Resident Evil Terrifies the Streets of Santa Monica for Netflix Series Launch

For the launch of their new horror series Resident Evil this week, global streaming platform Netflix installed a terrifying live installation on the streets of Santa Monica.

Created by US creative agency, Founders, part of By The Network, the activation takes place on one of Santa Monica’s busiest streets. Played out by an actor, a man infected with the T-Virus (the virus from the series) is imprisoned in a huge glass cage and over the space of four hours turns into a Zero (the frightening infected creatures from the series) before breaking free from the cage and chasing into the crowd, thirsty for blood. The TikTok film has already attracted over 15 million views, and counting. 

The new sci-fi/horror series - which has been inspired by the video game of the same name - tells the story of Jade Wesker years after a viral outbreak which caused a global apocalypse. Jade vows to bring down those responsible while fighting to survive against those infected with the deadly T-Virus.

Martin Alfred, creative director, Founders said: “To promote the launch of the series, we decided to show, alongside the incredible Netflix marketing team, the effects of the T-Virus on a regular guy. The challenge? To develop a smart glass cell that would allow us to transform the same person into a Zero at a live event happening in front of people's eyes”.

Felipe Rostagnol, Creative Director, Founders added: “Seeing the reactions of the people was incredible, today it is very difficult to capture the attention of the audience and there were people who stayed for almost the almost four hours that the performance lasted, and went from being scared to standing in line to take a selfie with the Zero”.

The performance was achieved using four similar looking actors that were made up to look as though they were various stages of the zero transformation. The glass cage was made of tinted glass, and along with the use of smoke enabled the actors switch to take place into a hidden room built into the cage.

The activation lasted for one day, but social content consisting of behind the scenes footage showing the transformation from man to zero is being released on Netflix social channels.