REVIEW // Siren’s Song: A Resident Evil Fan Film – A Disgusting, Funny Gore-Fest That Doffs Its Hat

I recently put together a listicle of my Top 5 Horror Fan Films of 2018, but I’m gutted to have missed Siren’s Song: A Resident Evil Fan Film before it was written up. Beyond a shadow of a doubt, this fantastic fan film – directed by Reggie Waters (The Wrath) and co-written by Sky Montoya and Anthony Villa (Revenge of The Dead) – finds a comfortable home in my 2018 favourites.

Siren’s Song kicks off with an edgy, distorted intro before leading onto a grim opening-credits montage, perfectly complemented by Mouth Sore’s chilling G Virus and Juice. The creators urge the audience to “PRESS START,” and you should go ahead because what follows is a wonderfully nauseating, blood-soaked celebration of the Resident Evil franchise. This fantastic short – filmed in the style of the B-film horrors that became massively popular in the 1950s – picks up just after the events in the Spencer Mansion from the first game.

It’s September 29th, 1998, at the Umbrella Restoration Project, and Raccoon City has been overcome by zombies. In a nice touch, viewers are informed of this, not through dialogue, but as they catch a glimpse of The Raccoon City Times: “THE DEAD WALK…STATE OF EMERGENCY DECLARED.” It falls upon Shane Maus, a veteran operative of the elite S.T.A.R.S team, and Nikhil Naidu, a rookie R.P.D. cop, to track down a sample of the virus and right Umbrella’s wrongs. As they search high and low on the abominable pharmaceutical company’s secret, floating lab, they’re forced to confront the rotting, eye-popping, slime-faced undead. Do they make it out with the sample in one piece? You’ll just have to find out for yourselves.

Siren’s Song is slow burning in just the right places yet exhilarating and tense in others, giving fans a proper fix in its 24-minutes. It’s been cleverly cut and features an eclectic mixture of music, as well as some enjoyably cheesy and wilful tongue-in-cheek humour. “So much for stealth,” utters a frown-faced Maus as three zombies stumble towards him and his magnificent beard. Nooo, not the beard; anything but the beard.

Some excellent fan films inspired by games have made their way into our lives of late. The best of these give a truly distinctive nod to the games – and sometimes subsequent films –they’re based on. Siren’s Song is a solid example of such a fan film, successful in evoking memories of the franchise’s enjoyably hammy over-exaggeration.

Hang on in there until the closing-credits stop rolling; a bonus awaits you. 3 saves in just over 16 minutes? Not bad Nikhil; not bad at all.