Resident Evil movie set to be as scary as the game

Another computer game comes to the screen as a major cinema blockbuster ... Moore proof that there seems no end to the source of such material.

Resident Evil is one of those wildly energetic and action-filled movies that come decidedly on the mindless side, but with enough promise of satisfaction to have you purchasing a ticket.

We have by way of plot the escape of a deadly virus in a vast underground genetic research facility run by a faceless bio-engineering conglomerate. A super-computer seals off the facility to contain the leak ... killing off all the trapped employees.

Only, they're not dead ... they're undead, and they are on the prowl in the facility.

Into this unpleasant situation go Alice (Milla Jovovich), Rain (Michelle Rodriguez) and a team of commandos who have three hours to complete their mission before the virus takes over the world. It is a race against time and a race against a series of increasingly horrifying obstacles.

"I've always wanted to make a really scary movie," says producer Bernd Eichinger, "After I caught people in my office playing the Resident Evil game when it first hit the marketplace, I could instantly see its movie potential. It wasn't gory or too violent - just completely terrifying to play - and I knew if we could transfer that quality to the screen we would be on to a real winner."

He and his team eventually headed to Japan to talk to the Capcom people, who owned the game (which, by the way, has sold more than 16 million units worldwide and grossed over €500m.

"We wanted to show them that we got what the game was about and that we were capable of making a big international movie from their successful game. I promised them we would take their concept seriously and consult them on a regular basis," he said.

Paul WS Anderson, who wrote and directed Resident Evil, came to the project with one major advantage ... he was a big fan of the games and he had also directed another video game film adaptation - Mortal Kombat.

"I've played all the Resident Evil games and as a die-hard fan, I wanted a movie version that was respectful of it, builds on its premise and delivers on its promise.

"To be scary you have to be unpredictable, and that's why I wanted to use a set of fresh characters. We couldn't use the Jill Valentine character from the first game, for example, as the fans would know she wasn't going to be killed because she pops up in the later games.

"The suspense dynamic of who is going to live, who is going to die and what people's allegiances are was only going to work with new characters. This approach also fits in with the world of the game which is constantly expanding and introducing new characters and locations."

And one thing he didn't want to do was "gross out" audiences with an over-abundance of blood and gore: "It's too easy to gross people out on a splatter level and far harder to scare them senseless. I made a deliberate choice in the script to try to be frightening rather than visceral, as showing everything covered in blood is now such a dated and hokey approach.

"Ensuring things are shadowy and tension-filled is the best way to keep audiences shrieking and their nerves jangling."

Resident Evil opens on July 12.