In a few short years, Zach Cregger has officially become a director whose work is worth anticipating. Even though I knew who he was as a teenager, his voice in the horror genre was enough to put his name on the map when he delivered two great movies back-to-back: Barbarian and Weapons, the latter of which won an Oscar for Amy Madigan. Anything he did next was fair game, but who would’ve guessed it would be a Resident Evil adaptation? But I was optimistic to see what he’d do with a second reboot, and that’s saying something coming from someone who’s never played a Capcom video game. With this Resident Evil, longtime fans needed a win. This isn’t the first time Sony brought the series to life on the big screen. Nobody wants to remember the six Paul W.S. Anderson movies, which starred Milla Jovovich as the protagonist Alice, because they’re all bottom-of-the-barrel adaptations I refused to see. And then there’s the 2021 reboot, Welcome to Raccoon City, which longtime fans said was too close to the games to be taken seriously.
In all fairness, the bar for Resident Evil seemed very low. Yet we’re in a time when there have been a fair share of good video game adaptations, especially on television. Films tend to be worse, depending on who’s behind them. Cregger taking on this IP sounded tricky, since it doesn’t lend itself to being based on a particular game and works better as a standalone story. With his name attached, I figure it will be at least entertaining. But who would’ve imagined I’d come out claiming this might be the best Video game movie ever made? Surprised indeed.
What’s the Story: Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a medical courier struggling with the personal stress of his girlfriend’s pregnancy. His mundane routine is upended when he agrees to deliver a mysterious package to a hospital located in Raccoon City. What should have been a simple drive through the snowy mountains turns disastrous when a woman steps into his car’s path. As the night descends into chaos, Bryan fights for his life, desperate to protect the package and ensure his survival.
Even though Cregger made it a straightforward survival thriller rather than focusing on familiar fan favorites like Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, or the Redfield siblings, centering it on a story within the infected universe that still features the Umbrella Company and the T-Virus was a smart move. We see only one guy’s mission: survive this nightmare and make it out alive. That’s one reason Resident Evil turned out better than it should’ve: it doesn’t overexplain the lore or feel like bad fan fiction, like the previous movies. Because it’s centered on Bryan over the course of one night, I love the feeling that we’re all in that performance of playing the games or watching your friend play, and you’re observing, which makes the experience more threatening. You’re put in this scary scenario of working in rooms and helplessly not wasting your bullets, which makes you feel equally frustrated and scared shitless.
But it couldn’t have been done without someone like Austin Abrams. He’s front and center here in his second collaboration with Cregger after Weapons, and I love how he makes him a likable protagonist who’s never made out to be the typical hero with lame one-liners. Bryan reacts how someone should when zombies or other creatures are around. Even when he’s screaming, talking to himself out of frustration, or realistically trying to escape a certain situation, you ultimately want to see him make it out and carry on with his future. I’ve been a fan of Abrams for a while now, so this, along with Whalefall, shows his star power is here to stay.
The main question many will have is whether you can enjoy Resident Evil without ever having played the games. Absolutely. It has a few Easter eggs for fans, including the typewriter and a random plant in a vehicle, but the simplicity of director Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten’s (John Wick Chapters 3 and 4) screenplay, with its ticking-clock potential outbreak in Raccoon City, is particularly successful. It toes the line between genuine terror and unexpected laughs, something Cregger has mastered before. The balance may not work for everyone, but I didn’t need this to be taken too seriously, especially whenever Bryan tries to shoot through locks. And from what I’ve heard, the later games leaned more on the campier side. There’s a scene with Bryan and Paul Walter Hauser involving a gun in a car that had me dying of laughter for a good 20 seconds after it was over. Even in its quieter moments, the film works well, though it could have used more time to develop his character further.
For Cregger, taking on a franchise hardcore fans know well was the biggest challenge of his filmmaking career, which helps explain why he’ll stick to original work in the future. But he outdid himself by making the world of Raccoon City dark and mysterious, with various creatures lurking in the streets below. Some of them might have been from the games, but they looked pretty practical, with one resembling a “human tumbleweed” that reminded me of the monster from The Thing following Bryan. The tension built throughout; it worked effectively, using jump scares without feeling cheap. You have standout sequences, like bodies falling to the ground while Bryan’s running or escaping one elevator with a zombie vomiting acid, that were extremely thrilling to watch. Also, I have to shout out Dariusz Wolski’s cinematography while shooting in Prague and capturing a few cool first-person POVs without overdoing them.
Everything moves fast, with no wasted time. But if it has one criticism, it ends rather abruptly. Most of the third act went the way I expected, until I was surprised it wrapped up just when it was getting good. That could’ve been Cregger’s intention, but it needed another ten minutes without feeling anticlimactic. Beyond that, it’s rewarding for fans to finally get the film they’ve been waiting two decades for, especially with the release of Resident Evil: Requiem. Days after I saw it made me ask a serious question: Who’s having a better run between Cresser and Jordan Peele in the horror space? As of now, Cregger’s films range around eight or nine out of ten, while Peele’s directorial features range from masterpiece to solid, if flawed. If a sequel were announced and he wasn’t involved behind the camera, it wouldn’t surprise me. But in good hands, I’ll be down to see what else they can explore.
Overall, Resident Evil keeps Zach Cregger’s streak alive with a truly worthy video game adaptation. You don’t need to be familiar with the popular IP to get sucked into an intense survival thriller that delivers scares and some laughs. It took them long enough, but we got a great one to look back on positively. We’re looking at the best RE film, and it’s no contest.
