Survival horror is definitely not a genre for all audiences. Although not always explicitly gory, video games that belong to this category are mostly characterized by a set of unique traits, that set them on a level of their own. During the years they too, just like all other genres, have gone through several different stages and developments, but their core remains consistently the same: the depiction of a stressing, chilling atmosphere, most often with hints of metaphysical elements and an overall feeling that simulates that of experiencing a nightmare. The lead characters, usually stranded or trapped, are being chased by terrifying enemies who sometimes are monsters, and other times are humans acting as such. Survival gradually becomes their main concern, while at the same time they are looking for ways to and means to fight those enemies and finally defeat them. Throughout their still vivid history in the gaming industry, survival horror games have been and still are influenced by emblematic thriller, horror and mystery films that, most of the times, gained a cult following with the passing of time. In this article, I will focus on two game series, The Evil Within games and the Resident Evil saga, and how they were influenced by two one-of-a-kind film-makers, Dario Argento and David Lynch.

Dario Argento (left) and David Lynch (right)

Dario Argento is the Italian creator of many unforgettable giallo films. Giallo means yellow in italian and the term is used to describe horror movies of the 70ties and 80ties, where gore was particularly prominent. Argento is a master of horror and his giallo films left an indelible mark in the movies industry. Combining pure, raw gore with lush, extravagant settings or contrasting his twisted plots with idyllic environments, almost always with raucous heavy metal music playing in the background, his films are, interestingly enough, mostly memorable for their unique cinematography, the ingenious ideas when it comes to mystery, and the use of unexpected elements as important plot points. 

Suspiria (1977)

Argento's films are full of symbols, allegories and the multi-leveled use of elements and objects. In his iconic Phenomena (1985), the protagonist is Jennifer, a young girl who sleepwalks and has the unique ability to communicate with insects. Jennifer also comes from a not so usual home: her parents are divorced, and her father is a famous actor who, however, never appears physically in the film. The way that Argento chooses to present her is very interesting: typically, she has the characteristics of a fairy tale heroine, with elements of the stereotypical damsel in distress archetype, but the story follows her as she deals with dangers almost all alone; and the man who at some point runs to her rescue is neither a love interest nor a knight in shining armour but her father's lawyer, who however gets morbidly murdered before being able to offer her assistance. Jennifer has no love interest, anyway, she prefers being alone and the company of an old entomologist, whose pet is a female chimpanzee called Inga.

Jennifer with the professor and Inga, and the various insects in glass cases and photos

Jennifer's ability to communicate with insects is referenced in Alexia's power to control the ant colony in her mansion in Resident Evil: Code Veronica, in Natalia's understanding the messages of the larvae in Resident Evil: Revelations 2 and, in a grotesque version, in Marguerite's bond with her beloved flies in Resident Evil 7. Insects are featured quite often in video games, and in the Resident Evil universe their appearances are always of major importance. Derek Simmons's final mutation in Resident Evil 6 was a giant fly; the huge mosquito-like monsters in Resident Evil 4 were among the saga's most hateful enemies; and who can forget the wasp hive in the lab at the Spencer mansion in the first Resident Evil game. All these of course go back to Franz Kafka's iconic novella Metamorphosis (1915), in which the protagonist Gregor Samsa transforms into a giant insect.

Jennifer (left) and Natalia spotting insects in the forest

Argento develops his story in the form of a fairy tale, adding elements in the way that gradually widen the gap between magic and reality. Jennifer's dream world - or, better, in this case, her nightmare journey - consists of sleepwalking and having disturbing visions associated with murder. Her communicating with flies is her safe haven, and it is actually the insects that lead her to getting to the bottom of the horror-filled mystery of the story. Jennifer is a student in a boarding school where the governess is a woman with a troubled past and a more troubled present. Her dark secret is the existence of a child, result of her being raped by a mentally ill man in the asylum where she previously worked. The child, grotesquely deformed due to a medical syndrome, is hidden in what seems to be an abandoned house and is the one responsible for the murders that Jennifer sees in her sleepwalking sessions. While investigating the house, Jennifer falls in a pool filled with maggots and disintegrating human limbs. A bit later, the sick boy shows up and attacks her. At this point, her sleepwalking nightmares identify abruptly with the reality she is experiencing, and her only way to make it out alive is to summon her loyal friends, her insects, that rush to kill her monstrous pursuer.

 

Jennifer in the pool of terror

Jennifer's fall in the gruesome pool is a symbolic descend to Hell, more accentuated by the fact that said pool is in the basement of the house. This scene is referenced in The Evil Within, during a sequence close to the beginning of the game. Sebastian, the lead character, has just been separated from his partners while investigating a massacre at a mental hospital. Unbeknownst to him, he enters a sick man's mind and all that he experiences are distorted segments of memories and monsterized versions of reality's fragments. In this twisted world, he finds himself chased by a butcher / executioner who walks around yielding a chainsaw. In his struggle to escape him, Sebastian falls in a bloody pool, where human limbs gradually come to the surface. Jennifer and Sebastian have a lot things in common, their innocence and purity of mind being the most obvious and most crucial for the development of their stories. Just like Jennifer sleepwalks unwillingly, Sebastian finds himself wandering inside Ruvik's mind, both unable to escape for as long as these situations last. But while Jennifer's fall in the symbolic Hell happens at the end, marking the start of the catharsis process, Sebastian's fall in a similar Hell takes place at the start, dragging him deeper and deeper in the monster's twisted mind.

Sebastian in the bloody pool

Profondo Rosso (Deep Red, 1975) is another emblematic movie by Dario Argento, which is much gorier than Phenomena, but its main theme is that of mystery and suspense. Horror in Profondo Rosso is created primarily by the feeling of unknown and a disturbing sense of insecurity caused by the constant fear that someone is watching from a well-hidden spot, while the extravagantly violent scenes are used as a frame that essentially holds both the characters in the film and the viewers in the grip of Argento's very unique view of a thriller movie. Set around a series of particularly gruesome killings, the film follows Marcus, a musician who witnesses one of the murders, as he investigates the case to which he gradually seems to be connected in a rather weird way. The movie contains one of the most shocking twists in cinema history, which does not have to do with the identity of the killer, but with how said killer is revealed in a very early and completely unsuspected sequence in the story. 

 

Marcus suspects that he might know the killer

 

Profondo Rosso is definitely not recommended for the average viewer, but to this day it remains an exemplary piece of cinema art, blending masterfully its extremely gory scenes with exploration of mystery at its finest. It is films like this that defined the horror movies that would follow, as well as survival horror games. Resident Evil 3 makes a great tribute to both this exquisite film and its genius creator, by naming a secondary but rather important character Dario Rosso (his name from the director's name, and his surname from the movie's title). He is the civilian whom Jill finds locked in his van at the start of the game, and she tries to persuade him to follow her to safety, but he insists to stay in his hiding place in a panic state. The interesting thing about him is that his fate is unknown, as we do not have another chance to meet him and we can never be sure whether he survived or zombies got to him in the end and ate him alive. In the sequence where he appears, Dario Rosso represents all the panicked civilians who found themselves all of a sudden in a zombie-ridden city, not knowing what caused all this, and with a vague, dark and cut-short future awaiting them.

Dario Rosso is about to hide in his van forever

David Lynch is yet one more film-maker whose influence can be seen in almost all aspects of artistic expression. The creator of the famous Twin Peaks series is also responsible for some of the most impressive and exceptional artschool movies of contemporary cinematography, his trademark being the use of connotations combined with the stream of consciousness way of story narration. Lynch's dreamy landscapes and environments are presented as tangible depictions of artistic inspiration, often deliberately appearing as theatrical sceneries or backstage setups, with the director breaking the fourth wall in the most inventive ways and playing with the deepest layers of his heroes' psyche while at the same time challenging the subconscious of his audience.

Inland Empire (2006)

The iconography in Lynch's films is one of the most complex and cryptic, but somehow the ingenious director manages to unlock your mind, leading you to interpret what you see in more than one ways. A master of interior settings, where rooms symbolize the grey matter or the psyche, his movies are highly intellectual and most of them follow a "circular" route. The most characteristic of this kind of cinematography is his masterwork Blue Velvet (1986), a movie with an affinity of layers, and one of those that challenge you to watch them multiple times, and every time with a new perspective. In the film's iconic opening sequence, young and innocent Jeffrey finds a severed human ear in the middle of a field. After taking the macabre finding to the police, he gets entangled in a twisted web of mystery, terror, lust and betrayal, meeting people that seem to belong to a completely different world than his, a world that scares him but which at the same time he finds too attractive to ignore. Heavily inspired and influenced by Lewis Carroll's Alice In Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass (tales that are almost always referenced in his movies), Lynch explores multiple themes in Blue Velvet, one of them being the loss of innocence and the emotional coming-of-age of his hero. The cut ear functions as a passage, just like the rabbit hole did in Alice in Wonderland and the mirror in Through the Looking Glass. For both Alice and Jeffrey, going through these passages is a kind of rite, after which they are called to face the complexity of the human nature in literal and symbolic ways. The ear in Jeffrey's case literally drags him into its labyrinth and leads him to another maze, this time of the real or not so real world in which he finds himself. Set in an idyllic countryside bursting with bright colors, Jeffrey's journey is a nightmare which seems to always bring him in the same central point.

Jeffrey holding the severed ear

A photo of a human ear is one of the pictures that Sebastian sees during the introductory sequences of The Evil Within 2, when he enters Stefano Valentini's disturbing gallery that is spread all around his mind palace. The ear is not a random choice there; Stefano's method of intimidating his potential victims starts with him triggering the sound of a musical piece by Tchaikovsky, heard in such a distorted and haunting way that the beautiful music has an overwhelming paralyzing effect. Stefano "catches" people with sound first, subsequently dragging them into his twisted world, similarly how the cut ear in Blue Velvet caught Jeffrey's attention and eventually lured him in places unknown to him until then. And Sebastian, who shifts between realities through a mirror, simulates Alice's rite of passage through the looking glass, which again identifies with Jeffrey's passage through the ear's labyrinth.

The photo of the ear in Stefano's gallery

Lynch's environments in the Twin Peaks world are iconic dreamscapes, specifically the Black Lodge or Red Room which functions as a virtual meeting place between the protagonist Dale Cooper and select key characters from the series and movies. Comprised of an almost empty space with just a few pieces of furniture and strange shapes on the floor, the Red Room is, as its name suggests, a room where the red color dominates: its walls are fully covered with red curtains and the geometrical pattern on the floor is in fact white and red zig-zag lines. The furniture is three black armchairs, a table, two lampstands and a replica of the statue of Aphrodite of Melos. The room, existing in Dale's mind, functions as a meeting place where he has discussions with people that he had known at some point in his life and played a critical role in certain events that he was involved in. 

Dale Cooper with the Dwarf and Laura Palmer in the Red Room

The Red Room, being essentially Dale Cooper's mind palace, is referenced in the interior of the Grand Theater which is Stefano Valentini's mind palace in The Evil Within 2. A huge building with red curtains hanging from the ceiling and covering parts of its walls, sometimes revealing secret doors behind them, it is a labyrinthine network of rooms where the red color dominates, with certain corners being set up in the style of Dale's Red Room. In both the Twin Peaks' Red Room and The Evil Within 2's Grand Theater, the red color dominates, often making contrast with another color that is among Lynch's preferred ones, which is the bright blue. Stefano in The Evil Within 2 can be seen wearing a blue-mauve suit, and wherever he appears, the environment around him is colored with red and blue shades.

The red curtains are dominating Stefano's mind palace

 

From his part, Stefano Valentini, who uses his camera as a murdering tool, alludes to one of the most creepy characters that David Lynch has conceived, which is the Mystery Man from Lost Highway (1997). A difficult, highly intellectual movie, one of the most riddling and complex that Lynch has directed, it features an array of enigmatic figures, his puzzling protagonist included. The Mystery Man is a secondary character who, however, plays a key role in the main hero's story, although both his appearance and his actions remain partly unexplained till the end. He has a camcorder which he uses to record incriminating events from the protagonist's life, aiming at exposing his double nature. It is notable that the Mystery Man, in his turn, has his origins in another iconic character, Mark Lewis from Michael Powel's Peeping Tom (1960), who used his camera to take shots that satisfied his well-concealed sick psyche.

Mark Lewis (left), the Mystery Man (center) and Stefano Valentini (right)

Close to the ending of The Evil Within 2, Sebastian and one of his allies have to cross a path that is consumed by flames so as to reach the hiding place of one of the story's villains. It is one of the most difficult and challenging parts of the whole game, and the first time that you go through it, you are rewarded with an achievement titled "Fire Walk With Me", which pays homage to David Lynch as this phrase is the title of his 1992 movie that is part of the legendary Twin Peaks storyline. This alone signifies how influential Lynch's films and overall artistic approach have been in the game's creation. Lynch, in his turn, has been influenced by Dario Argento's aesthetics when it comes to the use of colors as means to highlight plot points and character traits, and the symbolic nuances that both characters and environments can carry, elements that both directors handle masterfully, which is one important reason why their works are favorite points of reference in so many video games.

See also:

» References to Dario Argento

» References to David Lynch

Mechanisms of Desire

Continuing on the spicy path that this blog has taken lately, today I am going to elaborate a bit on the dark romantic aspect of relationships between characters, something that, surprisingly, is not a new thing in video games. As early as in 1995, Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within was maybe the first game to include such an element in its plot, which back then was particularly radical and innovative, given that the technical means were very few, and the ways to accompany a game with cutscenes were also rather limited. Regardless this didn't prevent the game's developing team to come up with a captivating story involving characters that since became iconic. The element of desire is quite prominent in the story, as I will analyze in a bit, and in a rather complex form, for that matter. I have also picked a few more select cases of characters who, like Gabriel, are not simply involved in the theme of desire, but are also deeply and dramatically affected by it in their attitude and mentality.

Desire disguised as confusion (Gabriel Knight in Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within)

Like I mentioned above, Gabriel's case can be considered an archetypical story involving the theme of desire, as it belongs to a video game that was most probably the first one to address such a subject and in such a radical way. Gabriel is a consciously straight ladies' man, and his self-confidence on that matter is particularly high. All this is doomed to change when, while investigating of a series of murders, he meets the charming and mysterious Friedrich Von Glower, typically a Baron but in reality a werewolf of more than one hundred years old. Friedrich is instantly attracted by Gabriel who initially seems to be unaware of the situation, but as the story progresses, he gets smitten with Friedrich although this is something that he cannot even acknowledge at first.

At a crucial turning point, however, he comes across Baron Von Zell, Friedrich's ex-lover whom Friedrich had turned into a werewolf during a moment of passion. Von Zell is the one responsible for the aforementioned murders, and while being hunted by Gabriel and Friedrich, he is shot dead, but not before managing to attack and bite Gabriel. Soon after, Gabriel starts to feel the effects, as he is slowly turning into a werewolf himself, something that he realizes and tries very hard to control and suppress. In a rather revealing scene, we can see him struggling with himself in physical and emotional pain as his inner werewolf struggles to prevail as well. In reality, what Gabriel is truly trying to suppress is the desire that he is actually developing towards Friedrich which, allegorically, found a way to the surface after Friedrich's ex bit him. Gabriel is in deep confusion because he is unable to admit and accept this unprecedented feeling, which also happens to be very strong and difficult to handle. Gabriel's inner struggle is in fact a battle with his own feelings and that part of himself that has awakened all of a sudden without him being able to control it at all. At the same time, however, he is struggling to persuade himself that all this turmoil has to do with him slowly becoming a werewolf, but in his attempt to focus on that, he is merely highlighting more what is truly going on inside him.

Desire suppressed by denial (Jill Valentine in Resident Evil 3 Remake)

The romantic aspect may not be particularly present in Resident Evil 3, but there still is a degree of electricity between Jill and Carlos, mostly filtered through admiration from his part, while Jill is rather prejudiced at first because Carlos belongs to a company that she knows is evil. As the story progresses, however, it becomes quite clear that Jill and Carlos are attracted to each other, something that Carlos shows almost directly, what with his attitude towards Jill and his choice of words when it comes to flirting her, albeit a bit awkwardly, and also given the tense circumstances they find themselves in. But for Jill, things are not that simple; although Jill is a very "raw" character, in that she is honest, sincere and crystal-clear, she is quite secretive when it comes to expressing her feelings. As the events in the story develop and she starts to see that Carlos is honest and she actually begins to like him, it is not very easy for her to admit it, let alone express it with words to him. Moreover, Jill is a person who puts duty above all and who values her partners very highly; this is something that becomes very clear during her brief dialogue with Carlos after she leaves the power plant, when Carlos calls her "partner" and she replies with a rather bitter and cold "Not your partner", because, for her, comradeship is something sacred. Carlos, on the other hand, is always laid back, and doesn't seem to take anything else into account except for the fact that he likes her, and he is very specific and clear about this. After Jill witnesses Nikolai betraying his team and leaving Mikhail and her to die, her prejudice against Carlos disappears completely and it slowly becomes clear that she does care for him. Chances are, if she didn't know that he was a soldier of Umbrella, she would have allowed herself to realize that she actually did like him from the beginning, both as a person and as a man. 

Even after all this happens, however, she is still in denial; being faithful to her mission and because her priority is the elimination of evil, she refuses to give room to her feelings while, subconsciously, trying to control them. After she is treated with the antidote and just as she is about to wake up, she has a nightmare during which Carlos gets in her room to inform her that everything is fine, but just then he begins to turn and he asks her to kill him. Jill cannot do it, of course, and a zombified Carlos attacks her, which is when she abruptly wakes up in anguish and confusion. The fact that, among all the people that she met in the course of the story, her subconscious decided to make Carlos attack her in a zombified state in her dream, can have a dual interpretation: on the one hand, being forced to work with Carlos had brought her closer to him, putting him inevitably in the position of a temporary partner, and subsequently someone whom she could trust, at least to a degree. The fear of losing a partner, and more so in such a violent way, had been with Jill from the start of the story, after the unfortunate incident with Brad; so now her nightmare reminds her that fear by presenting Carlos as a victim with Brad's fate. On the other hand, however, this subconscious choice indicates that Jill is attracted to Carlos but she refuses to allow herself the luxury of enjoying this feeling because if she does so, she will betray her mission. Her subconscious puts the man that she likes in the position of a dangerous enemy because she feels both enchanted and threatened by his presence.

Desire masked as guilt (Joseph Oda in The Evil Within)

Joseph's case is quite similar to that of Gabriel Knight in that, for both of them, desire takes the form of something considered forbidden and subsequently both of them experience a devastating inner struggle with their wild, primitive self through which they channel that feeling. But whereas for Gabriel all this was mainly due to confusion (Gabriel found himself in a situation that was unexpected and unfamiliar, and which he was unable to handle), for Joseph everything is pretty clear and conscious, which is why he is primarily led by guilt for what he experiences. Joseph is emotionally vulnerable, which is why being trapped in Ruvik's memories affects him so much. After unwillingly entering the STEM system, Joseph comes face to face with his most secret and suppressed fears and emotions, something that weakens his will and his resistances and results in him not being able to control himself and thus turning into a Haunted.

Soon after Sebastian finds him in STEM, Joseph experiences his first transformation during which he violently attacks Sebastian while struggling to take control of his monstrous self. The fact that this first transformation happens while he is with Sebastian is not random; since Sebastian is, unbeknownst to him, the receiver of Joseph's forbidden feelings. The next time he turns is when, due to Ruvik's control of his mind, he instinctively catches that Juli's presence is threatening, since in reality she is there as a spy on behalf of Mobius, and he attacks her in an attempt to push her out of the way and, eventually, to prevent her from affecting Sebastian. Later on, while still with Sebastian, he attempts to kill himself because he realizes that not only he is unable to control this transformation, but moreover a part of himself yearns to become a Haunted. Part of himself, that is, is ready to accept and embrace the feeling of that forbidden desire, but his conscious self, most probably having grown up in a strict, heavily traditional environment that forced him to follow all the expected norms and stereotypes, brings forward the feeling of guilt in order to make him suppress whatever it is that makes him revolt both emotionally and physically. Joseph becoming a Haunted then reverting back to his human form with even more guilt each time stands as an allegory for his struggle to come to terms with himself and break the restrains that keep him imprisoned.

Desire leading to self-destruction (Derek Simmons in Resident Evil 6)

Derek Simmons expresses probably one of the most straightforward forms of desire, given that he is not particularly complex himself, at least at the beginning. Originally the typical power-hungry villain with a Messiah complex, he developed an obsessive paranoia after falling in love with Ada. Of course for a man like him, "love" is not exactly the word we should use; he clearly cannot feel anything positive for anyone but himself, and what truly pushes him to extremes is not so much his feelings for Ada, but the fact that she rejected him. By rejecting him, Ada in fact challenged his power, something that, for him, is impossible to accept. After Derek crossed the line by coming up with the idea to create Ada's clone, his mania grew bigger, and his malicious acts shifted from general to very specific. At this point, it was desire that drove his actions, but also blinded him so much that he didn't realize that, by succumbing to this feeling and letting it take control, he got tangled in a peculiar and marginally twisted triangle, with two depictions of the same woman at its two points: Ada, the real one, and Carla, her clone. Subsequently, Derek's actions caused Carla's actions because she, in turn, realized that he had turned her into a lab rat when it was already too late for her to reverse the effects, while at the same time she felt deeply betrayed, not only as a scientist but also as a woman. It is hinted that the real Carla, for her part, had feelings for Derek but he would only see a potential Ada in her, so the realization of this added more fuel to Carla's already unstable psyche.

When Carla took her revenge on Derek by turning him into a monster, Derek's inner monstrosity also came to the surface and literally found a face. Not only he lost any sense of humanity but he also lost himself, and this was a path that he had in fact taken much earlier, when he first came up with the idea to create Ada's clone because he could not have the real one. His paranoia grew stronger after the clone was actually created, when he began to refer to and address the clone as if she was the real Ada. Such a sick situation, of course, could not drag on for too long, and would inevitably lead to his own destruction, aided also by Carla's thirst for revenge. From the moment when Derek was transformed into a monster, and seeing, in his paranoia, how powerful he could actually be in that state, he literally killed his human self, giving room to his inner monster.

Desire as obsession (Stefano Valentini in The Evil Within 2)

Although Stefano's murderous instincts can easily be mistaken for those of a typical serial killer, in fact they have much more depth, like he does as well, both as a character overall and specifically as an artist. Stefano's psyche is in turmoil, but there are two main conflicting emotions inside him: the extreme love that he feels for his own creations, and the venomous hate that he directs towards every other living soul around him. In fact Stefano is obsessed with his art, in a most twisted and unhealthy manner, and views everyone and everything through the distorted prism of his camera's eye. Stefano has given life to his camera by creating the hideous monster Obscura, which is also the depiction of his inner, normally unperceivable self. Moreover, Obscura represents his own feminine side, which he has embraced to a degree but still resents and feels contempt for. Stefano could be easily labelled a killer of women, but this would only be a shallow and superficial characterization for such a complex mentality. In reality he hates all human beings, independently of sex or age. In the real world, he started killing female models because, as a fashion photographer, he could very easily approach them as potential victims. Progressively, killing women became some kind of ritual, as through them he would every time attempt to eliminate his female side. In the reality of STEM, however, where he could act completely out of control, his "gallery" of victims grew bigger and richer. Male citizens and soldiers were also "honored" to become part of his installations, with some of them even getting to have their own personal exhibition room, like Turner, Hayes and Baker, and of course Sebastian for whom Stefano had prearranged a dedicated gallery hall in order to place the installation that he had conceived and which would feature him as a "protagonist".

For Stefano, desire is a very complex, dark feeling and notion; he hates Sebastian on the surface, but in the essence he yearns for that aspect of his that Stefano feels will make him an ideal model / victim. Sebastian combines two things that Stefano seems to deem as essential for the creation of his morbid art: innocence and sexual appeal. In his artwork, Stefano always depicts these two elements together, either directly or through symbols. Although he sees Lily as the ideal "blank canvas" for his future inspirations due to her innocence, he would still need victims to actually create art. Sebastian has Lily's pure heart, but he also has the sexuality that Stefano seeks so ardently for his disturbing creations. The sequence where Sebastian confronts and finally kills Stefano looks and feels like a twisted sex hunt, which becomes more than evident in case Stefano manages to catch Sebastian and stab him with lustful rage. At this stage, Stefano's obsession with his own art identifies both with the attraction that he feels for Sebastian on a physical level, and his desire to create "his masterpiece" which will incorporate all the perfection that he believes he has achieved: the perfect canvas, which is Lily, the perfect human material that would be Sebastian, and the perfect concept, which however he eventually lost the chance to create.

 

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Special thanks to afterdarkmysweet for providing info for Gabriel Knight: The Beast Within.

Jill's Lobster

There has been a lot of speculation and theories about Jill Valentine's love life, as is the case anyway with most fictional heroes and heroines who do not appear to have a predetermined or potential partner or match; although Jill has always been a very special case, since she has more often than not been depicted as someone who mostly focuses on her work and her duties, leaving little - if at all - space for anything else in her life. There is a general conception, which is extremely popular among fans - and quite possibly this also appeals to members of the Resident Evil development teams - that Jill has feelings for Chris Redfield and vice versa; Chris, however, always seems even more focused on duties and work than Jill, and we never had the chance to see him dealing with anything directly connected to the game of love, at least as far as his female partners are concerned. 

Jill is the main protagonist of Resident Evil 3, a game that recently underwent a revamped remake which may have failed to do justice to certain aspects of the original, what with the omission of emblematic puzzles and iconic environments, but on the other hand it offered a lot of character-related insight, focusing on its protagonists, deuteragonists and antagonists in a way that shed light on their personalities, thus highlighting their motives, intentions and actions a lot more. The game itself, as concept, story and development, seems rather straightforward and easy to follow, but in fact it has traits that give it an identity that is quite different from other titles of the saga. Jill finds herself in a nightmarish, zombie-ridden Raccoon City, just having lost Brad, her only ally, in an overall hostile environment. She is forced to work with a group of soldiers who belong to Umbrella, the company that Jill knows very well and is aware of their evil doings. As the story proceeds, Jill realizes that most of the soldiers are clean and completely ignore the truth about Umbrella - except for one. 

If you think about it, the condition in Resident Evil 3 is the opposite of Resident Evil 1, the other game where Jill was a protagonist: in the first game, Jill had to work with her team mates, all of whom she unquestionably trusted until one of them turned out to be a traitor. In Resident Evil 3, she begins by mistrusting and hating her unlikely partners, until she finds out that most of them are trustworthy. In both cases, she is part of a group of people one of whom at the end proves to be a traitor, but while in Resident Evil 1 they are all innocent until one of them stands out as the bad guy, in Resident Evil 3 they are all guilty until the innocent ones become known and only one of them remains on the antagonist side. Before all this happens though and she learns to respect and trust the soldiers that deserve it, Jill has to fight alone, always reminding herself that what she is doing is for the sake of the civilians whom she wants to secure. It is one of the not so usual cases in the Resident Evil saga where the protagonist is completely by themselves, in a setting where they believe everyone is working against them. Claire in Code Veronica had Steve as an ally right from the start; Leon in Resident Evil 4 had Ashley, Luis, and even Ada in the background. Claire and Leon in Resident Evil 2 had each other, Chris in Resident Evil 5 had Sheva and Josh, Ethan in Resident Evil 7 had Zoe Baker. It is not before several unfortunate events happen that Jill realizes she can actually trust the three out of the four people in her group - although sadly one of them is killed as soon as she finds out that he is clean. 

This takes place in a very pivotal sequence of events, where in fact more revelations also are made. Jill goes with Carlos down to the subway platform, after having restored the power and temporarily defeated the ferocious Nemesis. This instance is the one and only in the whole game where all the members of Jill's group appear together, so technically it is the best time for everything to come into place. Earlier, Jill had found out by chance that Nikolai is a ruthless, cruel man, and she probably suspected already that his role in the group was anything but honest. But as soon as the train departs, she witnesses a brief dialogue among him and Mikhail, the leader of the group, which reveals two things: one, it proves that Nikolai is indeed a traitor, and two, it clearly shows that Mikhail is on the side of the good guys, therefore one more that could be trusted.

Mikhail's subsequent and violent death, however, sadly limits that side to only two people, Carlos and Tyrell. The latter, being a good friend and partner for Carlos, gained Jill's respect almost automatically, during the aforementioned pivotal scene, moments before the train set off its dramatic route, thanks to the more than obvious friendly and trusty interaction between Carlos and him. As for Carlos, Jill had already changed her heart about him; surely her unmistakable instinct had made her trust him soon enough, but on the one hand she did not want to admit it to herself and on the other, she definitely wanted to be one hundred per cent sure before allowing him to see that she viewed him in a positive light. 

 

For a character like Jill, who goes through such tough and morale-challenging situations on a regular basis, things like flirting and romancing are more or less secondary. Carlos's early attempts to awkwardly flirt her, albeit out of time and place, all fall through because, like he confesses to Tyrell at some point, Jill "is not like anybody", probably referring to all the girls he had known up to then, who would easily fall for a silly, stereotypical flirting. Quite possibly Jill's view of a romantic lover filters through his overall attitude concerning loyalty, trust and bravery, but even after this "test" is clear, maybe it is not enough to own her heart. In Carlos's case, though, this unorthodox, atypical test has double value. Not only he proves that he is clean and trustworthy, but he is also someone his employers can rely on, since, until he has blatant proof that they are rotten, remains loyal to them, something that, however, does not prevent him from going against their wishes when he realizes their evil intentions. 

We never had the chance to know what happened in Jill's life after the events in Raccoon City, until we unexpectedly learned about her presumed death in Resident Evil 5. Through a dramatic flashback story, we got to know that, during a nasty encounter with Wesker in Spenser's estate, Jill attempted to save Chris's life by pushing her former captain out of a high window, but she fell all the way down together with him in the process. She remained presumed dead for a while, but Chris found her later alive and heavily brainwashed by Wesker. He was forced to fight with her before finally being able to release her of Wesker's control and bring her back to her senses. After that incident was over, however, we lost her again - save for an appearance in the overcrowded and rather chaotic Revelations. 

The remake of Resident Evil 3 ends with Jill and Carlos leaving the bombarded Raccoon City for good on a helicopter, and Jill giving an oath to herself to stop Umbrella's evil plans. In the original, however, there is a bonus end screen showing Jill and Carlos gazing at the ocean from a ship, at what could probably be an off-duty holiday escape for the two of them. Could this mean that, after the events in Raccoon City, they met again and maybe bonded romantically together? This could have been an indication back then, which may have not been included in the remake, but there is something else to consider in the new version of the game, that has a similar nuance.

In one episode of the popular sitcom Friends, Phoebe, a character who is notorious for her outrageous way of thinking, tries to prove to the others that two of their common friends, Ross and Rachel, are in fact destined to be together. To do so, she describes how the pairs of lobsters mate, getting tied to each other with unbreakable bonds until the end of their lives, concluding later that Ross is Rachel's lobster. Although this whole lobster theory has little to do with reality, it soon became a standard joke in popular culture, being often featured in media as an easter egg, like so many things today. In the pivotal scene on the underground platform in Resident Evil 3, just as the train is about to depart, Jill expresses her worries about this maybe being the subway's last route. Mikhail then assures her that the train will be back again to collect more civilians. Although Jill is honestly concerned about the latters, part of her worries are directed towards Carlos, who has orders to go to the Police Department with Tyrell. Carlos tells her that he doesn't plan to leave her "in a cold, cruel Carlos-less world", while just to the side of him there is the poster of a local restaurant, Jim's Crabs. The poster depicts a huge lobster, with the name of the species in big lettering below it. This could be random, but it could very well be an easter egg, hinting that Carlos is in fact Jill's lobster.

Under that light, we can see Jill's long absence with a different perspective. Obviously she did take part in missions and went on with her police work, but maybe she did find love with Carlos, after all. Given that we haven't heard of Carlos all this time either, it could be that Jill helped him free himself from Umbrella and offered him shelter for a while, before he would be safe again to go on with his life, this time by her side.

The Most Cult Moment in Resident Evil History

Although Resident Evil 3 Remake disappointed many of us for not including a few iconic areas, like the Town Hall, the Clock Tower or the Cemetary, we were compensated by an anthology moment, a sequence that is funny, insane, creepy and horrifying at the same time, and which builds up gradually and silently in the background, from the start of the game up to that very moment when it happens. The culmination is a scene that I think will be considered cult material in the Resident Evil fandom for generations to come.

When the intro sequence is over and the main game begins, you are undergound with Carlos and he leads you to the subway train where he and Mikhail, his Captain, are providing shelter for survivors so as to get them out of town. But the subway has no power to move, so you have to make your way outside, run to the local Substation and restore the power. The first thing that you see upon exiting from the subway via a half-closed shutter is a glimpse of a huge doll head standing on the roof of the local toy store.

Then as you make your way further, you have the chance to see the head better, in all its smiling and somewhat creepy glory. It adorns the roof of a toy store which is called Toy Uncle. Surrounded by spotlights that make its bright colors look even brighter, it stands out in the gloomy and dark town.

The path you need to take is on fire, so you have to get to the Railway office in another section of the town, to find a water hose (why the water hose is there, is another story). Going down the steps towards the Donut Shop which leads there, the head is behind you, staring at the zombie-infested town, happy as ever, as if nothing had happened.

If you are playing in the higher difficulties, where the Donut Shop back door is blocked by a zombie that is banging it from inside, or if you just want to check the alternative route to the Railway office, you can take the long way and go up on the roof of the nearby building from where the head pops up behind the scaffolding.

After getting the hose, you return to the alley and, as you exit the Donut Shop from the back door, you can see the head opposite you, smiling in the distance.

After finding the lockpick outside the Substation, you can finally go back to the first area of the town and unlock the door of the toy store. You literally get inside the head's body.

In the store, there is a poster advertising a doll which is a bobblehead version of the head.

Reading the brochure, we learn that the doll is called "Charlie Doll"; it was based on the likeness of the Toy Uncle's founder from whom it also took its name, and it has become the mascot of the company. In fact several such bobbleheads can be found scattered in random places around the town; you are practically surrounded by Charlie dolls.

After restoring the power and setting a route for the subway train in the Railway office, you have to go back to the underground station to meet Carlos and the other guys. But as you exit the Donut Shop, Nemesis appears and starts marching at you while the head watches from its rooftop.

Upon arriving at the platform and as you are about to leave with the guys and the survivors, Nemesis makes a grand entrance, so you decide to stay behind and lure the creature away from the station, as it is supposed to be chasing only the members of STARS, aka you at this very instance. A crazy chase begins resulting in a construction site. As you make your way to the roof, jumping on scaffoldings and climbing ladders, you can spot the head down in the distance.

You climb even higher, and the head is still visible on top of the burning city.

When you reach the rooftop of the demolition site, you have to fight Nemesis for the first time. During the boss fight, you may be able to catch a glimpse of the head in the city down below.

After the boss fight is over on the roof, you find yourself in a street leading to the back area of the Raccoon Police Department. The head can be seen next to a row of buildings across and to the right.

You dash inside Robert Kendo's gunshop which is opposite the RPD and, after a brief conversation with Kendo, you take a key which unlocks an alley door neaby. Passing through an abandoned house, you are back in the street leading to the Substation. Of course Nemesis isn't dead and shows up again, this time armed with a rocket launcher, and after a brief crazy chase, it fires a rocket that catapults you near the starting part of the city, from where you can see the head peek-a-booing at you.

From there, you climb back on the roof leading to the back alley of the Donut Shop, and the head pops up from behind the metal bars.

You jump down to the alley as the whole place is in flames, and the head is staring at you with its creepy smile.

The head can be seen from almost everywhere in that first part of the game, like a landmark and a point of reference in any place you go. Its insisting and unmissable presence constantly hints that something ominous is going to happen soon.

And just then it happens. As you run up the steps towards the street beneath the head, Nemesis fires a rocket straight at it.

The head is cut off from its pedestal and tumbles over on the roof of the toy store.

It drops down on the street and starts rolling down.

It keeps rolling, chasing you, and it is huge, it is fast and unstoppable. It is a rolling nightmare.

Assuming you make it in time in a safe spot just to the side of the steps, you have a few seconds to stand and watch it as it keeps rolling down.

It reaches the burning yard of the Donut Shop, where it takes a couple more tumbles as long as it has space to move.

Nemesis shows up just in time, to add to the thrill of the moment. You can throw a grenade to make it go down for a few minutes, or run for your life if you like taking risks.

Whatever you do, however, the head remains in place, upside down, still smiling and unaffected by the burning chaos around it.

The rolling head is one of the new additions in the remake of Resident Evil 3, a terrifying and hilarious sequence where the environment not only becomes interactive, but moreover it is transformed into a moving trap from which there is only a tiny way out. In older games of the series, there would be a random boulder here and there, falling from a high point, and you had to run like mad and hide in a recess or dodge its landing on the spot. The rolling head seems to be a new era type of boulder trap that is not simply dangerous but also surreal and creepy.  It has personality and a life of its own. All the while it would just stand there, overlooking the town, a giant but nonetheless innocent object which however becomes a lethal weapon within seconds. This scene is an instant classic and it is guaranteed to stay on top of the most memorable moments in the history of the Resident Evil saga.