'Resident Evil' Review: Director Zach Cregger delivers infectious reboot to gory video game franchise
Zach Cregger might not be your cup of tea, but his incredible gift behind the camera cannot be ignored.
The writer/director comes armed with absolute terror and hilarity, two things that seem incompatible on the surface, yet he's able to blend seamlessly.
And his latest horror film, "Resident Evil," is no different.
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If "Resident Evil" sounds familiar, that's because it's a long-running video game franchise that turned into a long-running movie franchise starring Milla Jovovich.
In this version of "Resident Evil," her character Alice is nowhere to be found. Instead, it stars Austin Abrams, who plays a medical courier named Bryan urgently tasked with delivering what he believes is a vital organ to a hospital in Raccoon City.
What was supposed to be a quiet, uneventful drive devolves into a series of unfortunate events for Bryan, the cause of which stems from a lab leak of a virus (we all know how easily this can happen, right?) developed by the Umbrella Corporation that transforms organisms into what can only be described as ungodly monsters from the darkest of nightmares.
The "Resident Evil" movies we've been used to feature Jovovich being a gun-slinging badass with a zombie body count in the thousands. Here, the scrawny Bryan can barely figure out how to turn the safety off. He's not your knight in shining armor — in fact, he's kind of an idiot. Yet, there's something endearing and relatable about him.
It was a bold choice for Cregger to cast Abrams as Bryan. You may recognize Abrams for his stints in "Euphoria" and "This Is Us" or various movies, like Cregger's 2025 Oscar-winning breakout "Weapons," but he hasn't been the star of such a high-profile project, particularly as big as this. His performance is able to generate big laughs as he maintains such seriousness (after all, Bryan is literally fighting for survival). "Resident Evil" should hopefully mark a new chapter in Abrams' career as a leading man — because he's certainly capable.
Abrams is essentially a one-man show, but Paul Walter Hauser ("Richard Jewell," "I, Tonya"), Kali Reis ("True Detective") and Zach Cherry ("Severance") make memorable, albeit brief, appearances.
As a fan of the original source material, Cregger brings the video game experience to life, playing around with first-person angles as we see from Bryan's view of where he's aiming his gun, or the tracking shot as we follow him in the snowy terrain or an eerily quiet house. He and co-writer Shay Hatten (who wrote the more recent "John Wick" installments) were able to stick the landing by juggling bloody thrills with gallows humor.
And no offense to Cregger's franchise predecessor Paul W.S. Anderson, but the production value is just far superior in this "Resident Evil" between the cinematography from Oscar nominee Dariusz Wolski ("The Martian"), the score from brothers Hays and Ryan Holladay and the editing from Joe Murphy (all of whom worked on "Weapons" and Cregger's solo feature debut "Barbarian") as well as the gruesome special effects and makeup work.
While it's difficult to rank this higher than "Barbarian" and "Weapons" ("Barbarian" is still my favorite of the three), Cregger is flexing his muscles taking on a Hollywood franchise and has cemented his status among the small elite group of rising filmmakers who have had such a strong streak so early in their careers (think Jordan Peele or Yorgos Lanthimos). And if he keeps it up, perhaps he can reach Christopher Nolan's status where audiences flock to see his movies because the man in the director's chair has become the real star.
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"Resident Evil" comes back to life in this fun, infectious reboot thanks to Zach Cregger's brilliance behind the camera and Austin Abrams' charming performance as an unlikely lead in front of it. If you can't stomach the gore, this isn't for you. But for those who get a kick out of it, get that bucket of popcorn ready.
"Resident Evil" is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout. Running time: 1 hour, 30 minutes. In theaters now.