Resident Evil's Laser Hallway Is The Series' Only Effective Horror Scene
The Millia Jovovich-fronted Resident Evil movies put a focus on action over suspense, but the original film's laser scene is still the franchise's best horror moment. George A Romero was famously in line to write and direct the Resident Evil movie, based on Capcom's bestselling video game. Romero was later removed when Capcom disliked his script, and Event Horizon's Paul W.S. Anderson was drafted in. Anderson took a more unusual approach to his adaptation, however.
He felt that viewers familiar with the series would know that classic Resident Evil characters like Chris Redfield or Jill Valentine would be safe, so he made his film a kind of prequel to the first game. This Resident Evil introduced an original character named Alice (Milla Jovovich), an Umbrella commando who has to lead a group of survivors through an underground lab. The movie was a hit and five sequels followed, ending with 2017's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter. In 2021, a more horror-focused reboot landed in the form of Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City, which was more a straightforward game adaptation.
Despite being more faithful, Resident Evil: Welcome To Raccoon City received a lukewarm response. While some devotees of the games disliked the Milla Jovovich franchise's focus on outlandish action, this formula propelled the movies towards a collective $1.2 billion gross worldwide. Even though the various Resident Evil movies took monsters and setpieces from the games, they rarely succeeded in generating genuine suspense or tension. There's one major exception to that with Resident Evil's laser scene, where a group of soldiers finds themselves trapped in a hallway armed with laser grid security.
Resident Evil's laser scene does a good job generating suspense before the booby trap is even obvious, as the crew gingerly inch down a stark white corridor. They're soon locked in, with various commandos being killed by the Red Queen's defense system until only Colin Salmon's character - fittingly dubbed "One" - remains. Despite his nimble moves. the Red Queen quits playing around and forms an inescapable grid pattern, which dices the commander as Milla Jovovichs' Alice watches on in horror.
Resident Evil's laser scene calls to mind a similiar scene from 1997's Cube, but it's an undeniably suspenseful and intense scene. Anderson was inspired to create the scene from the sense that in the original game, the mansion itself wanted players dead, so he conceived of Resident Evil's laser hallway scene to make that feeling literal. Later entries would occasionally try to add creepy moments, but they always felt like window dressing until the next big setpiece. With Resident Evil's laser scene, Anderson's movie felt - albeit it briefly - like it was taking the horror seriously.