In the horror genre, I’m always on the lookout for surprises that can breathe new life into something familiar. Few horror properties have become as familiar to audiences as Resident Evil. Since first leaping from video games to the big screen more than two decades ago, the franchise has gone through just about every possible iteration. From the action-heavy Paul W.S. Anderson era to attempts at returning the franchise to its horror roots, Resident Evil has remained a constant presence in Hollywood, even if the results haven’t always matched the potential of the games that inspired it.
That’s what makes another trip into the world of Resident Evil so intriguing, especially with Zach Cregger behind the camera. After turning Barbarian into one of 2022’s biggest horror surprises, Cregger proved it was no fluke with Weapons. The film not only became another major success for the filmmaker, but also marked his arrival into the awards season conversation. Weapons remained a fixture throughout the season, particularly for Amy Madigan’s unforgettable turn as Aunt Gladys, a performance that carried all the way to the Academy Awards and a Best Supporting Actress win. In the span of two films, Cregger went from one of horror’s most exciting new voices to a filmmaker capable of delivering the type of genre movie that could break through far beyond the usual horror conversation.
Now, handing Cregger the keys to Resident Evil immediately makes this feel less like another attempt to reboot a familiar franchise and more like an opportunity to discover what this property can become in the hands of a filmmaker at the height of his momentum. At this point, simply adapting the games isn’t enough. The challenge is taking everything audiences already associate with Resident Evil and finding a distinct identity that can finally separate this version from everything that has come before it.
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil turns the traditional video game adaptation on its head and subverts expectations by adapting the gameplay rather than the story. In doing so, Cregger creates something wholly original that may not give die-hard fans exactly what they want, but ultimately gives cinephiles a funny, gross, and wildly entertaining cinematic experience. And when this franchise has already had so many bites at the apple, I, for one, welcome the change.
At the center of Resident Evil is Bryan, a medical courier whose already complicated night is about to get significantly worse. After completing what should have been his final delivery of the evening, Bryan is on the phone with his girlfriend Michelle, who has just revealed that she’s pregnant, when he’s convinced to take one final, better-paying job that will send him to Raccoon City. While traveling down the icy roads, Bryan loses cell service before suddenly hitting a woman who appears in front of his car. Miraculously, she’s still alive, but something is clearly wrong with her, marking Bryan’s first encounter with the deadly outbreak spreading throughout the area. From there, his journey takes him from the isolated roads to a farmhouse and eventually toward Raccoon City and its hospital, as the outbreak continues to spread and the infected begin taking on increasingly mutated forms.
Written by Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten, Resident Evil’s screenplay hits the screen as though you are a player moving through a game in chapters. Each section of the film gives Bryan an objective he must complete before moving on to the next. While I found that approach to be something that worked really well, the subplot of Bryan becoming a father could have used a bit more development and ultimately plays more as a mechanism to make you feel something toward the film’s divisive conclusion rather than something the screenplay fully explores. While the ending didn’t ruin the experience for me, this felt like one instance where a less-than-bleak finale than what we’ve come to expect from Cregger would have been more effective.
Cinematographer Dariusz Wolski’s work here is one of my favorite aspects of the film. Weaving through different video game perspectives, including first-person POV, Wolski’s lens captures the essence of what it feels like to play a Resident Evil game, even if the players themselves may not be familiar to everyone. While Hays and Ryan Holladay’s score isn’t a full-on standout, its use of unique sounds within the score to signal incoming doom really works and adds another layer to the film’s game-like experience.
It’s interesting to be on the other side of Austin Abrams. While I didn’t fully connect with his character in Weapons, his performance here, essentially carrying the film on his own, is effectively hilarious and wonderful. I also never knew there were so many different pitches in which someone could say the word “fuck,” but Abrams certainly taught me. Jokes aside, Abrams nails the fear, panic and constant state of tension anyone would feel under these circumstances, while still offering up a somber sense of regret and “if I could do things differently” that, despite being somewhat undercooked on the page, ultimately brings his performance together.
In the end, Resident Evil may not be the adaptation die-hard fans have spent years waiting for, but it might be the one this franchise desperately needed. Rather than simply pulling characters and storylines from the games and placing them on the big screen, Cregger understands what makes playing Resident Evil such a unique experience and builds his film around that feeling. The result is a gross, hilarious and often batshit crazy survival horror ride that, despite an underdeveloped emotional core and a finale that didn’t completely land for me, finally finds a new way to navigate Raccoon City. After so many attempts at cracking the code of a Resident Evil adaptation, Cregger proves that maybe the answer was never about adapting the story at all. Sometimes, you just have to pick up the controller and play.
