At long last the review of Resident Horror, the sequel to Silent Horror. This film continues the mocking of survival horror traditions and distinguishing gameplay features. This has the largest cast of any X-Strike film to date. Almost everyone who has acted in a previous film is here. Conspicuously absent is Jeuse Cutler, who nevertheless contributed behind the scenes.
Our story follows young cop Tokeen Jackson, played by Casey Bowker who the observant will recall as being Blade in River City Rumble and several roles in Low Budget Pictures films. Tokeen is reporting for his first day on the S.P.A.R.S (Super Police Action Rescue Squad) team. Shortly after being introduced to his new teammates Sherman Booker (George Steffler), Gil Armstrong (Ben Lathan), Polly Gackt , Ned Cumorah (Matthew Mahoney), Clyde (David Autovino who you may recognize from recent Sports Authority commercials), and Captain Dillbert Wisker (Tim Ekkebus).
The team responds to a distress call in the nearby Arkay Mountains (just outside of Badger City). In the mountains and surrounding woods they encounter a zombie. They also meet a group of mercenaries in the employ of the Parasol Corporation. The mercenaries include DeDe (Meredith Schichtel), Asskick Broadchest (Ross Busch), THUNK Painshatter (Rory O'Boyle), Johnny Reshirt (Darrin Demarco), Carlito Chavito (Hector Martinez), and Edward Freaking Lyndsey (Rich Durham). They seek to contain the spread of the Wa T-Virus and fight not only zombies but "Scylla" and "Charybdis". Hilarious dialogue and nods to games abound. Also worth noting is music by Dale North, Glenn Case and Shael Riley. The usual bundle of great bonus features that are to be expected from an X-Strike release include two short films from Dark Maze Studios and PBC Productions respectively. The short from Dark Maze is an adventure from their "Press Start" series that you may have heard of. The PBC short is a parody of Silent Hill 4: The Room titled interestingly enough, "The Room".
The fight choreography was good, the jokes are frequent and hold up after many viewings. I give it a four out of five.
Shadowdancer out!
