Zach Cregger continues to prove himself as cinema’s foremost practitioner of horror as roller coaster ride, with every quiet moment in “Resident Evil” just part of a torturous climb leading into a steep, heart-stopping plummet. After leaving the theater, the biggest emotional impression was not one of terror so much as a joy that comes through in every frame, every diabolical set piece that leads into pure mayhem.
Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a simple medical courier wrapping up a long day of delivering frozen organs to hospitals while holding a telephone debate with his girlfriend over what to do about an unexpected pregnancy. Just as he is about to head home to continue the argument in person, Bryan is offered one last delivery for the night, addressed to Raccoon City General Hospital. The drive is long and the weather is horrible, but the package is high priority and the pay is doubled, so Bryan takes the job.
As the roads worsen and his cellphone signal disappears, Bryan runs into the residents of Raccoon City and something is horribly wrong. Unable to turn around, Bryan has no choice but to continue into the city itself in hopes of delivering his package and finding safety from the evil that hounds him.
Bryan is no hero, nor is he an antihero. Rather, he is just some guy we happen to be following on a delivery ride into hell. Anything he does that could remotely be considered heroic happens either by accident or through sheer dumb luck. Here is a horror protagonist who doesn’t make stupid decisions because the plot demands it. No, Bryan makes stupid decisions because he, himself, is a moron, an immature buffoon having the worst day of his life. In his obliviousness and incompetence, Bryan is a spiritual continuation of actor Austin Abrams’ character in Cregger’s previous film, “Weapons,” an immature delinquent who just happens to find himself bumbling through evil he isn’t even a little capable of understanding.
Cregger and Abrams have found in each other a kindred spirit, a perfect creative synthesis of horror and comedy. As much as Cregger delights in tormenting his star, Abrams delights in being tormented, committing himself fully to the performance as a perpetual ne’er-do-well replete with high-pitched screams, slapstick physical comedy and motor-mouth profanity as he struggles to comprehend the madness he encounters.
While the director does not adapt plots from the “Resident Evil” video game franchise, Cregger still enjoys looping the tropes and rhythms of video game storytelling into his original plot. The opening 10 minutes might as well be a gamer tutorial as the audience learns the rules of the world alongside Bryan. From there we are taken on a relentless story as the medical courier collects loot along the way with constantly escalating stakes, each turn in the story horrible yet inevitable. Bryan flees a farmhouse only to find himself in a pitch black tunnel, flees a terrifying city street for an even more terrifying sewer. As the locations become more horrifying, so do the monsters and the weapons found along the way.
Unlike Cregger’s previous films, “Resident Evil” relies more on CGI-heavy action to ramp up the intensity, and the tone leans more into the comedy than the horror, which, along with an abrupt ending, may alienate some viewers, yet the story delivers thrills like few others can, achieving horror-comedy bliss despite potential nitpicks.
A version of this review was posted at Curt On The Movies.
“Resident Evil” Directed by Zach Cregger. Written by Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten. Starring Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser. Running time: 90 minutes. Genres: Action, Horror, Sci-Fi. Rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout.
