Where’s everyone going? Bingo?
When Resident Evil debuted on the Sony PlayStation in 1996 it spawned a veritable media empire. Amongst the sequels, prequels, sidequels and remakes, the franchise made the jump to the silver screen, resulting in a series of films that ran for fifteen years (!). Whether it was the strength of the IP or the fact that goths really like going to the movies, the films continued making money despite being barely related to the original games and, more importantly, wank. After a failed reboot and rubbish Netflix adaptation, here we have new horror hotness Zach Cregger, fresh from the success of Weapons, to actually put some respect on the series’ name.
Resident Evil tells the story of Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who is tasked with taking something very important to Raccoon City General Hospital. An undead spanner is thrown into the works when Bryan unwittingly stumbles into a full-blown zombie apocalypse and his mission becomes more important than ever.
I hate not being part of the party, but I didn’t dig Resident Evil. It’s leagues ahead of previous movies, no question there, but I just couldn’t get swept up in it all. The film is like a ghost train ride. It ferries you from one location to the next, stops just long enough so you get a little fright and moves onto the next bit. There’s no real plot to be found here. I admire the film’s form, but not its function. To continue the ghost train analogy, I’m too distracted by the mechanisms pulling me along to be scared or delighted by any of the shit jumping out at me.
Part of the problem is Bryan. Austin Abrams is perfectly fine, but I found the character deeply irritating. The idea is that Bryan’s an everyman. He’s just as scared and inept as any of us would be in the same situation. It’s a decent angle of approach, I just never got past how artificial it all felt. Bryan is like a Twitch streamer, constantly babbling to his audience about how he’s scared only occasionally stopping to let out some high-pitched screams. His incessant self talk, cursing to himself and moments of idiocy came across as manufactured and inauthentic. If live streamers were a point of reference, congrats, you nailed just how execrable the vast majority are.
I think my main point of contention is that the film felt like it wanted to be a commentary on a horror movie rather than anything else. The complete ineptitude with guns, the multiple moments where Bryan nopes out of a situation, the constant jokey dialogue in that not-nearly-as-funny-as-it-thinks-it-is improv style all add up to the feeling that the film is terrified that you’ll take it as just a regular horror film. Heavens no! It’s imperative to recognize the film as the ironic, self-aware reflexive bit of lampshading genius it is, you guys. I’m not saying you can’t play around in the Resident Evil sandbox, I’m just saying that the script seems laser-focused on preemptively answering nitpicky internet dorks who just can’t understand why the frightened teen ran straight into the haunted theme park.
In one scene, Bryan records a message for his pregnant girlfriend at home, tearfully admitting that he probably isn’t going to make it out alive. Many people have pointed out the similarity to the kinds of audio logs/diary entries you tend to get in horror games, often acting as tragic mini-stories to add to the overall atmosphere. I can see that, but my point is this- does anyone actually care about NPC #6374 in those games? Why am I watching the story of some random knobhead instead of someone actually compelling? I wouldn’t have wanted a hyper-competent action hero either, but if we have to have a protagonist that stumbles from horrific pillar to post, couldn’t they be someone with a little bit of something to them? Bryan came across as a complete cipher to me.
That’s not to say I can’t see any merit in what the film is doing. For one, it manages to translate game mechanics into cinematic language better than any attempt before it. It feels like a survival horror game come to life. There’s the scene in which Bryan desperately scrabbles through cupboards and drawers, searching for ammo in a way that will be instantly familiar to players. It’s also the running gag of Bryan’s bad luck with padlocks, stopping his progress and frustrating him no end. It’s genuinely clever stuff and captures the vibe of the games, despite not being a literal adaptation.
I didn’t hate my time with Resident Evil, but I walked out of the screening baffled and disappointed. It looks great, has some brilliant and innovative ideas and has a fantastic ick factor going for it, but I just wasn’t taken on the thrill ride that many critics and audiences alike reported.
★★☆☆☆
