After exploding on to the horror movie universe with fresh and inventive films, Barbarian and the Oscar winning Weapons, I was a little worried to hear Zach Cregger‘s next film was going to be yet another entry in Sony’s Resident Evil franchise that already has spawned about 8 movies, 6 of them starring Milla Jovocich’s Alice from 2002 to the promised “Final Chapter” in 2016. A reboot came in 2021, a Netflix tv show – you name it for the infamous video game inspired series. Was Cregger, a truly much needed and acclaimed original voice in the genre cashing in already? Please God, no.
Let me bow down to Cregger because I should have trusted this immensely talented and genuinely exciting filmmaker had something else in mind that the same old tired approach for Sony’s billion dollar baby that had clearly run its course. Taking a risk though in alienating fans, Cregger has thrown out the familiar characters, created a whole new template and storyline while retaining some key core elements, and most crucially putting a new star in Austin Abrams at the center of a propulsive adrenaline-driven scenario that brings this world not only alive again, but gives it the kind of juice it never had in the first place. This Resident Evil rocks, rolls, and rips a new one into a hugely entertaining new spin that manages to confirm the promise of Cregger and destroys any fears I had. I should have known better.
What Cregger, with co-writer Shay Hatten have done, both original devotees of the video game, is complete reinvention. Right from the beginning Cregger puts our protagonist, Bryan (Adams) into the center of the action. He is a lowly medical courier carrying crucial human organs that will save lives to its final destination. On a snowy Colorado night he reluctantly takes on a new one, promised double pay to do it, and deliver his urgent cargo to the hospital in Raccoon City. It doesn’t take long before weird stuff happens. A woman runs across the otherwise deserted road and Bryan hits her head on. Freaking out, he searches the area to try to find her and finally comes upon her zombieish bloody and badly injured body, struggling to put her in his car to get to the hospital. Turns out this is no ordinary passenger as her body has a mind of its own. A cop turns up suspecting he’s DUI but Bryan convinces him he must get to the hospital, not just for the organs he is carrying, but to help this woman. He asks him to put her in the police car and he will follow. Trouble really starts when suddenly that car rolls over, the cop is dead but…wait for it….the woman is actually the first of the infected humans-turned-mutated creatures about to join Bryan’s journey.
Down the rabbit hole he goes as it becomes clear the general populace has been affected by a deadly virus, each person morphing into gross creatures with long tentacles capturing the next victim as Bryan finds himself driving, walking, and thrust into one dire grisly encounter after another. There is a rabid dog in a barn, a deserted farmhouse with no sign of life, a trailer with a young girl trapped in a bathroom, and on and on until he is picked up by a manic pair from the mysterious Umbrella Corporation, driver Maxine (Kali Reis) and Paul (a hilariously intense Paul Walter Hauser), the latter delivering the truth and urgency to Bryan about just what this whole thing is really all about, and exactly what he is carrying. We’ll leave it at that except to say Cregger’s idea is to make this a ride like no other, never slowing down, and sending Bryan on a hell ride to Raccoon City that can only get worse.
What really makes this all work is the introduction of Bryan as embodied by the sensational Abrams who first blew me away evading George Clooney and Brad Pitt in Wolfs, and then his scene-stealing work as the unhoused guy in Weapons. But this film, as one guy with one mission trying to avoid a bunch of humans mutated into creatures, is his star-is-born breakout role. Frantic, bothered, bewildered, and mumbling expletives to himself all the way as he is literally on the run to deliver the goods, Abrams is simply dynamite, a guy we root for against all odds in one terrifying predicament to another. He has no time to breathe and neither do we, but fortunately Cregger’s great gift, fulfilled by Abrams, is to use humor to get us through it all. This movie may scare you at times, but it is really going to make you laugh. Who knew Resident Evil could be this ripe for some very dark comedy?
Shout outs to the entire visual effects and makeup teams, plus the sterling work of ace cinematographer Dariusz Wolski whose camerawork is dizzying and dazzling.
In a tight 90 minute running (literally) time, Cregger has taken a piece of iconic IP and somehow made it as wildly original and welcome as Barbarian and Weapons. I can’t wait for what comes next.
Producers are Robert Kulzer, Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Victor Hadida, Asad Qizilbash, and Carter Swan.
Cast: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Paul Walter Hauser, Kali Reis, Will Merrick
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