Let’s check our notes: this is the EIGHTH film in the Resident Evil film series, based on the popular video game? Why can’t this writer recall the earlier Milla Jovovich films?
Well, maybe it’s the fact that when you take an aspiring director in the horror genre, Mr. Zach Cregger, fresh off the suburban horror epic Weapons or his darkly humorous Barbarian, and allow him to make a seamless blend onscreen of the cinematic from the gaming world and run with it for 95 minutes, you get a tantalizing viewing experience that never once loses sight of its bloody fun (and at times, disturbing) aspirations.
And it’s apt that Cregger reunites with the talented Austin Abrams, who played a drug dealer in Weapons, as our protagonist Bryan, to take us on this chaotic ride. Bryan is the courier in this film, and decides to take one last night-time run, driving an important item from one hospital to another in a snowstorm without the proper tires or four-wheel drive (yeah, for reference, do not do that, even if you’re getting double pay!). But fate strikes when he hits a mysterious woman on the road. Now, he’s drawn into a hellacious outbreak of survival as he delivers this item wherever the roads lead him (even though it’s quietly woven in, it has him bring a cure to the same corporation that kickstarted this wave of mutation and monsters around Raccoon City).
Rather than laying back with a restricted stance to adhere to the IP (because it’s based on a game…), Cregger excels at using camera-tracking shots as Bryan journeys clumsily through the unknown in the snow, seeking help, stumbling across the unknown, and trying to build his arsenal by grabbing weapon after weapon and jolting away from the dangers chasing him down. It’s an unholy aberration that bleeds more into reality than a simulated gaming version that plagued many of its predecessors, and keeps tension tight as we follow a singular perspective to the journey’s end. The first-person camera shots as our protagonist wields his weapons are riveting, while also echoing the great action beats of Hardcore Henry and Bad Boys: Ride or Die. There’s also plenty of fun and laughs as Bryan stutters and shouts profanity while stumbling across bizarre elements and grotesque scenarios (not the hospital ward man!). He brings a Bruce Campbell-esque finesse to his performance, capturing the inexperience of someone in a world of the unknown. And the Holladays’ creepy score keeps folks on the edge of their seats whilst we journey along.
It’s a brisk film with visual delight and spectacle, amplified by Cregger’s creepy direction and Abrams’s excellent performance. There may be nitpicks with how it reaches the third act, but they’re relatively minute. The wondrous aspect is that it took so long for someone to nail this IP onscreen, and we’re blessed with a survival-approach adaptation that never loses sight of its intentions. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil strikes the adroit balance of the funny and the frightening.
