When Paul W.S. Anderson's Resident Evil hit theaters in 2002, video game movies were largely seen as a niche. Films like Mortal Kombat and Tomb Raider had proven that big-screen game adaptations could be successful, but the commercial and critical failure of projects like the 1993 Super Mario Bros. still cast a long shadow. And while Anderson's vision of Raccoon City might have captivated audiences on the whole, many hardcore fans of Capcom's games were left disappointed by the way the original movies wildly deviated from the source material.
Weapons director Zach Cregger's new take on Resident Evil is a return to the franchise's fundamentals and a choice example of how video game movies have evolved. Its story is stripped down and its zombified monsters are terrifying. It's also chiefly a movie that's trying to make you laugh. Cregger uses humor to amplify his Resident Evil's horror — his spin on the games' infected ghouls are meant to be as funny as they are disturbing. The film feels like it could be the beginning of a fantastic new era for the franchise, but what's most impressive is how well it can work as one and done.
Though this Resident Evil is peppered with nods to Capcom's games, it focuses on Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier character created for the movie. Like most people living in his mountain town, Bryan knows that a drive over to Raccoon City in the middle of winter can be hell, but a last-minute, high-paying delivery gig is enough to convince him to make the trip. Even with the treacherous weather and spotty cellphone reception, Bryan's journey with his mysterious cargo is mostly uneventful as he first sets out. But he begins to understand what kind of danger he's wandering into when he accidentally runs over a shambling woman (Andrea Miltnerová) who doesn't seem to realize that she's just been hit by an out-of-control car.
Resident Evil's first big scare almost immediately establishes the sense of humor Cregger leans into throughout the film. You can feel the fear oozing out of Bryan as he trudges into the woods looking for the woman, but that tension momentarily evaporates as the film smash-cuts to him coaxing her into his car so that he can get her the medical help she clearly needs. The same dread rushes to the fore when Bryan witnesses how Resident Evil's infected humans can mutate into creatures that feel like nods to Katamari Damacy and The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. But it's hard not to laugh when Bryan muses about how interesting the zombies' transformations are to see up close.
Cregger knows that while viewers might not be familiar with Resident Evil's lore, we can all appreciate how horror movies need their characters to make poor decisions. Abrams plays Bryan with a wide-eyed guilelessness that's charming, but what really makes the character work is the way each monster encounter forces him to evolve into someone with better survival instincts.
By building the film around a civilian instead of highly trained special agents, Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten give themselves the ability to tell a story that leans into the survival aspect of survival horror. Because Bryan is a bit of a dolt who's constantly screaming in terror and fumbling his bullets when he's scared, it often feels like the movie is replicating the experience of playing (or watching someone else play) a Resident Evil game for the first time. Bryan finds a couple of guns and a very limited number of bullets, but they're nowhere near enough to make him feel safe as he trudges toward Raccoon City making the occasional stop to search seemingly empty buildings in hopes of finding a way to call for help.
The movie's indoor scenes where Bryan's rifling through drawers and tiptoeing down dark hallways are its most suspenseful because Cregger establishes early on that danger is always lurking just around the corner. Those moments are when it really seems like Cregger is channeling the essence of Capcom's games, but you can also feel the director winking at his audience whenever Bryan talks about video games teaching him how to navigate his situation.
There's a general straightforwardness to Cregger's Resident Evil that sets it apart from many other recent video game adaptations. The film isn't as concerned with overall character development as The Last of Us and its set pieces aren't as large as The Super Mario Galaxy Movie's. But those qualities work in the movie's favor because they help draw your attention to all of the imaginative ways Cregger interpolates classic elements of Resident Evil storytelling and gameplay.
Especially coming after Weapons, Resident Evil feels like Cregger putting his mark on a beloved gaming property while breathing new life into a film franchise that was always fun, but lost its way as it grew in scale. Cregger has found a way to make the world of Resident Evil seem primed for more cinematic exploration, and to show us how far video game movies have come.
Resident Evil also stars Zach Cherry, Will Merrick, Zoé Bellas, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Griffin Newman, and Magdalena Sittovaas. The movie hits theaters on September 18th.
