Wednesday, February 13, 2013

Women in Horror #2: Alice

My second post in my series about kick-ass horror heroines features a marvellous character from a series of films inspired by a computer game.

If you've been following my blog a while you'll know I have a fondness for 'Resident Evil 4' (and Leon). The video game franchise became a series of films. These have been met with mixed reviews. Those that don't like them say they are lacking plot, lacking character development, lacking logic. I'm not quite sure what people expect from a series based on a game, but I always enjoyed them. OK, so they are not exactly intellectually stimulating, but there are days when a girl wants to switch off her brain and just sit on the sofa with wine and chocolate and enjoy some mindless zombie dismemberment.

Alice

For the live action series of films (there are some CGI animated ones as well), a new character was created who apppears in all the films. Her name is Alice, and on screen she's played by Milla Jovovich.

Rumour has it that the character was created to be a kind of reverse version of Alice in Wonderland - an Alice in Dystopia. But she is by far the best thing about the Resident Evil films, and she's a wonderfully kick-ass character. This lady is no damsel in distress. Her weapon of choice is a gun in either hand, fired at the same time. She has incredible aim, she is fast, smart, agile and resourceful. And she pretty much leaves all the men behind.

My favourite scene with Alice comes from "Resident Evil: Afterlife", and also features Claire Redfield, who is a character from the games series. With the world being over-run by mutating zombies, a small band of survivors (led by Claire - in herself a strong character) encounter Alice, and they are trying to get out of an abandoned building over-run by zombies. They escape through the sewers. The boys have all run away, leaving Claire and Alice to it when the big guy with the giant meat tenderiser (a monster from Resident Evil 5) comes after them. But these two ladies can take care of themselves, as you can see from the attached video. If you're wondering what's with all the slow-motion, the films are mimicking the style of the games, because all the cut scenes feature slow-motion action.

Alice is a fabulous action heroine, and a prime example of a female horror icon who gives back as good as she gets. When the zombie apocalypse comes, I definitely want her on my team.

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