It’s become apparent that video games are the next IP that Hollywood plans to mine to death, much like they have done with superheroes, action movies of the 80s and 90s, and every other cash cow they deem is ready for slaughter. The one upside of a run of video game films being rammed through production is that occasionally one of them works in a new and exciting way. It makes sense that such an entry would be done by up and coming director Zach Cregger, hot off his success of Barbarian and Weapons. His new feature Resident Evil is just as much about navigating the terrors of a zombie infested cityscape, as it as about navigating the world as it is.
Resident Evil centers itself on medical courier Bryan (Austin Abrams) who has the energy of a beleaguered DoorDash driver. Having just finished a job he’s about to go home when he gets offered a better paying, high priority delivery to Racoon City. Rather than going home to talk to his girlfriend he takes the job and drives through winter weather to collect his pay. We learn en route that his girlfriend is pregnant and the two are going over options. Bryan is quick to deflect any choice off of himself, giving a pat “nice guy” answer rather than having a conversation about where they are in their relationship, or what they want out of life. As they argue a woman wanders out of the trees on a lonely and is struck by Bryan driving his car. Thus the zombie chaos begins.
At only 92 minutes, the movie maintains a fairly steady clip. Zombies are introduced quickly and Bryan must navigate from snowy highway, to abandoned farm, to vehicle filled tunnel, into Racoon City itself, navigating its streets, sewers, and into headquarters of the Umbrella Corporation. The film is often absurdist, probably Cregger’s funniest film with plenty of jokes for fans of the franchise, and plenty more for newcomers. While it deals in gore and terror, it balances that out by having Bryan constantly monologuing to himself as he narrowly avoids a zombie infected hound, or when bodies are pulled into shadowy alleys by nefarious forces. There are a few solid jump scares in the picture, but most of the horror elements are the gore and guts of zombie debris.
As mentioned Resident Evil feels apiece with the world of 2026. A gig delivery person feeling like they have to take a job instead of calling it a night for a start. But also wrestling with not only growing up, but growing up in a world that feels increasingly broken. And broken by callous people that are unlikely to ever suffer from the choices they are making. The people responsible are revealed to safe in the top floor of an actual ivory tower, watching from above as chaos ensues on the streets. The heart of the disagreement that Bryan and his girlfriend were having was about whether or not to have a kid together. While much of the blame is at Bryan’s feet, not wanting to grow up, not wanting to feel consumed by the new identity that would bring, there is some concern at bringing a child into a world filled with monsters. Not the ones down on the street necessarily, but the ones who caused the chaos.
Resident Evil does manage to get these messages across the line, albeit in a blunter manner than either of Cregger’s previous pictures. But one thing this has that no other movie has really encapsulated is the feeling of playing Resident Evil. From feverish rifling through drawers to find ammo, to the manic muttering that Abrams does throughout the film to put himself at ease, it will hearken any player back to 2005 when they first threw RE4 into their Nintendo GameCube and started blasting away at Las Plagas. Cregger smartly decided to leave the muddled and impossible to follow story beats of the games out of this film, even more so that Paul W.S. Anderson did when he took his at bat at the franchise. The whole thing feels an homage to an energy, rather than a tome, and that makes the movie feel fresh in an exciting way.
4/5
