make, and depending on what they picked, an appearance from Nemesis may trigger. The unknown of when Nemesis would strike left a feeling of anxiety in the air as the player ran to each objective, never knowing when he may chase them down.
These choices would also appear in other parts of the game, with certain options impacting how the story would play out and leading to different endings. Some of these choice sequences would also involve consequences that harmed the player depending on what they chose.
As an additional bonus to the game, the player could partake in a minigame called “The Mercenaries: Operation Mad Jackal”. Taking on the role of one of three characters, the player would have to get from one end of the city to the next in a set amount of time; this time could be extended if the player performed certain actions like killing zombies or saving civilians.
When you take all these elements together, RE3 makes for a thrilling game; these elements also make RE3 the series’ first shift into more action-oriented gameplay. Even though there’s still a great deal of survival horror at work, the setting, along with the frenzy of zombies and lingering threat of Nemesis, make for a more hostile atmosphere. It’s interesting to look back on this game and think of later action-driven entries like RE4 – 6; one can see how the unique theatrical and technical aspects of RE3 made their way into these later entries. What also stands out though is how the later entries of RE5 and RE6 present tension compared to RE3, and why the latter makes for a more effective experience.
When we look at those more recent entries, there’s a great sense of theatricality at work, stripping away tension to make way for more action; those games feel more like action movies with monsters added to them. With RE3, however, the action is used to feed into the game’s horror and make the player aware of their surroundings; they are not a character with loads of heavy weaponry and endless ammo on their side, but a single person in the midst of a city gone to hell. The player feels small when compared to the frantic energy of everything going on around them. In the case of RE3, the title remains an incredible example of how action and horror can work together to amplify story, gameplay, and atmosphere.
Resident Evil 3: Nemesis was, and continues to be, a stellar addition to the Resident Evil family. Where as the games before it created a sense of dread and suspense through isolation, RE3 spun things around and established hysteria through action-driven tension. It is fair to say that RE3 is one of Resident Evil’s more impactful games, having pushed the series towards more action; that said, it is important to note just how masterfully RE3 used action alongside its horror. With it having been twenty years, along with seeing the release of the Resident Evil 2 remake, here’s hoping we see a remake of Resident Evil 3: Nemesis.
Horror was thriving so well in the 1980s that movies like Pen Densham’s The Kiss (1988) would understandably get lost in the shuffle, only to then gain their fans later on in life. Even still, this one Canadian-American curio has had a more challenging time than others, as far as contemporary reevaluations go, which is very likely due to the movie’s limited availability—at least as of this write-up.
However, the scarceness of The Kiss, while a bit annoying, makes it like catnip for ‘80s horror completists everywhere. Hopefully, a lot of them will walk away satisfied after watching this hidden gem.
Even though The Kiss was intended as the first of several horror collaborations between Astral Pictures and TriStar, as well as the first feature produced by Densham, Richard B. Lewis and John Watson’s Trilogy Entertainment Group, it ended up being the only one produced from that former union. Once the movie was released, TriStar’s distribution jitters—they opted for a regional rollout—did the $6-million flick no favors. TriStar’s cold feet toward horror releases have been well noted, but The Kiss still did a tad better than Night of the Creeps (1986), another genre outing that flopped due to its regional opening.
Shot in Montreal, but set in Albany, New York, The Kiss—which was still called The Host just a few months before its October premiere—concerns an average middle-class family and their forthcoming situation. The uncanny problem in store for them was, in fact, set in motion some years earlier. As that hot and dusty flashback to the Belgian Congo shows, a familial curse was set upon the two Dunbar sisters well before Meredith Salenger’s teenage character was born.
Meredith Salenger, Nicholas Kilbertus and Mimi Kuzyk in The Kiss
The Kiss, which was based on a story by co-writer Stephen Volk (Ghostwatch) and penned by both Volk and Tom Ropelewski, has the outward appearance of The Stepfather (1987). This movie, though, is anything but a gender-flipped retread of that classic domestic disturber. For starters, The Kiss is far less grounded in reality—that much is clear from its unsettling opening scene. There, a trusting girl (Priscilla Mouzakiotis) is the victim of her own deceptive aunt (Céline Lomez); the movie’s titular act, and the story’s first shock, becomes the means of transferring an ancient evil from one host to another.
In the present day, Salenger’s role of Amy Halloran, a religious schoolgirl, is dealt a harsh blow in life once her mother, Hilary Halloran née Dunbar (Pamela Collyer), suddenly dies in a freak accident. But rather than a complete stranger sweeping the Halloran widower (Nicholas Kilbertus) off his feet some months later, Joanna Pacula’s character is that chosen temptress. Here, Pacula plays the grown-up version of the afflicted girl last seen in the movie’s opener. Since Amy’s mother is insistent about there being no reunion between estranged sisters, and she even contemplates buying a gun shortly before her tragic demise, it’s presumable that Aunt Felice poses a threat to her family.
The Kiss isn’t a movie ever too concerned about its own predictability. The audience is indeed often one step ahead of the story here, but also keep in mind how every one of those steps is loud. Take, for instance, the death of Amy’s mother; the Halloran matriarch goes out in garish, gruesome fashion, as a supernaturally commandeered truck sends Collyer’s character through a store window first, then leaves her one leg short. The directorial enthusiasm truly comes out in horrific moments such as these.
The Kiss is always sure to revel in its characters’ ills and misfortunes. So if the plot doesn’t impress, then its lurid parts should. Amy’s mother’s exit scene was proof of an eager, first-time horror director proving his worth. Then, bestie Heather (Sabrina Boudot) survives to tell the tale of a bizarre escalator mishap that, despite showing relatively less gore, spikes viewers’ empathy meter. The wilder bits of this movie, however, commence with that inevitable hookup between Felice and Amy’s bewitched father; their kitchen coitus is paralleled by Amy’s feverish classroom terror. The outcome there is a disquieting cross-cut of sex magic and a young woman’s menstrual onset plus hallucinations.
Sabrina Boudot in The Kiss
From foam appliances to bladders, that parade of special effects in The Kiss casts its own spell on the audience. Felice’s familiar, a visibly malevolent cat, was realized here with several models, some more articulate than others. Admittedly, the demon cat’s not as convincing as most of the effects here, but accepting that artifice, as opposed to fighting it, will make the whole experience way more enjoyable. As for the makeup used to manifest Felice’s inner villainy, it is more minimal and subtle than one might like; yet the work done to turn Pacula into an antithesis of herself is nonetheless compelling.
The otherworldly perils and dreadful goings-on wouldn’t work half as well as they do in The Kiss without the story’s contrast effect. Finding frights in picturesque, extremely ordinary settings was something that took off in the ‘80s, thanks to that sweeping shift to locales like the suburbs. And Amy’s home, a replica of a real Montreal suburban house, is the ideal battleground for any proper good-versus-evil story. It’s also prime real estate for this movie’s satanic panic-inspired horrors.
Because of their ostensibly similar plots, The Kiss has been compared to The Exorcist (1973). Except in Densham’s movie, the sinister, non-Christian entity targeting a teen girl lies within something less apparent and, perhaps, more devastating upon its exposure. To an outsider, Pacula’s Aunt Felice is too beautiful and unobjectionable to ever suspect of being a monster. More suspicious is how quickly she rips into the fabric of the Halloran home. Felice’s mere presence upsets the “texture of family life,” according to the director.
The demon cat in The Kiss
Taking out Amy’s mother and best friend, and distracting her father, would suggest The Kiss is playing by a different set of rules. It is initially leaving its adolescent target unsupported in a rather grim scenario. In contrast, though, this story offers up a surrogate parent who does her best to fill in the holes of Amy’s eroding home life. Mimi Kuzyk does good work as that family friend and doctor, Brenda, who guides the lost child without also steering her in any one direction; she is naturally skeptical of Amy’s accusations until it’s almost too late to do anything about them. So although The Kiss does an admirable job of undoing the main character’s support system, it never leaves her without a lifeline. This dark movie, in spite of everything that’s transpired, doesn’t deprive itself of light and hope.
The Kiss is a potent mélange of familiar ideas. If not for the director’s surprise flair for horror, though, the movie would have been less effective. What a shame that Pen Densham didn’t continue with the genre. As for Joanna Pacula, she is, too, owed credit as the wicked vixen opposite Meredith Salenger’s pitiable Amy; she never fails to be unsettling in her role. Pacula makes Aunt Felice a sexy yet intimidating character.
For horror that steadily doles out madness and menace, while also delivering a flashy and ghastly conclusion, The Kiss is certain to please. Yes, it’s cheesy all the way, but most favorably, everyone involved plays everything straight. That kind of commitment goes a long way with this movie.
The Kiss
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