Resident Evil Remake Spotlights a Character As Tragic as They Are Terrifying

Resident Evil: Requiem is on the way and I couldn’t be more excited to see what’s become of my beloved Raccoon City.

Resident Evil 2 Remake is without a doubt one of the best horror games ever made, and while Resident Evil 3 Remake was underwhelming in comparison, both games form a narrative so excellent that you could argue the franchise peaked too soon into its life…

However neither game would be what they are without the one that started it all, and no I’m not talking about Resident Evil 0 even if it is the first game in the timeline.

I’m of course talking about Resident Evil (1996), specifically the remake released for the Nintendo GameCube in 2002 and later re-released for modern platforms. The remake took the PlayStation game and gave it a visual overhaul, with graphics that honestly haven’t aged a day. It looks better than some modern day releases. Quality-of-life improvements were also added like the option to disable tank-controls, the best way to play in my humble opinion.

Capcom did far more than that though, it added new areas to the game, new enemies like the Crimson Heads, switched-up the puzzles and much, much more. All of that pales in comparison to the remake’s standout addition though, Lisa Trevor, a character whom Resident Evil players know all too well.

With speculation that Lisa Trevor will return in Resident Evil: Requiem, or at least be referenced in some way, I thought it fitting to revisit the game she premiered in and it was as heartbreaking as it was horrifying.

Capcom

Like most of the monsters you meet in the Resident Evil series Lisa Trevor is a victim of Umbrella. She was the daughter of Steven Trevor, the architect behind the Spencer Mansion you explore in the game. Once the mansion was completed the Trevors were invited to stay, but were kidnapped by Umbrella as some of the first human test subjects in the company’s sick experiments, aside from Steven who arrived after his family was taken.

Lisa’s story is heavy. Separated from her mother Jessica Trevor, who is later executed for not meeting Umbrella’s standards, she was put through hell with both the experiments themselves as well as her living conditions. When you first meet Lisa in-game, it’s easy to glean what kind of conditions she’d been kept in. A block of wood shackles her pale, thin wrists together with years of confinement to a small space bending her spine to an unnatural position. You’re supposed to fear her when she first attacks you in a cabin outside the mansion but that emotion is overshadowed by…pity?

Shuffling through the notes you find throughout your playthrough you’ll eventually learn that Lisa’s face isn’t really her face at all. After Umbrella executed Jessica they sent researchers into Lisa’s cell disguised as her mother in the hopes it’d keep her subdued, until Lisa sees through the deception and tears their face off. Lisa then wears it in the hopes she’ll find her real mother at some point, so she can return it and reunite her family.

Lisa is also potentially immortal. After enduring so much punishment throughout her time with Umbrella she somehow developed a ridiculously high resistance to damage. Umbrella tried several times to kill her and even when they thought they’d succeeded, Lisa reanimated not long after, which is how she escapes her captors and can be found during the game. It’s this reason that many are speculating she could return in Resident Evil: Requiem, and while I’m pretty confident she could have survived the Spencer Mansion’s destruction at the end of the game, I’d be very surprised if she could survive the bombing of Raccoon City, though stranger things have happened.

Capcom

I think it’s remarkable that Capcom managed to create a character that’s intended to both scare and scar the player simultaneously. During the handful of encounters you have with Lisa throughout the game she’s impervious to damage. You can unload your entire weapon arsenal into her cranium and the best you’d get is a stagger. From a gameplay perspective this means you’re should avoid shooting her to save your ammo, but after learning her lore why would you want to shoot her in the first place? Why put the poor girl through even more pain after everything else she’s endured?

Lisa Trevor is a testament to what Resident Evil is all about. The series has always had a strong message about corporate greed and ivory towers and while you can easily hate Umbrella for causing several undead outbreaks, Lisa Trevor’s story should make you despise Umbrella with every fibre of your being.

While I’m not expecting a major role in the story I do hope Lisa is referenced in Resident Evil: Requiem in some capacity. Either through documentation, a name-drop, or a distant but spine-chilling scream and rattle of shackles echoing through the streets of a post-bomb Raccoon City…