“The Best RESIDENT EVIL Film?”
After its UK cinema run a short while ago, Sony are bringing out the latest film from director Zach Cregger (BARBARIAN, WEAPONS), and for a RESIDENT EVIL film, it’s surprisingly good. Prior to this the RESIDENT EVIL movie franchise consisted of seven films, plus a TV series, and had proven to be a considerable moneymaker for the Munich-based (but actually Danish in origin) Constantin Film. All this despite the films being only very loosely based on the video game that inspired them and a decidedly crazy, not to say confusing attitude, to plot logistics.
Well, Cregger’s film does away with all of that, delivering a more low-key approach while skimping not a jot on a plethora of disgusting-looking monsters. There’s no Alice (played by Milla Jovovich in six films) and the Umbrella Corporation is only mentioned in passing. Instead we get the story of courier Bryan (Austin Abrams) who we meet delivering an organ to a hospital for transplant. Is this actually how such things are done in US hospitals? One sincerely hopes not but given the current state of that nation it’s possible.
Bryan’s next job is to take an urgent specimen to a hospital in Raccoon City. He sets off at top speed down icy roads and almost straight away knocks down a barefoot woman who runs in front of his car. Somehow she’s still alive (well, after a fashion) and so he bundles her into his vehicle and sets off again for the hospital. And from there things get even more bizarre and monstrous.
It’s easy to see the inspiration of video game mechanics in RESIDENT EVIL but that doesn’t make it any less fun, nor do the CGI effects which in better days would have been physical. Just be assured that they are disgusting and gloopy and plentiful and with a refreshing lack of emphasis on zombies. The pacing slows a little on spots but for a 93 minute film Cregger gets it right an awful lot more than he gets it wrong, resulting in a film that is easily the most entertaining, suspenseful and, at times, genuinely funny RESIDENT EVIL film to grace our screens to date.
Zach Cregger’s RESIDENT EVIL is out now to buy or rent on Digital from Sony
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