Eiichiro Hasumi’s new ‘Resident Evil’ 3DCG installment features franchise stalwart Leon S. Kennedy on a zombie-filled caper to Alcatraz Island, complete with a shark-human ‘Bio-Organic-Weapon’ and other new nasty monsters; film releases on Blu-Ray, 4k Steelbook, Digital, and DVD today, July 25th.
From needle-faced executioners and two-headed piles of sludge to exposed-brain mutant “Lickers,” giant queen leeches, and mouth tendril terrors, there are plenty of “final boss” monsters to fear in the universe of Resident Evil outside of the typical zombie, or even a zombie dog.
And the team behind Resident Evil: Death Island – the fifth installment and fourth film in the animated Resident Evil series based on the Capcom game franchise – takes a big whack at upping the aquatic ante with a shark-human “Bio Organic Weapon” (B.O.W.) hybrid.
“The idea of this shark creature came from the fact that our writer, Mr. [Makoto] Fukami, loves shark movies quite a bit,” shares the film’s director Eiichiro Hasumi, known for helming the animated series Resident Evil: Infinite Darkness. “This time, we did not have a human-type tyrant like in the previous titles. It is a hybrid fusion of a B.O.W. shark and the film’s human antagonist. It has the trace of a shark with fins and the face of a human. And, since we wanted it to evenly split in half after being hit by Jill’s plasma rifle, we also added a sort of arms and legs in the final design.”
Set between the events of Resident Evil 6 and Resident Evil 7, Death Island’s story begins with Division of Security Operations agent Leon S. Kennedy on a mission to rescue Dr. Antonio Taylor from kidnappers, when a mysterious woman thwarts his pursuit. Meanwhile, Bioterrorism Security Assessment Alliance agent Chris Redfield is investigating a zombie outbreak in San Francisco, where the cause of the infection is unknown. The only thing the victims have in common is that they all visited Alcatraz Island recently. So, Chris and his team–made up of former members of the Raccoon City Police Department's S.T.A.R.S. team Jill Valentine and Chris’ sister Claire–head to the island where both Leon and a new horror await them.
Spoiler alert…
The B.O.W. is a guilt-ridden maniac who turns himself into a mutated shark. It’s a site to behold and fans of the franchise can see it for themselves as the film, produced by Capcom and TMS Entertainment with Sony Pictures Entertainment, releases on Blu-Ray, 4k Steelbook, Digital, and DVD today, July 25th.
“The evolution of the monsters is constantly fascinating,” notes Nicole Tompkins, who voices Jill in the film. “We get to see some of the concept art earlier in production and it’s always fun to see the final showdown, when all the sounds and graphics are added in. It's a satisfying payoff.”
Stephanie Panisello, who voices Claire, adds, “There's nowhere that the franchise won't touch. There's nothing that's too big or too extreme, but I love the way that Resident Evil always finds a way to be gory, but not so gory that you’re like, ‘I can't look at this anymore.’ It’s not gratuitous. Actually, the way they do it, you’re super intrigued.”
Thought it’s evident that director Hasumi and the animation department had a blast creating a humongous, slimy, blood-thirsty, humanoid Jaws, the task wasn’t without its own monstrous challenges, particularly with scale.
“The main challenge was to figure out the balance of sizes between the creature and the underground facility where that last battle takes place,” says Hasumi. “We needed a creature menacing enough in size to overwhelm Resident Evil’s strongest heroes yet fitting the underground dock.”
He continues, “We first worked on building the action and then increased the size of the facility to make it all fit. We had this idea to make the space the ex-armory of the arms dealer Arias, the villain from the series’ 2017 film Vendetta. Then, thanks to that new setting, we could naturally create the last climax with Jill, Leon, and the rest using various weapons, one after another, in a natural way, and make this a very iconic climax in the vein of a typical Resident Evil game.”
With the film set on an Island in the Pacific, it makes sense that the main monster of the story would be a shark. But, not at all surprisingly, the film features other smaller, but no less terrifying, aquatic monsters that take after a frequent Resident Evil monster, “Lickers.”
Noted for their exposed and expanded brains, lack of skin and eyes, bulging muscle structure, and, naturally, grossly long tongues, Lickers somewhat resemble “demogorgons” from Netflix’s Stranger Things. Hasumi wished to give his Licker monsters a more water-raised aesthetic, both to fit with the environment of the story, as well as to distinguish them from the creations of Capcom’s game.
“We designed them from scratch and added in elements such as the gills and webbing,” explains Hasumi. “The water-covered texture of the skin was indeed difficult, but the biggest challenge was the color of the skin. To make it creepy inside a dark and not well-lit tunnel, yet still visible enough, we tried a lot of different combinations of lighting and color reflection.”
The devil is certainly in the details when it comes to Resident Evil’s monsters. Whether it’s the uncomfortable gleam of an extending Licker tongue through spiked teeth, or the snapping of veins as human-ish limbs dangle from the body of a massive shark, Hasumi and his crew have managed to capture that balance between just enough 80s body horror to keep zombie story fans happy while also not completely deterring fans with weaker stomachs. And, as it turns out, sincere vulnerability in the midst of humor and horror can serve as a dose of ginger during the bloody slashing of mutant guts.
“It does go so big on zombies and mutations and all that stuff, but it still also gets very human, which really balances it out,” says Panisello. “It's such a marriage of action, adventure, and horror, with drama and even humor, and I think that's what's really beautiful about it. It also is one of the best, strongest communities and it is, honestly, in a weird way, some of the most wholesome people for something so dark.”
Matthew Mercer, who has voiced Leon for almost a decade, adds “As big as the action gets, as big as the monsters get, as big as the weapons get, it's the small beats of the quieter character moments that are really enjoyable. The interactions between characters meeting for the first time and the reunions that happen with characters who have already met, and how they're all processing the perpetual traumas that are being thrust upon them through their personal lives, finding that nuance amongst the cheeky one-liners is also part of the fun. And you relish in those moments, which then makes the rise of the next crazy action centerpiece that much more thrilling.”
Editor’s Note: all interviews for this article were conducted prior to the 2023 SAG-AFTRA strikes.
Victoria Davis is a full-time, freelance journalist and part-time Otaku with an affinity for all things anime. She's reported on numerous stories from activist news to entertainment. Find more about her work at victoriadavisdepiction.com.
