Resident Evil review

 Last year’s Weapons was quite a shock in every respect so much is expected of director Zach Cregger’s follow up especially as it stars Austin Abrams, a standout in the previous film as drug addict James. Here, he is also tasked with leading the film as the camera never leaves him for the entire run time, something he achieves with aplomb.  As for Zach Cregger he has again found a way to make the ordinary seem scary and the extraordinary seem terrifying; all with jump scares aplenty. Regardless of its source (about which I know little) as a film Resident Evil is a tremendous ninety five minutes of tension, danger and a little well sprinkled humour too.

Spoilers after the break...

 

Medical courier Bryan Hodukavich is already having a difficult day as he fields awkward phone conversations with his girlfriend who recently discovered she was pregnant. Rather than go home and talk properly he is (easily) persuaded to deliver a very urgent last minute package to Racoon City Hospital, located in the remote, snowy Colorado mountains. So, he sets off in weather his vehicle is ill equipped for, the start of a series of errors and mistakes that turn this evening into a waking  nightmare. Bryan is something of an eternal optimist who sometimes doesn’t quite grasp what is happening and when he does every method he takes to deal with increasing danger doesn’t work quite as he planned.

In other hands this could almost be a comedy and a lively script- co written by Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten- occasionally leans into that courtesy of Bryan’s repeated profane exasperation when yet another peril crosses his path and his choice of dealing with it doesn’t quite work but leaves him just enough of a way to escape. The atmosphere is set up quite quickly so as soon as see Bryan driving along icy roads, lined by tall trees, with an ominous thrum in the background you just know things are going to go wrong. Throughout, Dariusz Wolski provides exquisite cinematography whether snowy vistas, chaotic action or close up scares. 

As with Weapons there are several jump scares which will almost lift you out of your seat even though some of them are familiar ones, the editing and direction make them work every time. In the early section it takes him quite a while to realise the woman he accidentally runs over is in fact already dead and animated by some sort of slimy alien tentacle thing which means she keeps getting up again. Deliberately so, Bryan is no action hero; he is an ordinary guy caught in an impossible situation befuddled by guns, by padlocks, metal gates, jammed cars and by the carnage happening around him. It may be that nobody has had a worse day at work than this. You feel other characters would give up but Bryan just keeps going which works so well for ninety five percent of the movie until a denouement that stretches credibility just a little too thinly even if it is a bold, grasping ending. The trick here of course is that by this point we are rooting for Bryan and as matters finally do skip beyond his grasp it’s a bravely downbeat way to finish.

Overall the narrative here is more straightforward than the director’s previous films- it is a quest to get the package to its destination. So apart from the zombie scenario and location game lore is left to one side. So even though we know that the scares will come from some new iteration of the slimy monsters or a sudden appearance of something horrible, each one is scary enough and not overdone to work. Also the scenarios are varied enough and that already much seen sequence of Bryan running down a road as objects are dropped from rooftops gains a whole new twist when you see it in context.

Many aficionados of the game seem to like the film even though it doesn’t use established characters but is set as a sideline to those so can avoid all the detailed lore from both the game and previous movies. The film does though feature multiple point of view shots replicating the gaming experience and the pleasant surprise is how these mould seamlessly with more conventional shots of characters or wider panoramas. The narrative also mimics the levels of a game by changing locale on a regular basis but having a clear sense of place for example you can see the flashing lights from the crashed cars in the distance for some time after the narrative has moved on from it. The story also gradually increases the size of the weapons Bryan funds in various places and provides game like barriers at every turn.

On screen from start to finish, Austin Abrams is terrific, finding a place that allows Bryan to be convincingly frustrated and yet helpful but also determined and sometimes desperate. It’s a performance that really shows range, likeability and humanity which suggests the actor could play any role. Bryan is a character we can identify with even though he always tries to do the right thing he’s not seen as being wholly perfect, notably his initial response to the pregnancy at the start. He really only seems to take the extra delivery to avoid having the awkward conversation. As he struggles with various situations, his solutions are enjoyably low rent and often only partially successful. It feels at times like a metaphor for how a lot of people try and deal with things in life.

While remaining fallibly human, Bryan does seem to become better though it’s unclear if the intention is simply to reproduce the way players would improve with experience or if the virus bubbling inside him is enabling him to become stronger which might explain his incredible feats near the end. The script also has him constantly narrating his own frustrations and exasperation which also works really well and suggests a gamer raging against the game. Only of course he’s in real danger yet still complains aloud at one point that his socks are wet!

Near the end when he comes to leave a heartfelt message to his girlfriend it could feel out of place in such an extreme film but both script and actor have earned this brief moment. It feels as if battling these dangers has made him value the potential of becoming a father more just at the point when its looking like he won’t live to see it.

There are several supporting characters though none last very long in this violent environment. The short scenes Bryan has with a police officer played by Johnno Wilson and a couple of officials from the Umbrella corporation responsible for what is happening played by Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser add additional colour to the story despite relatively brief screen time.

The ending has caused much debate for various reasons, notably as to why Bryan’s transformation seems to take a lot longer than anyone else’s and he is able to maintain his own persona almost to the end rather than quickly become a snarling zombie. I assumed it was because he was only bitten through clothing by a child who had not fully transformed yet. Incidentally that child’s fate has also been much debated and could represent Bryan’s fear of becoming a father. Does he do the right thing about her? Survival fiction takes place in a heightened environment so normal logic does not necessarily follow but you have to say he does the right thing. Resident Evil provides what you want from a horror action film and fits a lot into a tight running time but at the end you’ll be exhausted and entertained in equal measure.