This years reboot of the resident evil cinematic universe see’s a self confessed ‘glorified postman’,Bryan Hodukavich, run, scream (and, arguably, fight?) his way through an ever increasingly nightmarish array of mutated assailants as he is tasked with transporting medical cargo (category A no less) to a hospital in a little known place called Racoon City. Nothing to worry about here. To anyone who’s even faintly familiar with the franchise it’s no surprise when things go off the rails pretty quickly, leading Bryan through a gauntlet of tentacled limbs, unconventional facial cavities and very, very hazardous bio-organisms, all in effort to get said medical cargo, a biological sample needed to create a cure, to the aforementioned hospital.
Cast
Alongside a fairly small (recognisable) supporting cast in Paul Walter Hauser (BlacKkKlansman, Cobra Kai), Zach Cherry (Severance) and Kali Reis (True Detective, Mercy), we follow Bryan, played by Austin Noah Abram, known for his role in the The Walking Dead, facing a very different kind of horror as he negotiates the chaotic onslaught with a mix of comedic outrage, shrill panic and console taught competence.
Production
From the gory teaser in the opening scene to the full on body horror of the ending scene, we are treated to eye wateringly hideous special effects. Gone are the shiny steel and laser chic of the first instalment, as well as the ‘quaint town about to explode’ tone of ‘Welcome to Racoon City’ (which is one of my favourites in the franchise). Here we see a city already devastated by the T Virus, with monstrosities lurking in every shadow. An oppressive score that pairs dark digital pulses, dramatic horns and reverse synths that makes you feel like you’re being hunted, with an otherworldly choir track that invokes a sense of having slipped into a liminal world, strange, terrifying and hungry.
I did find the generic horror crescendos a bit repetitive and cliché, but overall, the score and sound design served itspurpose well, blending into the subconscious to create a growing sense of dread, and hitting hard where needed. And the real star of the show, the thing that really hooked me from the trailer, is the creature design. They take the familiar and twist it into unnerving visions of horror that continue to morph into more and more grotesque and frighteningly violent forms. And they leave nothing off the table when it comes to victim turned virus infused killer.
Review
Resident Evil returns with a reboot that sees the franchise take on a totally different approach to the long running video game to movie series. With Director Zach Cregger (Weapons/Barbarian) at the helm, and a very creepy trailer teasing multi limbed monstrosities and a dark tone, I went into it with the expectation that the franchise had decided to steer from the traditional action-heavy style of the previous films and follow the trend of our current horror renaissance into a darker, more body horror focused experience. Turns out I was half right.
What I hadn’t expected was the amount of laughs that came hand in hand with the flinch inducing gore. In this iteration, the protagonist is a civilian, rather than the police officer, soldier or special forces agent investigating the shadowy Umbrella Corporation that were used to. It’s as if they said, rather than matching the film’s protagonist to the games protagonist, let’s put the actual player in there. Complete with a few Easter eggs directly referencing the game, such as Bryan coming across a type writer, a green herb spied in the back of a car, indestructible padlocks keeping him on the rails and, every players bane, ammo scarcity, the film feels almost as if a twitch horror game streamer has been dropped into the Resident Evil universe. New isekai incoming – “Help! I Used To Stream Horror Games And Now I’m The Protagonist In A Horror Game!”
We can see the influence of how Zach Cregger used comedy, post creature reveal in Weapons, which I thought was a very clever way to pivot once the initial tension had gone. In Resident Evil we pretty much know the reveal from the start so using laughs to fill the gaps between scares opposed to forced suspense when everyone knows what’s coming is an effective choice.
This new dynamic of very unserious protagonist vs very serious threat does lead to some very funny moments, but for me, it did become a bit of a pendulum swing between punchline and shock, making it hard to build any kind of real suspense. I do feel that there were a couplescenes that, even with being bracketed by jokes, had real scare potential, and could’ve benefited so much from having some tension and a sense of danger and real consequence. I found it hard to be concerned for a protagonist that reacts to every threat with a laughter inducing quip. As a result I found it difficult to put myself in the characters shoes and feel any real empathetic fear for his life.
Overall, it was highly enjoyable and I definitely look forward to watching again. I would’ve liked to have been ‘scared’ at some point, given the incredible creature design, but I’ll happily settle for the Nope inducing experience I was offered, alongside a healthy amount of lol’s. It’s an interesting direction that they’ve taken the franchise, and I’m interested to see where they go from here.
Dion Hurford,anime, video game and horror enthusiast ( and forever DM, IYKYK). Some of my favourites are As above as below, the medium, saint maud, undertone and when evil lurks. Also, I make a mean spaghetti bolognese
