Thanks to AShadowLink for helping with edits.
I adore Halloween, and every time it approaches, I try to play a game or two befitting of the season. Along with revisiting Outlast last October, I started two titles. The first was Grabbed by the Ghoulies, a cartoony beat ‘em up about a kid who futzes through a haunted mansion in pursuit of his girlfriend. The second is another romp through a mansion, one significantly darker in tone.
Lisa Trevor, seen in 2008’s PACHI-SLOT biohazard machine (Image: Capcom)
Upon its release in 1996, the original Resident Evil was a rousing, groundbreaking success. Underneath its rough localization was a genuinely compelling story about a group of special forces stuck in a mansion filled with zombies and monsters. However, some concepts were cut during development, including a subplot about the setting’s architect. When remaking Resident Evil a hardware generation later, Capcom sought to surprise series veterans. Some emptier areas were spruced up, that scrapped backstory was resurrected, and new enemies were created…
Lisa Trevor’s History
In Resident Evil, you play as S.T.A.R.S. agents Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield, who must escape a sinister mansion with their team. While exploring, your protagonist eventually stumbles upon a cottage resting at the end of a long, winding forest. After investigating it, the door opens and Lisa Trevor makes her debut. She knocks out your hero, both of whom can only flee after awakening. Lisa appears only twice more: once in the catacombs, and again at the underground altar. The latter is suspended above a giant chasm, which Lisa jumps down after finding the remains of her late mother.
According to Village director Morimasa Sato, effective Evil-doers should feature psychological and physical horror, qualities Lisa embodies splendidly. (Image: Capcom)
Resident Evil: The Umbrella Chronicles reveals Lisa survives her seemingly fatal fall. However, she soon cross paths with Albert Wesker, who was one of her captors. Unfortunately, her assault on him ends with the villain escaping after pinning her down with a chandler. Since the mansion’s self-destruct protocol activated shortly thereafter, Lisa presumably, finally met her end. She’s since appeared in PACHI-SLOT biohazard and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, titles that loosely adapt her origins. Marina Mazepa portrays Lisa in the latter.
So, what’re my thoughts on Lisa?
Spencer Mansion is a fantastic setting. It’s a dusty, dilapidated dump, one exuding hostility. Like earlier Resident Evil titles, the remake uses a fixed camera and pre-rendered stills to a masterful effect. Sometimes, threats lurk just out of sight. Other times, the camera angle is disorienting, or it’ll suggest someone — or something? — is silently watching you. Even the third-person title’s door opening animations, which play when moving between rooms, elevate the atmosphere, the anticipation and dread of what lies on the other side. And every threat is meaningful because both protagonists can only carry so many things, move fairly slowly, and altogether always feel vulnerable.
Lisa’s chain rattles and moans convey her decompensation while altering players to her presence. She’s nigh invincible and deals heavy damage, so that’s necessary. (Image: Capcom)
So what about the manor’s history, its construction and purpose? You’re not just a cop shooting unholy abominations, you’re a detective tasked with piecing this conspiracy together. There are photos, letters, and other records strewn throughout the building exposing numerous crimes conducted by the amoral pharmaceutical company Umbrella. One worker, for example, gets infected by a virus, and his journal details his physical and mental decay — by the end, his speech devolves into fragments and gibberish.
At the heart of this lies the Trevor family, particularly its patriarch, George. Dr. Oswell E. Spencer, an Umbrella founder, enlisted him to construct the building and its many traps. George, therefore, also became a liability, so his colleagues schemed to eliminate him. They invited the Trevors over to spend a night at the mansion, allegedly to celebrate its completion. His wife, Jessica, and daughter, Lisa, arrived a few days before him. They were immediately chauffeured to the underground laboratory — and since Jessica proved an ineffective test subject, she was iced. George, meanwhile, was abandoned in the mansion, struggling to survive against his own traps. Ultimately, his final journal is found within the estate’s underground caverns, where he discovered his own tombstone. Famished and crestfallen, George could only pray for his family’s safety.
Lisa’s bedroom is under the cabin. It houses numerous dolls, a fire, and a journal, suggesting the long-suffering Umbrella victim retains basic levels of cognitive function. (Image: Capcom)
However, Lisa suffers the worst fate. Contrasting her mother, Lisa did react to the Progenitor virus. Far removed from the girl she formerly was, years of experiments physically and mentally scarred her. In fact, she’s the most deformed creature in the game, a lumbering, malnourished giant. Unlike her parents, the freeing embrace of death was robbed of her; those viruses circling through her veins altered her biology so deeply that she possesses unworldly regenerative properties. Aiming to appease her, several Umbrella scientists tried posing as Jessica — and every time, Lisa saw through the deception, tearing their faces off in response. Altogether, seeing Lisa stumbling along is unsettling and upsetting. She’s still a prisoner, chained down physically and psychologically.
If there are any issues Lisa’s story poses, it’s in the climactic showdown against her, particularly if you’re playing Jill’s scenario. The “fight” itself isn’t anything especially engaging, just pushing four pillars down a chasm. Really, it’s the preceding cutscene that’s problematic. Getting a binary choice concerning Barry Burton, one spelling out his impending death if you decide against giving him his gun, is deflating on its own. But it also robs his earlier betrayal of proper resolution. Earlier in the game, he abandons Jill, trapping her with Lisa. Yet now Jill is automatically on good terms with Barry again, even trusting him implicitly? Why? Conversely, though, Chris’s version of this skirmish opens with a short but pleasant scene. Albert, his commanding officer, is already here and implores Chris to “take a piece of the action,” conveying a mutual trust; this isn’t their first firefight together. That’s a welcome touch, establishing a bond that’ll soon get harshly broken — defeating Lisa begins the game’s final act, where a hurt Chris discovers his squadmate’s betrayal.
Seeing this lost, little girl get a deserved sense of closure is nice. Shame Jessica’s plan to escape with Lisa went unfulfilled… (Image: Capcom)
Now, Lisa’s subplot is extraneous; even if Capcom hadn’t restored it, the remake’s narrative would remain perfectly functional. But it’s hard to imagine Resident Evil without the Trevors. Lisa’s tragedy builds upon the series’ lore, even connecting to later Umbrella grotesqueries. George’s loss, furthermore, adds weight to fellow family man Barry, who only cooperated with Albert out of fear for his family’s safety. Altogether, the Trevors transform Spencer Mansion from “just” being a creepy cover for illegal experiments into a harrowing tale of manipulation, loss, and cruelty — and the franchise is richer for it.
Congratulations, Lisa! Be strong…
Notably, the Resident Evil 2 and 3 remakes did not introduce Lisa-esque addendums, keeping her special. (Image: Capcom)
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