Editorials
The Fabled, Playable Version of ‘Resident Evil 1.5’
Nearly everyone who played Resident Evil 2 remembers it fondly. An ambitious follow-up to one of the most well-loved horror games of its era, RE2 pushed the boundaries of the still-nascent survival horror genre and vaulted the Resident Evil name to the top of the horror heap.
But fewer people are aware that a half-completed version of the sequel has been floating around on the internet for nearly twenty years in one form or another. Video surfaced from playable builds the team at Capcom had produced, but an official version has never been released.
Granted, it is basically a skeletal version of the eventual RE2, with some major modifications and changes. The basic premise and some of the characters are the same. What seems to draw people to RE1.5 is the “What If?” factor. What if this game had been released? What if the team had just pushed through and completed something with which they were not entirely pleased?
That, and the fact that footage of the game actually exists, perpetually brings people to speculate about what it would be like to play such a thing. That dream is growing ever more possible, as leaked code has motivated fans to attempt a recreation of that original, “lost” game.
Shortly after the astoundingly popular release of the first Resident Evil game in 1996, the team at Capcom immediately began work on a follow-up. Raccoon City had been overrun with zombies, and the Umbrella Corporation had been closed. This may sound familiar to those who played the proper sequel.
Similarly, it featured the introduction of Leon Kennedy as one of the few remaining police officers left in Raccoon City. Leon would become a series staple, and his characterization in the final game is largely reflective of this early version, called even by director Shinji Mikami as Resident Evil 1.5.
However, the other new character in this early version of the game was a college student (and motorcycle enthusiast) named Elza Walker. She would later be changed dramatically and renamed Claire Redfield, traveling to Raccoon City on a mission to find her brother Chris.
This version also features a police station, but one that is vastly different from the one that most players would recognize. The weapons are different, and the game just doesn’t have the same nerve-wracking tension of the original, which is perhaps why producer Shinji Mikami had it scrapped in favor of a complete overhaul.
Estimates have it that Resident Evil 1.5 was 60-80% done when the decision to redo it was handed down, which is another element that contributes to the continued interest in it. That game has always been at the heart of tons of discussion and available only in the form of incomplete video footage. For years, people have uploaded and re-uploaded the same content, speculating about what it would be like to play the game but incapable of doing so.
Until now.
Or, at least, a year ago.
According to a post on NeoGAF, a playable build of the game is available online. An ISO group used leaked code in order to create something approximating the lost game. Eurogamer reported in February of last year that the idea was to release a fully realized version, but some individuals attempting to sell their incomplete work pushed them to release their current build.
This fan-made version is entirely not-for-profit — obviously — and the group behind it, Team IGAS, does not condone anyone trying to make money from their work. Taking a look at the YouTube channel reveals some developer commentary of the mundane work of transforming the hypothetical into something real, and there is a weird kind of magic to it.
The project has been updated somewhat since February 2013, but no finished product has been released. In terms of quality, those who have played it admit the game is, in the words of NeoGAF user randomwab, “an unfinished mess.”
Players will need to work some debugging magic to be able to travel from area to area and so on, and no word has been released on when a more complete, less broken version might appear. Anyone interested in speculation about the game can follow now-lengthy NeoGAF thread.
Still, any playable version is better than no playable version, and the community at Team IGAS is intent upon making something complete to release to the public. You can follow their updates on FaceBook and keep track of when you, too, might be able to play the lost version of RE1.5
In this day and age, the word “troll” is often used to describe various online nuisances. Yet as abundant and irksome as the modern troll can be, they aren’t usually as fearsome as their mythological counterparts. I’m not talking about the small and gentler versions that have become more common to see in media. No, there are much bigger and scarier trolls out there—and André Øvredal’s movie Troll Hunter is one of the best places to find them.
It doesn’t take long for Troll Hunter (or Trolljegeren) to dump the Blair Witch Project-esque setup and aim for something a lot fresher. The trajectory of the story is augmented by Otto Jespersen’s character Hans, the titular Troll Hunter. The second he comes barreling out of the deep, dark woods and shouts “troll” at the camera, this movie takes a turn into what feels like uncharted territory. Not only subject-wise, but also conceptually.
For fantastical and made-up subject matter in cinema, found footage is a fast way to add a guise of believability. After all, what we accept to be the most crucial aspect of documentaries—the truth—rubs off on pseudo-documentaries, despite our understanding of the pretense involved. That is what Øvredal delivered with Troll Hunter: a movie so convincing that some viewers wondered if trolls really do exist. So, had this been straightforwardly made, it likely wouldn’t have been as effective. Conventional narratives would be more inclined to treat something like trolls as flat out unreal, and never try to convince the audience to think otherwise.
Hans petrifies the three-headed Tusseladd troll.
The viewers, like the characters trailing Hans, are quickly thrown into the deeper end of that extraordinary story. They have to process all this new information while staying on the go. So, although there is no significant amount of meandering, narratively or physically, there is still a good amount of atmosphere, not to mention tension building. It’s never anything frightful, but then again, Troll Hunter isn’t your standard offering of horror; it’s more on the low end of the dark fantasy spectrum. We aren’t ever spirited away to a faraway world—we stay in rather familiar surroundings, as well as dip into those less so. The outcome is a movie where you’re constantly more in awe than in terror.
As fantasy fiction might do, Troll Hunter prefers not to deal with incredulity. There is no time to waste on doubt, as interviewer Thomas (Glenn Erland Tosterud), soundperson Johanna (Johanna Mørck), and cameraman Kalle (Tomas Alf Larsen) all follow Hans around, recording whatever this character is willing to reveal about his bizarre job. Of course, the Troll Hunter himself is not an open book; in that respect, the diegetic documentary fails to fully capture and unpack the more interesting of its two subjects. Yes, all those giant, monstrous trolls are indeed incredible, but understandably, your mind wanders to their pursuer. What kind of person signs up for this gig and then chooses to stick with it for so long?
Reviews have called out Troll Hunter for its lack of character development. In regard to Thomas and his fellow documentarians, that criticism is valid, but bear in mind, they aren’t the focus of the story, either. Meanwhile, Hans is a well-crafted character. At least better than first realized. Before he was introduced, Hans had already grown tired of the troll grind. Fed up with that low compensation for his services, resentful of the bureaucracy, and wanting to expose his employer on a large scale, Hans’ discontent is glaring.
Then there are those finer details about the Troll Hunter, such as that indifference to both the natural splendor of his everyday surroundings and the affections of an obviously smitten colleague, that also suggest some level of despondency. So it is fair to say this movie doesn’t feature any sizable growth for its characters; however, the namesake isn’t underwritten. No doubt, putting a real-life character like Otto Jespersen in that role is partly why Hans is so fascinating—maybe even relatable.
Otto Jespersen as Hans the Troll Hunter.
There is always a small risk whenever using the term “mockumentary” to describe a found-footage movie, as the word could imply humor where there is none. In the case of Troll Hunter, the term’s usage is appropriate. Some folks have claimed the English-dubbed version has the more comedic tone, however, the Norwegian cut isn’t exactly humorless. Apart from the trolls’ absurd appearances, this is a movie where the characters nearly choke on the monsters’ farts, and Christians are like walking targets. Hans’ complete apathy towards everything is another cause of laughter. Overall, the comedy is intentionally dry and inconsistent. Unfunny, though? Absolutely not.
In a movie where endemic creatures are maltreated, as well as disavowed from living freely and peacefully, it’s hard not to notice the ecological message buried beneath the story. In addition to that is the unmistakable political satire. There is this whole business about intrusive and unsightly power lines—like trolls, they’re big blemishes on the land—that leads to what is perhaps the movie’s funniest moment. The scene in question is that one where certain electric lines, the ones secretly being used to keep the trolls at bay, go in a loop and don’t actually send power to any residents. Yet the monitors of said lines don’t find this at all weird. So it stands to reason that Øvredal was having a go at those who accept the government’s doings without question.
Looking past the fact that trolls aren’t actually real, this movie is an enlightening source of information. And not just for international audiences; Norwegians, too, get schooled about their homeland’s own mythology. It’s also evident from everything on screen that Øvredal and his crew were enthusiastic about the topic. The creature designs are the most indicative of that zeal; those imaginative yet myth-accurate manifestations are equally amusing and grotesque. One second you’re laughing at their phallic noses, the next you’re white-knuckling during a hairy sequence. Most surprisingly is how well the trolls’ visual effects hold up after fifteen years. It’s not all spotless, but on the whole, they remain impressive.
Vouching for a mockumentary about trolls isn’t easy, but those who do come around and give it a shot will more than likely be grateful for the recommendation. For Troll Hunter is a real find in that vast and varied genre we call “found footage“.
A bridge troll reaches up for food and finds Hans decked out in armor.
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