The old days of pure bloodshed are in danger of extinction. As we find more ways to revolutionize the horror genre in movies, we also find new ways to redefine brutality.

Resident Evil is such an example.

Based on the popular video game series, Resident Evil stars Milla Jovovich, Michelle Rodriguez, Eric Mabius and James Purefoy.

Somewhere in the depths of Raccoon City lies the Hive, a top-secret genetic research facility run by a shady conglomerate, Umbrella Corporation.

When a deadly virus is released and threatens to contaminate the world, the Hive’s supercomputer, the Red Queen, goes berserk and isolates the facility, killing all its employees in the process.

An elite team of commandos has exactly three hours to go down into the Hive to shut down the Red Queen and destroy the virus before it gets out.

They soon discover, as you already would have guessed, that the dead aren’t really dead. Apparently, the T-virus reanimates body cells even after you’re dead.

The Hive’s employees have been transformed into brainless zombies with a nasty appetite. Just one bite or scratch from these Undead and you turn into one of them yourself.

The team brings along an amnesiac couple, Alice (Jovovich) and Spence (Purefoy) who seem to know what happened down there . but just can’t remember yet. Through an excellent flashback narrative, we then realize, in shattered-glass fragments, what happened before they do.

The movie elicits gasps of half-horror and half-glee as the team kicks its way through hungry zombies, grisly mutant dogs and security lasers. While the slice-and-dice lasers episode is riveting (and absolutely wicked), Jovovich’s elimination of the last of those damned Dobermans, with a flying kick reminiscent of The Matrix, draws forth a few hoots of amusement.

Having played a bit of Resident Evil myself before scuttling off in terror, I’d say the movie is almost as nerve-wracking, gut-spilling and scream-inducing rendition of the game itself. But new characters have been employed so that hardcore gamers can’t predict the outcome.

Resident Evil is equipped with all the glorious elements that make for hot video game-heart-pounding suspense, gripping action, impressive special effects . and of course, a scantily-clad heroine. (Jovovich gets to strut around in a little red dress throughout the movie.)

Unfortunately, in its obsession with eye candy, Resident Evil has failed to prop up its cardboard-cutout characters.

Apart from Jovovich and Purefoy, all the other characters fall apart. They’re boring, impersonal and forgettable. They’re as brain dead as those zombies, except that they’re not as hungry. They’re so conveniently disposable that you won’t even miss them.

Paul W.S. Anderson directs Resident Evil, who also directed Mortal Kombat and Event Horizon. He effectively delivers the splatter with heads on a platter. Resident Evil may not be as visceral as your standard horror movie, but this one will probably work you up into a mild frenzy.

It won’t make you care a whit about character development, because all that matters is who gets eaten . and who gets out alive. The movie guarantees gore, gripping suspense . and maybe just a shriek or two from you.

And if you just want to lose your head for a full 100 minutes, let Resident Evil chew on it then.

Grade: C