The original Resident Evil is a staple survival horror title, and it’s well worth playing through its remastered version. This game is the foundation for the rest of the series, and sets the tone for its narrative, which slowly unfolds through the course of eight main games and several spin-offs. If you have played it, you know the first Resident Evil has a certain haunting charm when it comes to the environment it builds and the aura it emanates.
The tension is palpable when you first enter the Spencer Mansion, despite its grandiose façade, even before the first zombie appearance cues you in to illustrate the game’s true nature. This marvelous setting is such an effective theater for horror because its backstory is steeped in the mysterious disappearance of its builder — George Trevor.
6 Creator Of The Iconic Mansion
Don’t be alarmed if the name doesn’t ring any bells. Trevor doesn’t actually make an appearance in any of the game’s cutscenes or gameplay areas, but scattered clues in the Spencer Mansion help reconstruct his story. He was the original architect and designer of the mansion, responsible for the vast majority of its intricate layout. You can thank him for all the time it takes to beat the game, running around back and forth through creepy hallways.
Within the Resident Evil universe, Trevor was a well established architect based in New York, renowned for his complex and clever designs. He had a wife, named Jessica, who eventually gave birth to their daughter, Lisa.
5 Engineer Of Resident Evil’s Staple Puzzles
Trevor wasn’t simply a good architect for mansions, he loved making houses like mazes and labyrinths. He had a peculiar interest for tricks and puzzles as well, clearly implemented in the original Resident Evil’s environment. Trevor was essentially responsible for all the various lock and key mechanisms (like the Tiger Statue) that seclude certain areas or objects in the Spencer Mansion.
As a matter of fact, he was specifically hired by the owner of the estate, Dr. Oswell E. Spencer, for this very purpose. The good doctor was one of the founding fathers of Project W (which spawned Albert Wesker), intended to advance the human race by using the Progenitor Virus, the T-Virus’s precursor. Naturally, this project required a state of the art, top secret laboratory, and none could design an inconspicuous backdrop for such a place better than Trevor. However, he wasn’t aware of the doctor’s intentions, and thought he was simply working on a high-end project for a rich person’s leisure.
4 First To Know About Umbrella
When his work with the mansion was practically fulfilled, Trevor was invited by his employer, Dr. Spencer, to stay there and enjoy the fruits of his hard labor. The doctor extended this invitation to Trevor’s wife and daughter, who went to stay at the mansion three days before him.
Upon arriving, Trevor was informed that his family had to leave to see a relative who had fallen ill. This gave him the chance to spend some time alone with Dr. Spencer, who explained to him his plans to found a pharmaceutical company — the Umbrella Corporation. The doctor planned to use the mansion as a private retreat for his employees, which puzzled Trevor since he thought he was building a playground for the rich man alone.
3 Discovered The Mansion’s Hidden Purpose Before You
Trevor ended up spending quite some time at the mansion, waiting for his family to join him there on vacation. Meanwhile, he began noticing strange occurrences that seemed out of place, like a hole behind an artificial waterfall in the courtyard. Upon discovering this, he was suddenly escorted away by two men in white robes that he had never met before.
Thus, Trevor realized the mansion housed a hidden laboratory beneath its foundations. This prompted him to grow uneasy about the situation. After a week since his arrival, he told Dr. Spencer that he planned to leave immediately since he was becoming concerned about his family. The following day, when Trevor was due to depart, he was knocked unconscious by the same men in white lab coats — they had been following his movements unbeknownst to him. Had he left the mansion, he could have divulged the secrets that he learned.
2 Destined To Die
Once Trevor discovered that the Spencer Mansion housed a secret laboratory for Umbrella, he became a loose end — so he was drugged and locked in a room after being attacked. He quickly understood he would die in captivity. Luckily, Trevor had designed the place where he was held hostage, and tried to escape through a network of secret tunnels, devised for emergency situations.
However, the drugs that were administered to him negatively impacted his memory, causing him to forget the layout of the tunnels. His erratic attempts to navigate them caused him to find one of his wife’s shoes. Trevor’s family was taken captive prior to his arrival, and subjected to experimentation with the Progenitor Virus. Horrified by the shoe’s discovery, he was driven mad with grief, and eventually ended up into a dangerous unfinished dead end, from which there was no way out.
Trevor died there, succumbing to fatigue, after seeing a gravestone inscribed with his name (which either Jill or Chris find in the game).
1 Hidden Legacy Brimming Through The Games
George Trevor died well before the events of the first Resident Evil. Nevertheless, his character made an impact big enough that his name would show up repeatedly in the series, even in Resident Evil 7: Biohazard. In fact, the designs employed in the Spencer Mansion would be copied by other builders who created Resident Evil Code: Veronica’s Antarctic Hall, and Resident Evil: Revelation’s cruise liner, The Queen Zenobia.
In Biohazard, you can find a receipt for a payment made by Jack Baker to a contractor, Trevor & Chamberlain Construction. The payment is for the installation of a shadow-activated doorway in the main hall, which is one of the game’s puzzles. It doesn’t come as a surprise that an architectural puzzle bears Trevor’s name.
NEXT: Which Resident Evil Remake Is Better?
