Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Runs Through a Grotesquely Fun Maze of Action Loaded With Jump Scares

Alci Rengifo

Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil” adapts the famous video game by almost taking on the full essence of, well, a video game. The effect is of being a spectator watching a player without joining in. Cregger is quickly establishing himself as a notable genre director, and so he pulls it off with memorable style and enough suspense. His screenplay with Shay Hatten pulls off the balancing act of sticking to what has made the game so popular since it premiered in 1996, while making the main character a goofball we would root for in any other action movie. Action is the defining word here. This “Resident Evil” would easily be adaptable as a hair-raising theme park ride.

Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier in the game’s Raccoon City. He’s tasked with delivering an urgent medical package to the general hospital. As Bryan drives down dark, snowy roads, he hits a woman. Ah, but as you can guess, it is not just any normal hit and run. Our would-be hero is soon running for safety and makes it to a low-lit farm, where more terrors await like a dog with a head that splits open, unleashing fleshy tentacles. The farmhouse inhabitants are also possessed and seeking to chomp on flesh, etc. Fans of the game instantly know this is the T-Virus developed by the nefarious Umbrella Corporation, as one of its scientists, Paul (Paul Walter Hauser), informs Bryan after snatching him into a van following a grisly close call. As more infected swarm, attack and spread, Bryan’s greatest challenge remains still getting to that hospital since his package turns out to be more valuable than what he was told.

Recapping the plot of “Resident Evil” is tricky when avoiding spoilers since Cregger has developed a basic point A to B format. It is doable since this franchise lends itself equally to horror and action. In 2002 the first successful film version by Paul W.S. Anderson combined lite body horror with Milla Jovovich as an action hero modeled after “The Matrix.” It hasn’t aged badly and actually plays better in these days of biotech paranoia. Five sequels followed. A 2021 reboot modeled on the game “Resident Evil 2” proved forgettable. Cregger’s approach, also tapping into “Resident Evil 2” in terms of setting, is slightly more minimalist, simply following Bryan through obstacles and jump scares. This director’s work tends to be the most effective on a visual level. His best known films, “Barbarian” and “Weapons,” are completely driven by atmosphere combined with the grotesque. Ironically enough, “Resident Evil” has the most plausible story out of three, since who would doubt a corporation would make something deadly that ends up infecting an entire city? 

Most of the film can then be described as a sprint peppered with scares along the way. It feels like a series of pit stops where Cregger and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, who is renowned for his work with directors like Ridley Scott, skillfully compose some unnerving images. A running motif is a twirling mash of infected who have connected their bodies into a kind of terror wheel, following poor Bryan all the way from the woods to the city. Hands reach out from dark corners where something monstrous roars. Raccoon City is itself an abandoned metropolis where an alleyway hides nightmares and it’s worse if you fall into the sewers. Fans of the game will appreciate how Cregger does try to capture the game’s visual sense, with comedic terrors that tend to just pop out, like an acid-vomiting hospital patient who targets elevators. The best scene, somewhat spoiled in the trailers, occurs when Bryan wanders into a Neonatal Intensive Care Unit where the T-Virus has clearly done some terrible damage.

Any character development in “Resident Evil” is brisk but effective enough. In a spirit somewhat similar to the recent and much superior “Hope,” Cregger uses Bryan as an almost satirical commentary on action films and even gaming. When he attempts the feats common to action flicks, he flops, as when he tries to ram a truck through a fence. In a truly hilarious scene he attempts to put together an automatic weapon to Paul’s dismay, admitting he’s only handled guns when playing video games. Reportedly Cregger also wanted to explore his fears of fatherhood, which somewhat appear when Bryan has to deal with a pregnant girlfriend debating whether they should keep the baby. We never meet her except as a voice over the phone. Still, it adds a bit of heft. The movie eventually crescendos to a diabolically funny showdown atop a hospital and a final shot that is fittingly hopeless, while of course hinting at a sequel. For what it sets out to be, “Resident Evil” is a serviceable enough popcorn entertainment that never commits the crime of becoming boring.

“Resident Evil” releases Sept. 18 in theaters nationwide.