Expectations are funny because previous experiences can make you feel either better or worse about something. The new “Resident Evil” movie is one of those rare instances where both are happening at the same time.
Based on the popular video game franchise, there have been seven (!) Resident Evil movies this century and none of them have been anything more than guilty pleasures, at best.
Based on this track record, this newest film is the best Resident Evil movie by a mile by simply because it is a competently made, solidly entertaining film.
This is also the third horror film from writer/director Zach Cregger, whose previous two movies “Barbarian” and “Weapons,” were packed to the gills with originality and creativity, to the point that they pushed the entire genre in a whole new direction.
Based on this track record, his latest film is a disappointment simply because it is a competently made, solidly entertaining film.
See what I was saying about expectations?
Devoid of any expectations, “Resident Evil” is an entertaining fun-house ride full of jump scares, gore and a surprising amount of laughs.
The story centers on a hapless courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams, who gamely carries this entire movie from beginning to end).
Bryan takes a last-minute assignment to deliver a package to an isolated town in the mountains. As you can imagine, things are not going well in town and Bryan’s simple delivery becomes a chaotic scramble for survival.
As someone who has played and enjoyed a couple of the Resident Evil video games, I think this movie does a fantastic job of replicating the gameplay experience, as the proceedings escalate from slightly creepy to wildly frantic and unsettlingly bizarre.
The games also do a good job of making sure you never have enough ammunition to feel comfortable, so you’re constantly searching for more bullets in blood-stained rooms with flickering lights, hoping you find what you are looking for before some horrifying monstrosity comes charging into the room. The movie plays this tension up to great effect as Bryan embodies every gamer’s frustration with encountering a padlocked gate at an inopportune time or not being nearly as accurate a shot as you need to be.
Horror and comedy are such a perfect pair and Cregger is a master of both, steering “Resident Evil” towards laughs, absurd gore and the experience of playing the games more than anything else.
After taking ambitious swings in his previous two movies, Cregger keeps things fairly by the book here, delivering some mindless fun, but not much else. Hopefully “Resident Evil” just marks a career side quest before Cregger pivots back to making big, bold cinematic swings.
“Resident Evil” is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout.
