WHAT ARE MY THOUGHTS ON RESIDENT EVIL?
The auteur-led, IP-based blockbuster has been making a steady comeback over the last few years, to where people now consider their main selling point to be not the A-list actors or even the intellectual property itself, but the visionary filmmakers behind them. Wes Anderson and Greta Gerwig, for instance, brought their own whimsical stylings to the works of Roald Dahl, C.S. Lewis and even Barbie, all of which have earned praise for the combination of familiar source material and their filmmakers’ singular voice. This year alone, we’ve seen Christopher Nolan take on The Odyssey, Phil Lord and Christopher Miller adapt Andy Weir’s Project Hail Mary, Emerald Fennell introduce horniness to Wuthering Heights, and now Zach Cregger – the mind behind Barbarian and last year’s award-winning horror smash Weapons – is doing something new with the world of Resident Evil.
Cregger, though, is a bit of an outlier compared to the likes of Nolan or Gerwig. He’s now on his third directorial outing – or fourth, if you count the universally despised 2009 comedy Miss March which he co-directed, though to be fair it’s likely that not even Cregger counts that movie – but, at least to this critic, he’s yet to have made something that truly warrants that “auteur” labelling. The movies he’s made before are perfectly fine (except for Miss March, which really is dreadful), but they profoundly lack a distinctive identity beyond just showing a whole bunch of weird grotesque imagery for mostly shock value, with even the recurring blend of comedy and horror being utilised better by other genre auteurs like Jordan Peele and Edgar Wright.
However, watching Cregger’s Resident Evil is a fascinating experience, as it almost feels like you’re watching the filmmaker develop his own signature style in real time. There are some wholly unique tricks being deployed here which enhance the viewing experience while also establishing Cregger as an authoritative voice that can, at the best of times, command a genuinely suspenseful tone. It isn’t all great, but Resident Evil may just finally gift Cregger that auteur label after all.
The film takes place entirely over the course of one evening, as medical courier Bryan (Austin Abrams) is assigned at the end of his long shift to transport a high-priority package to the hospital in neighbouring Raccoon City. Whilst enroute through the snow-covered road towards the city, he ends up hitting someone with his car – someone who, in the world of Resident Evil, turns out to be not quite as human as they seem. This encounter kick-starts a perilous trek of survival for Bryan as hordes of infected monsters, including a horrifying Cronenbergian amalgamation made up of numerous bodies, come at him with all force while he attempts to complete his delivery assignment.
I’ll admit, when it comes to Resident Evil – and by that, I mean the franchise as a whole – my knowledge is minimal at best. I’ve not played any of the games, nor have I even seen the Milla Jovovich-fronted movies, though I did see that 2021 reboot, which I remember absolutely nothing about other than it was terrible. But while I do not have anywhere close to the same level of Resident Evil familiarity like others do, particularly those who have been quick to condemn this movie for apparently having nothing to do with the original story (whatever it may be), it was incredibly easy to understand this universe and become fully immersed in it. By seeing it all through the eyes of this naïve and rather goofy lead character, who we’re following as he too experiences first-hand how messed-up this world has become, the threat feels fresh while still allowing for levity whenever it threatens to become too serious for its own good, which for any franchise newcomers (like myself) makes it a welcome entry point.
Interestingly, Cregger frames the film almost like it’s a video game itself, with long and drawn-out sequences where it feels as though you’re slowly controlling your game avatar as they walk around collecting inventory and running into terrifying creatures that emerge from the darkness. The dialogue, much of it coming from Abrams as he talks to himself during this whole ordeal, even sounds like something you’d hear in a video game cutscene, as do the mercifully infrequent exposition dumps which are delivered by characters who (intentionally) may as well be NPCs. To a lesser credit, the effects are also reminiscent of the CG graphics from a mid-2000s PS3 game, because while there are times when they work just well – including one gory sequence that effectively involves mass suicide via falling off rooftops – there is a certain cartoonish quality to the various monsters, let alone the fact that more often than not it’s immediately obvious that they’re not really there.
It isn’t a hugely scary movie, one that is more reliant on easy jump-scares than building a suitably suspenseful mood and environment, but like Cregger’s past films Resident Evil does have some solid moments of insanity as people’s heads are blown clean off, an elevator rapidly disintegrates from someone’s literal stomach acids, and even a maternity ward is ravaged by mutated creatures and blood sacs. Also like Cregger’s other works, the humour is definitely present throughout, though sometimes to an overwhelming degree where it can overly disrupt the overall tone of the scene, and just feels like the characters have begun riffing the very movie that they’re in. However, they work just well enough together to create a fun and engaging thrill ride for fans and non-fans alike.
As for Cregger’s auteur status, if Resident Evil proves anything that Weapons and Barbarian didn’t, it’s that the filmmaker does indeed have an identifiable voice that, if given the perfect material, can seriously thrive. It just needs a bit more time to blossom, and get far away from the likes of Miss March as possible.
