Resident Evil Research Articles

Resident Evil's Typewriter

This article uses Bolter and Grusin's notion of remediation to explore analog media technologies—cinema, photography, cartography, television, and radio—in digital horror videogames. Such moments illustrate what Lister et al. term the “technological imaginary” of both old and new media technological imaginary of both old and new media. Old media technologies contribute a sense of the real perceived as lacking in digital media, yet central to a generically-significant impression of embodiment. Critical theorization of these forms within media studies illuminate their function within digital video game texts; such processes illustrating the cultural, institutional, and aesthetic meanings and mythologies of both analog and digital media, while continuing traditional use of media technologies within discourses of horror and the supernatural.

A Zombie Manifesto: The Nonhuman Condition in the Era of Advanced Capitalism

We wish to thank the following persons for their invaluable input and support: Marc Blanchard, Colin Milburn, Caleb Smith, Michael Ziser, Joshua Clover, Tiffany Gilmore, Maura Grady, Courtney Hopf, Shannon Riley, and Jack Martin. 1. Films such as Shaun of the Dead, directed by Edgar Wright (Big Talk Productions, 2004); 28 Days Later, directed by Danny Boyle (British Film Council, 2002); Dawn of the Dead, 2004 Remake, directed by Zack Snyder (Strike Entertainment, 2004); Land of the Dead, directed by George A. Romero (Atmosphere Entertainment, 2005); and the Resident Evil series, directed by Paul W. S. Anderson (Constantin Film Produktion GmbH, 2002) and Alexander Witt (Constantin, 2004). See Peter Dendle’s book The Zombie Movie Encyclopedia (Jefferson, N.C.: McFarland, 2001); Jay Slater’s Eaten Alive! Italian Cannibal and Zombie Movies (London: Plexus, 2002); and Stephen Thrower’s Beyond Terror: The Films of Lucio Fulci (Guildford, UK: FAB Press, 1999). 2. For example, Bogus Dead, Zombie Commandos from Hell, Carnopolis, Containment,

The Zombie Aesthetics and the Post-Apocalyptic Franchise

THE ZOMBIE AESTHETICS AND THE POST-APOCALYPTIC FRANCHISEON MARCH 22nd 1996, Japanese video game company Capcom Inc. released Biohazard, the first of their new immersive zombie survival-horror role playing games (RPGs) for the Sony PlayStation. Released in the West as Resident Evil, George A. Romero's model of the animated cadaver and Lucio Fulci's command of the atmospheric combined to provide the main inspiration for the game's visual and narrative aesthetic (Poole, 79): a complete and immersive reworking of the zombie genre by Tokyo based video game producer Shinji Mikami. Although not the first video game franchise to attain cult recognition or make a successful transfer to the big screen - Lara Croft and the Tomb Raider franchise come to mind - a determination, "to repackage the zombie as a mainstream monster and an icon of cool" (Russell, 171) clearly paid off: The Resident Evil games had succeeded...

Sacrifice, Individuation, and the Economies of Genomics

Even as the biotechnological and genomic revolutions have promised spectacular life-saving and life-extending drugs and therapies, social and cultural critics have highlighted injustices associated with contemporary systems of biocommerce, often drawing on concepts of "sacrifice" and "savagery" to highlight social and class inequities. While sympathetic to these critiques, Mitchell argues that the concept of sacrifice is a problematic means for addressing these inequities, for it binds critics to the Enlightenment logic of the systems of biocommerce that they question. After outlining the sacrificial logic of "innovation" that runs through public policy defenses of biocommerce, Mitchell turns to two cinematic depictions of biocommerce (Steven Spielberg's Jurassic Park (1993) and Paul W. S. Anderson's Resident Evil (2002)), as well as to philosopher of technology Gilbert Simondon's concept of "individuation," to argue that these films outline an approach to biomedical innovation that allows us to think injustice beyond concepts of sacrifice.

Extremity, Video Games and the Censors

Extremity, Video Games and the Censors

Video Game Internal Turfs and Turfs of Play

Video Game Internal Turfs and Turfs of Play

Computer Games and Narrative Progression

Computer Games and Narrative Progression