resident evil analysis

Resident evil trailer analysis

Starts with conventionally attractive protagonist lying in bathroom naked, draped in a white cloth. This gives the connotations of innocent and a demure damsel in distress feel to the trailer.

It then jumps into dramatic action packed shots of the previous film in order to set the scene and establish the genre and the fact that it is a sequel.

We then see the main protagonist being killed by a machine. This is shocking for the audience as she is known for being almost invincible.

Then a man is introduced saying ‘take a sample of her blood, then get rid of that.’ This now shows that he is in charge of the situation and that the female is seen as a commoditisation. This is then reinforced with a shot showing the main female protagonist’s clones.

We then see ‘the zombies’ trying to attack but being held back by a metal fence. Therefore informing the audience of the original ‘zombie’ problem in the previous film.

We see Alice (the main protagonist) whispering ‘sorry Stevie’ in a sexy husky voice before she shoots a zombie named Stevie in the head.

The rest of the characters are then introduced. A group of people trying to survive and kill as many zombies on the way. Each of the female characters are very attractive e.g. one character is a ex singer named Ashanti who was well known for her sex appeal- she is later killed by a flock of birds ha ha ha.

There is a interesting shot where Alice is talking to a male character where her head in down and he is talking to her in a authoritative way. By using this transactional language he could be proving that he is in charge and therefore the classic male hero of the film is familiar and notable. He is also later killed.

A male character is then seen being attacked by a zombie. The female characters are shown to be tough with a female voice over giving orders ‘you know the drill.’ Paradoxical to the ‘norm’ of action movies.


There is then a cut to Alice looking frightened when a zombie dog attacks her. The audience’s initial reaction is to look for superman to save her but in the next shot Alice is shown to be fending for herself. Therefore the ‘damsel in distress’ ritual is avoided.’

Close up shots of Alice in tight clothing and shots of her legs and eyes are voyeuristic. Classic male gaze is show.

Shot of Alice and another woman saying ‘everyone is scared’ could this be a weak link in the tough female image that is being shown in this trailer?

There is a shot of some ‘boss’ type men saying ‘make sure she is dead.’ ‘shut her down.’ In the film- but not shown in the trailer- is the fact that Alice is under some sort of control by the men in the film and they are able to essentially switch her off. This is a classic example of male authority being asserted over women just like in Charlie’s angels and tomb raider.

There is a shot where Alice has to avoid a laser and it chops of part of her red dress. This dress is a motif throughout the films and the computer games. Long with a very high slit and cut to reveal her boobs. Further objectification in this film is not only through costume but the lack of it. When Alice finds all her clones they are only wearing pants. So the female body is on show and up for objectification.

These is also a very small shot of Alice kissing the authoritarian male figure. This could be a example of women in action films only being present as a prize or sexual toy for the male protagonist.

The trailer finishes in classic comic book/action film way. Alice standing looking up at the sky which is burning. She is breathing heavily and looks somewhat scared and frightened. Some how I think if it was a male character he would be holding a power stance and looking at the camera whereas Alice is looking away