The Resident Evil film franchise returns for its eighth instalment (and second reboot), this time with Zach Cregger, director of last year’s horror hit Weapons and 2022’s Barbarian, at the helm.
After the overwhelming success of his previous film, Cregger seemed like a natural pick when it came to tackling this new entry, looking to really jumpstart things off the back past reboot Welcome to Raccoon City’s lukewarm reception in 2021.
Not only has he managed to make a name for himself as the hot new staple of the horror genre (though Curry Barker and Kane Parsons might lay their respective claims to that title now, too) but Cregger’s also a big fan of the original games. Amid a franchise which, at times, went well and truly off the rails, a heartfelt love letter from a true aficionado sounded like a slam dunk through and through.
‘I’ve only used guns in video games. It’s confusing in real life!’
I’ve never got round to properly playing Resident Evil myself, but I did dip my toe into Resident Evil 2 in advance of this release, which proved quite lucky, because while this new film tells a fresh and original story, it runs concurrently with the second game’s outbreak. Our protagonist is not a capable and floppy-haired police officer; instead, we have Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, a medical courier who works late nights ferrying lifesaving organs to hospital wards.
Cooped up in his car driving through the dark, he makes a promise to his girlfriend that he’ll come home after his next job to discuss the recent news that could very well change their relationship forever. That plan soon goes pear-shaped when another gig falls into his lap on extremely short notice: a longer trip taking him well out of his usual zone to deliver a package to Raccoon City, up in the snowy mountains. He’s not the right man for the job by any metric – his car isn’t built for such terrain – but double pay is double pay, so he sets out into the cold in the hopes of making it home safe and sound before dawn.
That simple premise lends itself to the survival horror of the game series, with Bryan alone and afraid pretty much from the outset. The film is short on dialogue but big on atmosphere, with Cregger really selling the sense of stepping over that invisible threshold and entering an altogether evil and warped place. Its set pieces and monsters get more bombastic over time – occasionally, I must say, to its detriment – but early scenes in which stark black figures sprint headlong from a distance strike a chilling note. The gradual escalation in threat and intensity parallels the source material nicely – Cregger wanted audiences to feel like they were playing the game themselves, guiding Bryan through the night – but the film’s real thrills and best jumps come when it’s operating on a smaller scale.
In a similar vein, Bryan is a surprisingly endearing protagonist for an extremely action-oriented horror film. His arc is not the focus (in fact his troubles back home could play into the drama more often and more substantially to really cement his need to make it out in one piece) but his dedication to seeing this package safely delivered, even when a big cash payout would really be furthest from his mind, shows he’s well-natured.
He may have taken on more than he was capable of in the hopes of some extra money, but he’ll be damned if he buckles on the job now. Elsewhere, there’s a lovely moment of pause where Cregger gives Bryan (and us by extension) a moment to reflect on the sheer madness of the scenario he’s wound up in. Raccoon City will not rate highly on the tourism tables after this…
As with most films that take place over the course of a single night, there’s a sense of forward momentum baked into Resident Evil from start to finish; level to level. Characters flit in and out of the story in unpredictable ways and the script finds time to play around with our expectations of the horror genre, often pitting typical conventions against the internal logic of the game series.
At times, Bryan seems genuinely aware that he’s in a video game (or, at the very least, a video game adaptation) which felt like a misstep on the creative team’s part. To that end, the film does struggle to fully balance its comedic side with its scares, tipping much more into the former overall. I would have preferred a more straight-faced and visceral experience overall, especially given the delicious promise of the opening’s ambience, but this felt like a solid Resident Evil ride all the same.
BBFC: Rated 15 for strong bloody violence, gore, horror, language.
Resident Evil is in cinemas now.
