So you CAN make a good one of these.
When Weapons was released last year, the first thought that entered my head when the credits rolled was “oh, we’re getting a GOOD Resident Evil film”. And I’m happy to report that I was entirely correct. Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is a loving, chaotic, gross and gory ode to the games and the fans that play them.
Taking place over one snowy night, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams) a hapless medical courier who chances upon a last minute yet well paying job to deliver a mysterious package Raccoon City General.
No sweat.
As he slips and slides all over the rocky roads heading into the infamous city, he loses focus on the roads just in time to hit a passerby. Thus begins Bryan’s descent into hell and hilarity, as getting hit by a car seems to be the least of this stranger’s concerns.
The beauty about Resident Evil is its pacing. Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten have conjured up a lean, mean and vicious blooming flower of horror that continuously ups the ante with every set piece. From the moment Bryan enters the outskirts of Raccoon City, it’s a delicious game of escalation, every corner filled with all manner of nightmarish insanity for our shaggy everyman to sprint away from. Much like the games, the sequencing goes from stripped back scares to gonzo meat grinder with an ever present threat chasing our protagonist. It’s Dante’s Inferno but with a glorified Postmates driver.
Austin Abrams is markedly refreshing as Bryan. It’s easy to call him a bumbling fool, but really he’s just a regular guy reacting to an extraordinary situation. He’s chaotic without being grating, making all the exact mistakes we would all make given the circumstances. From fumbling the safety on a beretta, screeching at the top of his lungs during a rain of bodies and missing, quite literally, every shot he takes, Bryan is all of us, both player and audience, tripping over his own feet as he continually finds himself further in over his head. We stan our anxious Timothee Chalamet.
Every ounce of love that Cregger has for the games has gone into this movie. From Dariusz Wolski’s camera work, that makes everything feel like a quick time event, to an ever escalating story structure, right down to the “oh shit, oh fuck, oh no” panic any player has felt as they unload precious ammo into a wave of zombies, Cregger has masterfully weaved the ethos and spirit of the games into an exploding meat gauntlet of a narrative. It’s all gas, no brakes, and we’re being driven straight into hell, laughing all the way.
Resident Evil may have the infrastructure of the games, but it has John Carpenter’s The Thing running all throughout its demented DNA. An icy setting, tentacled monstrosities, the Hays’ brothers low humming and pulsating score, and an endless loop of horror that would make anyone go “you gotta be fucking kidding me”, Cregger is paying tribute to and at times lovingly ripping off one of the greatest sci-fi horror films of all time. George Romero may have been the inspiration behind the entire RE franchise, but Carpenter’s body horror proclivities fits this film like warm mittens.
We saw Cregger’s ability to effortlessly entwine humour within horror with Weapons, but Resident Evil has that combo cranked to the enth degree. There is a level of horrific hilarity to both the onslaught of beasties that Bryan is forced to contend with and Bryan’s own very reasonable response of wide eyed perplexion. “Jesus, what the fuck was that all about” is a very understandable thing to leave one’s mouth when being confronted with hurtling meat bags, launching themselves off of the rooftops above. And it’s not an easy thing, either scaring someone effectively or making them laugh, and yet Cregger does both and makes it infuriatingly easy. He’s mastered the art of surprise, either in an unexpected punch line or an entity hurtling itself out from the shadows and he is having a mighty fun time in the process.
Look, it’s easy to say that this is easily one of the best Resident Evil films made, by far. Admittedly, that’s a low bar considering what’s come before it. But as a horror filmmaker, Cregger has outdone himself. Resident Evil isn’t just one of the best Resident Evil films ever made, it maybe the best horror film of the year. It’s an intense crowd pleaser, a communal experience that’ll have audiences jumping, guffawing, wheezing and exhausted all before the lights return.
We finally got a good Resident Evil movie. And it’s not just good. It’s damn near perfect.
5 S.T.A.R.S.
){kind=link}