Hot off Barbarian and Weapons, two fantastic horror entries, Zach Cregger takes on Resident Evil, a franchise that’s been around for nearly 30 years with a diehard PlayStation fanbase, close to a dozen games, and now eight movie adaptations. This is a huge departure from the Milla Jovovich/Paul W.S. Anderson movies, which had their own following and made enough money to spawn six films. Cregger basically throws all of that out the window and asks one simple question: what happens if a Postmates delivery guy has the worst night imaginable in Raccoon City?
Austin Abrams plays Brian, a medical courier who has to deliver an important package to a hospital in Raccoon City. What should be a simple one-way trip on some icy roads turns into the worst night of his life almost immediately. He hits a girl with his car, gets stranded in a city he doesn’t know, has no cell service, can’t use a gun, is freezing his ass off, and eventually finds himself surrounded by zombies, monsters, and all kinds of fucked-up shit.
And that’s exactly why I loved this movie.
This feels like Resident Evil without needing to directly adapt one of the games. I’ve only really played Resident Evil 4, but I’m familiar with a lot of the lore, and Cregger perfectly captures the feeling of actually playing one of these games. Brian finds a handgun, then a shotgun, then a semi-automatic weapon. He’s learning how to use each one, figuring out how much ammo he has, searching for more ammunition, managing his health, solving puzzles, finding keys, getting through locked doors, and constantly trying to figure out where the hell he’s supposed to go next.
There’s even a monster that follows him throughout the movie, and when Brian gets stuck somewhere for too long, it catches up with him. That’s exactly the kind of mechanic you’d find in a Resident Evil game. The movie even ends with a feeling that resembles a game-over screen. It doesn’t literally say “Game Over,” but that’s the sensation I got from it, and I absolutely dug that.
There are also a bunch of POV sequences, especially around Brian’s weapon progression, that make the whole thing feel even more like you’re watching someone play the game. The side characters function almost like NPCs, too. They pop up, give Brian some information or point him in a certain direction, and then they’re basically disposable. Towards the end especially, there’s a hilarious feeling that everyone around Brian is just completely useless, which honestly feels pretty accurate to how NPCs can behave in video games.
And Brian himself is the perfect protagonist for this story.
I’ve seen some people criticize the character for being stupid or incompetent, and I genuinely don’t understand that criticism. That’s the point. This is a normal fucking guy. He’s a medical courier. He’s not a soldier. He’s not Leon Kennedy. He’s not some badass who knows exactly what to do when the shit hits the fan. He’s a Joe Schmoe who suddenly finds himself in Raccoon City while it’s being overrun by monsters. He’s terrified, he’s inexperienced, he’s freezing, and he has no idea what the hell he’s doing.
Keyboard warriors can talk all they want about how they’d handle the situation, but everybody would be shitting their pants. Brian is literally learning how to survive as the movie goes along. He’s scared to walk into dark rooms, but he does it anyway because he has no other choice. He’s firing off rounds when you’re sitting there thinking, “Dude, conserve your ammo.” That’s what makes it so engaging. You’re experiencing the nightmare alongside him.
This is basically the Austin Abrams show, and I couldn’t think of anyone else who could have played Brian as well as he does. His ability to react to the most fucked-up shit imaginable is hilarious. The movie establishes almost immediately that Brian doesn’t like hospitals, blood, or anything gross. At the beginning, he looks into a hospital room, sees someone with a nasty gash on their thigh, and basically goes, “Ooh, that’s gross.” Then he spends the next 90 minutes witnessing some of the most disgusting shit imaginable.
It’s such a funny character detail because you can practically see what is going through his head every time something worse happens. And it gets worse, and worse, and worse. He thinks he’s having the worst night of his life, and then five minutes later it somehow gets even fucking worse.
Cregger and Abrams work incredibly well together, too. Abrams was one of the best parts of Weapons, so I’m glad they reunited here. Cregger knows exactly how to move a camera when it comes to horror. He knows how to build suspense and tension, and more importantly, he knows exactly when to cut that tension with comedy. I legitimately screamed out loud at least three different times during this movie. There are some awesome jump scares, some incredible creature designs, and plenty of really nasty gore.
The snow was also a fantastic choice. Horror movies in the snow just rule, and the freezing environment adds another layer to Brian’s nightmare. He’s already dealing with monsters and zombies, and now he’s freezing his ass off on top of everything else. There are some incredible sequences, too, like the zombies throwing themselves off the roof, and there are several moments toward the end that I had no idea were coming because they weren’t really shown in the trailers. I loved that.
There are also plenty of Easter eggs for the diehard fans. One of my favorites is Brian leaving a voice note on his phone, which immediately reminded me of how games like Resident Evil and The Last of Us use notes, recordings, and messages to tell you what happened in these abandoned environments. You find someone’s last message, or a note they left behind for a loved one, and suddenly you’re getting pieces of the story through the environment. Cregger incorporates that kind of storytelling into the movie in a way that feels completely natural.
And despite this being such a departure from the games, it honestly feels more like Resident Evil to me than it probably should. You don’t need to use specific characters or directly recreate one of the game’s plots to make a Resident Evil movie. Give me a normal guy, throw him into Raccoon City, give him a bunch of locked doors, puzzles, keys, guns, limited ammunition, creepy monsters, and one terrifying creature that won’t stop chasing him.
My one real complaint is the ending. I don’t necessarily know how I feel about the actual conclusion yet, because I think it’s going to divide people, but Cregger has a habit of ending his movies very abruptly, and I felt that here again. The movie just kind of stops. I had the same feeling with Weapons. I wanted just a little bit more.
Because that’s the thing: I could have spent another two hours in this version of Raccoon City. Give me more monsters. Give me more shooting. Give me more puzzles. Give me more Austin Abrams freaking out. I didn’t want the roller coaster to stop.
And that’s ultimately what makes the movie work so well. It’s a tight 90 minutes that absolutely flies by. From the second Brian picks up that delivery, you’re off to the races, and within five minutes he’s already completely in the shit. You’re just sitting there watching him stumble through this nightmare thinking, “Don’t go in there, bro. Don’t go in there.”
But he has to.
That’s why this movie is so engaging. You’re not watching some superhuman badass effortlessly mow down zombies. You’re watching an ordinary dude desperately trying to survive, and every tiny victory feels earned. Every weapon upgrade feels like progress. Every bullet matters. Every locked door is another problem. Every monster is another thing he has to figure out how to survive.
I genuinely loved it.
Zach Cregger has built a Resident Evil movie that feels like Resident Evil without being beholden to any one game, and Austin Abrams is the perfect person to take us through it. He’s an awkward, quirky, funny, incredibly likable movie star, and I honestly can’t think of anyone else who could have carried this movie the way he does.
I really hope Cregger comes back for another one, because I’d love to see more of this world. Unfortunately, it sounds like he may be tired of dealing with the fanbase, which would be a shame, because there’s so much more that could be done here.
Resident Evil = 90/100
