// KOTAKU — GAMING
Early Reviews Hail Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil As A Clever Homage That Doesn’t Get Bogged Down By The Details: ‘This Is How Movies And Video Games Can Merge In A Way That Makes Them Stronger’
The long-awaited Resident Evil movie reboot is out on September 18 and reviews have started pouring in, with most of them praising horror director Zach Cregger’s funny, focused adaptation that they say channels the spirit of the Capcom games without being overly precious about recreating their minutiae on screen. It sounds pretty good, in other words.
I’m not into horror and I mostly admire Resident Evil from a distance, but I’m making an exception to check out what the guy who made Barbarians and Weapons does with one of the most gruesome, silly, and acclaimed franchises in gaming. Fortunately, it sounds like Cregger understood the assignment.
Resident Evil currently sits at a 96 on Rotten Tomatoes, and even if not every critic loved it, almost none of them (so far) thought it was bad. “This is I.P. cinema with vision and verve… This is how movies and video games can merge in a way that makes them stronger for sharing their DNA rather than disfiguring them both,” wrote David Ehrlich for IndieWire. “Resident Evil has a streamlined single-mindedness, and as it barrels through its gamified plot, the tension and entertainment value never flag,” wrote Jesse Hassenger for The Guardian.
The movie is about a medical courier played by Austin Abrams (Euphoria, Wolfs) who stumbles into a zombie outbreak during a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. It’s presumably a single, unending rollercoaster ride from there. The original cut had so many jokes that Cregger even dropped some of the comedy from the theatrical version after getting feedback from test audiences.
Here’s what the early reviews are saying about the end result:
With a laser focus on putting its hero through the worst night of his life, Resident Evil is a simple and exciting survival horror story that benefits greatly from Zach Cregger’s sensibilities. Austin Abrams is exceedingly charming as the woefully outmatched medical courier Bryan as he’s dragged through a hellish coterie of well-realized mutants and monsters by Cregger, whose good eye for creature effects, mounting dread, and signature humor all leave Resident Evil feeling very well represented. – Tom Jorgensen
It’s when Resident Evil…[heads] into Raccoon City proper as Bryan’s final run of the day takes on world-altering significance, that it threatens to get away from its creator. The momentum hitches and idles, making too much time for extended riffing, unearned emotion, and embodied sub-Cronenbergian themes. The effects—which start off as sinewy, Thing-adjacent organic messes, then morph into unwieldy blobs of pixels—mimic the narrative. Immersive tactile details—like the stark, snow-covered landscape muffling the sound effects of a crashing car or a charging creature—give way to over-designed set pieces. A confident camera that swapped between coy third-person and bodycam-like perspectives loses its clarity in the escalating FX spectacle. Abrams’ magnetism and Cregger’s cynical wit persist, but as the scope grows, they’re left taking up less space. – Jacob Oller
Key to the movie’s success, beyond a clever script and nuanced direction is star Austin Abrams. He isn’t the only actor to appear in this film — other announced cast members include Zach Cherry, Paul Walter Hauser, and Kali Reis of True Detective: Night Country. However, he’s on screen for pretty much every minute, and owns it entirely. Bryan’s far from a perfect guy, making plenty of bad decisions out of frustration or flat-out fear, but right from the beginning he demonstrates a genuine urge to be a good person, keeping us invested in his survival. – Liz Shannon Miller
Weapons had a creepy, evocative aversion to simple metaphorical reads that ultimately increased its effectiveness; the same isn’t quite true here. Resident Evil foregrounds one obvious bit of character change for Bryan, but after doing a great job making us care about him for more than 90 minutes, Cregger seems to abandon him a few steps shy of completing any real journey.