When Zach Cregger’s take on Resident Evil begins, a medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams) is already having a pretty rough night: His girlfriend Michelle has just informed him that she’s pregnant, and he didn’t have the best reaction to the news. However, he’s picked up a gig that pays double his usual rate — delivering a high-priority package to a hospital in Raccoon City. Raccoon City! What could possibly go wrong?
What follows is a tight 90 minutes of terror mixed with the occasional pressure release of comedy, thanks to Cregger’s established talent for incorporating humor into his horror set-pieces, making you scream in one moment and laugh in another. Even as the movie moves into darker and darker territory, the jokes remain present without diffusing the ongoing tension; watching this movie was somehow incredibly stressful and incredibly fun at the same time.
The Movie’s Tone and Style
In many ways, Resident Evil is Cregger’s most straightforward horror film to date, fully locked in on Bryan’s attempt to deliver his package and survive the night. The resulting ride is pure adrenaline, showcasing the director’s real talent for crafting jump scares that truly do shock you without playing as overtly cruel or manipulative. I haven’t screamed like this at a movie in… maybe ever.
Prior to now, the best-known Resident Evil movie adaptations were the ones spearheaded by director Paul W.S. Anderson, starring Milla Jovovich. However, those six films are much more along the lines of post-apocalyptic action. Tonally, they’re wildly different from the video games, which aim for spine-chilling survival scenarios that just happen to involve unkillable grotesqueries.
That tone is something Cregger brings to the screen with nimble wit, diligently tracking the guns acquired and bullets fired, and never, never giving Bryan an easy solution to whatever problem he’s currently trying to solve. (There are no appearances from established franchise characters like Leon S. Kennedy or Ada Wong, but there are four animated Capcom movies that stick close to the game’s canon, should that be what you crave.)
The Movie’s Success and Star Performance
Key to the movie’s success, beyond a clever script and nuanced direction is star Austin Abrams. He isn’t the only actor to appear in this film — other announced cast members include Zach Cherry, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kali Reis of True Detective: Night Country. However, he’s on screen for pretty much every minute, and owns it entirely. Bryan’s far from a perfect guy, making plenty of bad decisions out of frustration or flat-out fear, but right from the beginning he demonstrates a genuine urge to be a good person, keeping us invested in his survival.
Between this movie and the upcoming Whalefall, Abrams is looking at a big breakout moment this fall, and it’s well-deserved, especially after seeing glimmers of his star power in past projects like the first two seasons of Euphoria, the Apple TV movie Wolfs, and of course his prior collaboration with Cregger, Weapons. No matter who he’s playing, he brings a level of openness to the character that immediately enlists our sympathies, with a raw, untamed energy that’s consistently surprising.
Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, a favorite of Gore Verbinski and Ridley Scott’s, elegantly incorporates visual elements familiar to video game fans: Shots that take a minute to establish the full scope of a room, panning as if the audience has hit the joystick to fully scope out the scene. There are even a few first-person POV shots with a gun at the center of the frame, thankfully executed a whole lot better than the nightmare that was 2005’s Doom.
Conclusion and Final Thoughts
If there’s one complaint to be had, it’s that the movie feels a bit incomplete narratively, ending on a huge beat that doesn’t feel like the end of the story. Both of Cregger’s past horror movies, Weapons and Barbarian, featured somewhat abrupt endings, but this goes a step further: I can’t remember the last time I attended a press screening where the vast majority of the audience remained seated during the final credits, because it felt like there was one more twist to come. Even at screenings for Marvel movies (where huge story points get revealed during the credits), people leave.
The final moments mean that the movie as a whole is not that deep on a thematic level. Everything leading up to that point, though, is exactly what horror fans crave. Plus, Resident Evil gamers finally have a movie that understands the spirit of the franchise, the way that a seemingly ordinary situation can quickly become a gross-as-hell nightmare. All of it an important reminder to appreciate life while you can — and, above all else, never go to Raccoon City.
Resident Evil oozes and bursts into theaters on September 18th. Check out the latest trailer below.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte, widely regarded as the “Shakespeare of Sh*tposts,” is a video game expert with a unique knack for turning pixels into punchlines.
Born in the small town of Respawn, Pennsylvania, Pixel grew up mashing buttons on an ancient NES controller, firmly believing that “blowing into the cartridge” was a sacred ritual passed down through generations.
Pixel P. Snarkbyte: proving that life, much like a buggy open-world game, is better with a little lag-induced chaos.
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