I’ll be honest, when it was first announced that Resident Evil would be getting another “adaptation,” I had to roll my eyes because when did “Resident Evil” and “adaptation” ever equal anything good?
I mean, Paul W. S. Anderson’s films were fun, sure—not entirely faithful—but the zombies, the iconic monsters, and seeing characters like Claire, Jill, Chris, and Leon were fun to see even if they weren’t exactly...character-accurate, but hey.
Years went by and then came the Netflix show and the god-awful Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. Flop after literal flop. I can go on a tangent on how god-awful both of these works were, but that’s a story for another time.
But alas, Zach Cregger took on the reins of this new adaptation, and I was piqued. If there’s anything I can give credit to, it’s that Cregger is an expert at tension and suspense. Plain and simple, the man knows horror.
But—and this is a very big but.
I worried about his satire.
Because admittedly, Cregger can be a little tongue-in-cheek. Not that’s a bad thing at all, but I just didn’t think it could exist in a world like Resident Evil.
However, I can honestly say this new adaptation is a blast, if you go into it not expecting a word-for-word retelling of the games.
The protagonist of the film, Brian, played wonderfully by Austin Abrams, is a medical courier who takes on a job during the fall of Raccoon City. And Cregger delivers this on a silver platter.
The first two acts of this film are terrifyingly good. I’m not one to get spooked (I’m such a liar), but the jump scares were solid in this, and I can attest to the sensation of overwhelming dread throughout Brian's attempts at survival. It was that exact same feeling when playing the games. One of my favorite moments is a scene where Abrams’s character runs around a car, aimlessly shooting bullets towards an infected, scared, and uncoordinated—and I have never felt so seen.
Because we’ve all been there, scrambling, shooting astray, and realizing you only have like two rounds left.
And I love Creggers’ homage to finding those voice recorders or letters in the games, and the plot of this movie being the story behind one of those. Literal perfection.
The attention to detail: the green herbs, first aid, the typewriter so beautifully lit in a shot, and the shotgun shells from Resident Evil 4. I’m fangirling as I’m writing this, but you can tell Cregger played the games and cared about the source material, and as a fan of the games, that is all I can ask for.
The tone of the games is there: the lighting, the cinematography, the first-person shooter aspect. You can tell that Cregger was really inspired by the Las Plagas infection from Resident Evil 4 and applied it to the virus in this film. He had the mechanics of the game fleshed out so wonderfully, like the locked doors, going through levels, Brian upgrading his weapons, and a common enemy following you throughout the board.
Or the character, Brian himself, felt like an extension of myself as a player of the games. The character is just a regular guy who gets caught up in a crazy situation, and he handles it as well as any of us could: terrified and uncoordinated. Brian is the personification of players all over the world, hyping themselves up before they turn a dark corner, shooting the locks knowing you need a key, yelling belligerent curses after you win a boss fight; Brian is us, and we are very much Brian.
The Resident Evil world is horrifying but goofy in its ridiculousness and contrived storylines and monsters, and I think Cregger absolutely nailed the first half.
Though, where I think the film falters is in its third act, where it starts to go a little off the rails.
In all fairness, in Resident Evil games, the last act is usually a huge boss fight where the monster is ridiculously huge and has some huge fucking eye, jagged teeth, and weird pockets of fluids where you have to shoot off, and I think Cregger gets this part right.
The monster, yes, but the tone, I think, could have used some work.
It just became a bit too slapstick. The film in general is comedic, and I would go as far as to say this is not just a horror film but a horror-comedy, and I think to its fault.
The jokes don’t really land at this juncture of the film, because at this point I’m looking at Brian to lock the fuck in. It’s almost like a human waving a bone at a dog, like, “Look, this is funny, and you should laugh,” type of thing. I wish the film toned it back a tad; it doesn’t have to be serious, but my god, we’re in a dire situation, folks.
And all of this to say, Cregger expressed that the film was actually supposed to be funnier; the director spoke with IGN regarding the “Cregger cut,” a cut ofthe filmwhere all the jokes are kept, he went on to say:
“It was the right move. It’s funny; I saw somebody online was like, ‘Release the Cregger cut!’ I’m like, ‘No, this is the Cregger cut,’” he stated. “The Cregger cut is this without those jokes in it. It’s fun to have moments of levity, but it needs to be a horror movie first and foremost, so I don’t miss any of them.”
To me, I love cheese, and Resident Evil is like capital cheese.
But it’s a type of cheese that takes itself seriously from time to time. And I think at that time, Cregger could’ve tightened it up a bit. For example, there’s a scene where Brian has an emotional catharsis, and it’s sad, and it’s heartbreaking, but it’s not quite impactful because the humor kind of undercuts the tone at this point, and then when you think it’s going to hurt, another joke that’s just there.
Nonetheless, I came away from the theatre with a smile on my face and gushed to my dad about the easter eggs and how this might be one of my favorite video game adaptations in a very long time.
‘Resident Evil’ was a fucking blast, and literally the best 7 minutes of my life.
Let me know what you thought of the film; I’m nosy. Did you play the games? Was the humor just right? Let’s talk about it ⭐️🪩