Review: Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Is One of the Best Mixes of Terror and Humor We Have Seen in a Long Time
By Klep Napier | Wearecritix.com
Before anything else let me be very clear about something. You guys all know the 2002 Resident Evil starring Milla Jovovich? Yeah. That is not this.
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil is its own thing entirely. A completely original story set in the world you know, built for fans of the games without being imprisoned by them, and packed with enough genuine scares, sharp humor and first person camera wizardry to make it one of the most purely entertaining horror rides of the year.
It is only an hour and a half long. It flies by. And it left me wanting more. That is the highest compliment I can give a film like this.
What Is Actually Going On Here
The film follows Austin Abrams as a hospital courier, a guy whose entire job is moving organs and medications from point A to point B. On this particular night he gets tasked at the very last minute with one final delivery. The destination? Raccoon City.
If you know your Resident Evil lore you already know exactly what kind of night this man is about to have. If you do not, the film wastes no time showing you.
What Cregger has done is essentially create a side story within the broader Resident Evil universe. Think of it as a character you never met in the games, dealing with everything that was already happening while you were busy playing through the main storyline.
The Easter eggs are there. The familiar creature types are there. The weapons you recognize are there. But the story itself belongs entirely to this film and that creative freedom is exactly what makes it work.
Cregger does not have the pressure of getting every detail right for the hardcore fans. He takes the horror, the atmosphere and the mythology you know and builds something new inside it. The result feels like it exists in the same world without ever feeling like it owes that world a debt.
Not Since Raimi
Here is the line I keep coming back to when I think about this film.
The last time a horror film mixed genuine terror and genuine humor this effectively I was watching Sam Raimi. Drag Me to Hell energy. That specific combination of making you scream and making you laugh sometimes within the same breath. It is an incredibly difficult balance to strike and most films that try it fall apart somewhere in the middle.
Resident Evil does not fall apart. It holds the line from the opening scene to the closing frame.
The humor comes entirely through Austin's perspective. There are moments in this film where you are watching this man deal with something genuinely terrifying and the comedy comes not from the situation being played for laughs but from how grounded and relatable his reactions are. If this was actually happening to you, in real life, on a random Tuesday night delivery run, this is probably exactly how unhinged and ridiculous it would feel even while being absolutely horrifying.
That grounded quality is what makes the humor land without undercutting the scares. And the scares are real.
Watch the full video review on the CritiX YouTube channel right here.
The Camera Work Is the Real Star
Zach Cregger did something with this film visually that I was not fully prepared for even after seeing that scene at San Diego Comic-Con earlier this year.
The camera work feels like a first person video game. Not in a gimmicky way. In a way that makes complete and deliberate sense for the world this film is operating in. There is a scene involving a police car in the snow, something closing in on Austin, him circling the vehicle with a weapon in hand, the camera tight behind him the entire time, that I cannot stop thinking about. You genuinely do not know what is coming around that corner because the camera refuses to show you anything Austin cannot see himself.
That sequence is everything. And the film is full of moments like it.
Inside houses, in open spaces, from the very first moment Austin enters the hospital at the start of the film, the camera is already moving. Already putting you in the middle of things. Already making you feel like you are there alongside this character navigating something you absolutely would not want to navigate in real life.
The sound design works in lockstep with all of it. Sharp and precise and genuinely effective at making the jump scares land rather than just startle.
Austin Abrams Carries the Whole Thing
This film works as well as it does because Austin Abrams is in every frame of it and he never loses the thread of who his character is even when everything around him is descending into absolute chaos.
His performance is funny without trying to be a comedian. Scared without being cartoonish. And grounded in a way that keeps you invested in him as a person rather than just a body the film needs to move from one set piece to the next.
Paul Walter Hauser pops up and delivers exactly what you want from a Paul Walter Hauser appearance. Zach Cherry, who you know from Severance, shows up as well. Neither one overstays their welcome and both of them add texture to a film that is already working beautifully without them.
One Honest Critique
The blood and gore in this film is largely CGI and it shows. There are moments where the practical effects ground you back in something real and those moments are the strongest ones visually. But a significant portion of the carnage reads as digital and hardcore horror fans who live and die by practical effects are going to notice.
It did not pull me out of the experience. The film is moving too fast and too confidently for that. But it is worth knowing going in so it does not catch you off guard in a way that costs the film your goodwill.
Final Verdict
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil is a genuinely great time. Sharp camera work, excellent sound design, a lead performance that carries the whole film and a tonal balance between horror and humor that most filmmakers only dream of pulling off this cleanly.
Nothing here will replace what you love about the games or the original film franchise. But it was never trying to. It is doing something different and it does that something different extremely well.
An hour and a half of chaos, tension and genuine entertainment. The ride is absolutely worth it.
Resident Evil is in theaters now. Go see it this weekend.
CritiX Rating: 4 out of 5
Review by Klep Napier, Founder, CEO and Editor in Chief of CritiX Media. MPA-Accredited Entertainment Outlet. wearecritix.com
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