Zach Cregger is on a roll.
Melding humour and horror has quickly become his signature style. Audiences and critics have lapped it up.
Barbarian was a hit, while Weapons became a worldwide phenomenon. It even gained the attention of awards organisations.
Now, he has applied the formula to the Resident Evil franchise for a filmography hat-trick.
So, after two incredibly successful original horror films under his belt, did Cregger turn to an established IP? Was it simply a lazy move for his first major paycheque?
Hardly.
And for the sake of the dwindling franchise, it was a good move.
A Rough Night In Raccoon City
Courier Bryan (Austin Abrams) is having a rough shift.
Delivering medical cargo between hospitals is a thankless job. The exhausted and overworked staff barely acknowledge him. On top of that, it is late nights.
This particular evening is also fraught with personal drama that requires his undivided attention. His girlfriend is pregnant and needs to discuss their future.
Yet he takes one last, late-night, high-paying job. He must deliver an unknown item to a hospital in another town: Raccoon City.
Big mistake.
While navigating the icy rural roads, Bryan has to deal with poor lighting and terrible phone reception. Then he hits a pedestrian.
From there, his night goes from bad to worse.
Turns out she is infected. Worse still, Raccoon City is ground zero.
The city is crawling with deadly zombie-like mutations that Bryan must get through to complete his delivery.
Resident Evil Review: A Different Take On Raccoon City
You have played the video games, seen the early-mid 2000s films and may even have caught the 2021 prequel.
So, you would already have a pretty good idea of what you are walking into.
However, Cregger takes a slightly different tack for his iteration.
He establishes a grounded reality and swaps superheroes for a regular civilian. Then, he finds the humour and genuine horror in the situation.
The genius of Cregger’s take on the material is that it comes from the point of view of a regular guy in this crazy situation.
It is a one-man mission. Bryan mostly mumbles and grumbles his way through this nightmarish night of unimaginable carnage.
Meanwhile, he fumbles with firearms and just tries to stay alive.
In another smart move, Cregger separates his version from the previous films by hanging back on the action.
Instead, he favours suspense and body horror that will make your skin crawl.
Horror First, Action Second
This movie will make you cringe and leap at perfectly crafted jump scares.
Importantly, it does so in a way that the other Resident Evil films failed miserably at.
And yet, players of the game should still come away satisfied from this experience.
There is enough here to connect it to the games they love and cherish. Cregger doesn’t go all Ridley Scott and make his version of Prometheus.
Finally, even those who have not played the game are still in for a treat.
As with Cregger’s previous films, this is a tightly scripted, crowd-pleasing horror film. Most importantly, it knows the value of having a good time.
8/10
Review by Julian Wright
