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Resident Evil

This latest Resident Evil is a slight zombie viscera flick that doesn't really say much but is a bit of fun anyway. Director Zach Cregger impressed with Weapons, and folk have good things to say about his film before that, Barbarian, too (I'm yet to watch). His latest is a reboot, retool, reimagining, however you'd like to put it, of the film series spawned from the game in 2002, that eventually mutated to six entries, all gamely starring Milla Jovovich.

Now before this new iteration, I'd only seen that first one, but quite possibly one or two more (like the creatures in the film, I'm guessing they all meld together). My gaming credentials are even more paltry - I seem to remember playing a version once years ago, but it could have been any zombie shooting game.

So drawing a long bow, I'm going to say this one aims more for the shits and giggles than the others, borrowing from Cregger's previous life as a comedy actor/writer/director. Austin Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier slacker dude who accepts a late night job, entrusted to take a shoulder bag to Raccoon City hospital. It's very snowy and he soon runs into trouble, literally.

This first third, even half, of the film is great fun. Bryan muddles along like a slightly less oblivious Shaun (from the peerless Shaun of the Dead), as events take increasingly macabre turns. He has either never seen a zombie film, or has seen way too many, such are his reactions to the weird shit going on. The jump scares are planted sparingly, and the situation is played close to farce.

As the story becomes a mission to the top floor of Raccoon City hospital (oddly, a skyscraper), the story weakens at the seams. Sure, it's probably very faithful to the game, so might please some gamer nerds, but it doesn't really add anything to the zombie film genre. The tone made the film suffer from the old 'between two stools' problem. It doesn't reach the levels of humour in good Zom-coms, and also fails to be gripping enough to match the classic bleak edge of 'serious' zombie thrillers.

Cregger seems to have the knack of getting bums on seats, he just left me wanting a bit more inventiveness. It's so much easier to start well than end well, especially in the horror genre - once the anticipation of the 'monster' is gone, the filmmakers have a lot of work to do in order to maintain tension to the end. Also, it doesn't help if there isn't really a conclusion, but rather an ambiguous franchise promise. Prepare for diminishing returns, folks.

Resident Evil is still showing around the country - I caught this at the precious Luna cinema in Leederville.

See also:

Edgar Wright pastiched the genre with Shaun of the Dead (2004) and Michel Hazanavicius remade a Japanese film as his Final Cut (2022). Both films are clever and very funny.

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