The Resident Evil Series - Resident Evil: Afterlife

In a world ravaged by a virus infection, turning its victims into the Undead, Alice continues on her journey to find survivors and lead them to safety. Her deadly battle with the Umbrella Corporation reaches new heights, but Alice gets some unexpected help from an old friend. A new lead that promises a safe haven from the Undead leads them to Los Angeles, but when they arrive the city is overrun by thousands of Undead and Alice and her comrades are about to step into a deadly trap.


The Resident Evil (film) series hasn't always had particularly amazing reviews, not unlike many other game to film franchises. 

I guess the best way to approach these films is to not expect a scare a minute type movie. The games had a lovely way of keeping you up for hours after setting down the controller, I have a particular memory of my brother watching me play Resident Evil 3: Nemesis and having to sleep in my room with me because he was too scared to be alone.

The films don't deliver the same tense atmosphere but they are certainly entertaining! Milla Jovovich was a fantastic choice for the title character of Alice and she delivers in every instalment. 

The fourth instalment looks to be as action packed as the first three. I had planned on watching it in 2d rather than in the widely advertised 3d. However, after reading about it in more depth it seems that the film has been incredibly geared towards the 3d showings so I guess it'll be contact lenses at the ready! (Wearing 3d glasses over your regular glasses doesn't seem like a fun way to watch a film).

It seems to be set 5 years after the third film (?) and Alice has journeyed to Alaska (Where the survivors from the previous film flew to 'safety'). The only survivor she finds is Claire with a spider like contraption embedded into her chest (for those of us who played Resident Evil 5 we will know a bit about this little contraption). We find out that Wesker is behind it (more about him below) and they both go about looking for survivors.
We get to see Claire Redfield have it out with The Executioner in a highly anticipated fight scene(don't worry if this doesn't make sense, the trailer is below). It's nice to see that other people get to have more of a hands on role in the film, rather than Alice doing all the work. It's also worth mentioning that Alice no longer possesses her psychic abilities in this film.

With many of the main cast from previous films having been killed off we will also see the return of Jill Valentine who was popular amongst the loyal game fans. 

Albert Wesker has a role in the fourth film too, seemingly being infected (maybe a lá Resident Evil 5 the game?). He shows of his 'kickass' moves in a fight with Claire Redfield and Chris Redfield(!). 
 

It looks like the makers have decided to include more of the games in this next film which is great. Whilst I thoroughly enjoyed Resident Evil: Extinction, the premise that it all took place in daylight completely took any horror element out of the film. The makers did say that it was filmed in daylight as to break away from the usual darkness of most horror films but who's afraid of daylight? 

Hopefully this film will bring back the horror element to the franchise, if not I certainly know that it'll be on action packed ride!

Tap tap tap...

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Katie and Joe had treated themselves to a lavish dinner for their 1st anniversary. They had been friends since childhood and always found ways to keep themselves amused despite knowing each other for so long. Knowing that traffic was extremely likely on the normal route home, Joe decided to take the deserted long way home, through a dense forested area.


After about half an hour the car slowed to a stop. Looking over at Joe, Katie knew he was being mischievous and gave him a stern look. "Come on Joe, I want to go home, don't you start" she scolded.


"Aww, come on! There's nobody around" he grinned.


He leant in for a kiss but Katie pushed him away, "I don't think so, this may be our anniversary but I'm not about to get it on in your car" she laughed.


"Oh fine, but you owe me" he huffed, jokingly.


Turning the ignition to awaken the car once more, Joe looked puzzled when nothing happened. He turned it again but still, nothing. Rollin her eyes Katie said "Come on, this has been done to death. Get on with it".
"Seriously, it won't start" Joe replied, demonstrating again that the car wasn't responding.


Image from flickr gorchakov.artem title: Gloomy Forest
They were stranded in the middle of a wood with nowhere to go. Both checked their phones, Joe's was dead and Katie had no signal.


After what seemed like an age, Joe declared that he was going to find the nearest petrol station or public phone. Getting her coat ready to go with him, Katie nodded. "No, you stay here and keep warm in the car" he said.


"Are you sure?" she asked.


"I'll be fine, I'm pretty sure there's a station about 30 minutes walk away" he reassured her.


Agreeing to stay with the car, Katie lightly kissed her boyfriend on the lips and settled into the back seat of the car. Slightly tired, Katie decided to have a nap whilst Joe was gone.


Tap, tap, tap. The distinct sound of tapping woke Katie up from her 'nap'. Looking at her watch, she discovered she had been sleeping for 3 hours. Puzzled that it had been so long without Joe returning, she peered out the window. It was night time and the density of the trees made it hard to see anything. 


Worried she climbed into the front seat and tried the ignition one more time, a fruitless attempt she knew but she wanted to at least try. She played a game on her phone for a little while having forgotten about how she had been woken.


About 10 minutes after she began playing, the tapping noise had returned. Tap, tap, tap it went. Not knowing what could be making the noise puzzled her. Shining her phone out of the window, she saw that they were not parked underneath a tree despite the area they were in. 


The tapping noise came and went every few minutes. Getting quite worried, she locked the doors and stopped using her phone. 20 minutes passed before any noise returned, this time however, it was a scraping noise that she heard. This freaked her out, lying down in the seat as low as she could, she closed her eyes and prayed for the noise to cease. 


Knowing that something was wrong with Joe didn't help to ease her anxiety, if he had made it to a station he would have returned by now. 


It had been at least 5 hours since Joe had left and about 2 of enduring the strange noises around the car. She was trying to think of anything just to take her mind off the situation. The noise started up again but was interrupted with flashing lights. 


The light filled the car and Katie sighed in relief, Joe must have gotten help. 


"This is the police, stay right where you are" a loud voice sounded through the air.


Puzzled, Katie wondered what on earth was going on. Unlocking her door she was greeted by a police officer looking pale. She looked around at the other officers and was immediately confused. They were all pointing guns right at her. "There must be some mistake, I've not done anything" she explained. 


"Just come with me, you're not in any trouble" the officer replied gently. Walking towards the cars with him he added "We're going to get you out of here but whatever you do, don't look back towards the car". 


Annoyed that he had said this, she looked like any normal person would. What she was greeted with made her throw up instantly on the muddy road. 


Right there on top of her boyfriend's car was a dirty man holding a bloody axe in one hand and her boyfriends severed head in the other. The noise through the night was him tapping on the roof with his axe.