George A. Romero’s Resident Evil is a documentary about George Romero, Resident Evil, and the failed attempt for him to adapt the video game into a movie. If all that sounds like gibberish, this might not be your favorite film. And if it makes sense, you might have hoped for something a little better.

So, yeah, after the release of the original Resident Evil video game in the 90s, Constantin Films grabbed the movie rights and initially hired Romero – as the father of the modern zombie – to adapt the zombie game into a movie. As evidenced by Paul W.S. Anderson’s 2002 film, that plan didn’t work out and this documentary tries to explains why.

Since it has to serve two masters, the first forty minutes of the film sets up who Romero is and then what Resident Evil is. That means a twenty minute doc on Romero’s career, focusing, of course, on Night, Dawn, and Day of the Dead primarily. Then it explains the origins of Resident Evil and how that franchise changed and adapted to the times.

None of this was new to me but your results may vary. It covers these details fairly well… though the writing gets a little muddled once they start talking about a movie adaptation at the same time Capcom is working on its video game sequel. That messy bit of writing is short lived and the doc gets back on track.

It’s main focus is an overview of the various scripts that were written and why Constantin film didn’t go with Romero’s hard R (possibly NC17) take. This is the longest segment of the film and starts to feel redundant… and if you aren’t versed in the Resident Evil games, probably a little confusing too. Mainly it talks about the details of an unfinished, first draft script that was never edited (nor turned into a film).

The final segment of the doc is a eulogy for Romero. It’s earnest and moving… even if it has little to do with the RE script. But, hey, the doc is 25% about Romero’s life so it was a fitting tribute and farewell. And a reminder, at least to me, that the Romero script is still out there…

Score: 78