Sorry for being this late for my review of the latest Resident Evil live-action movie. I’m usually able to get my movie reviews much earlier because movies in the Philippines are released on Wednesday. Unfortunately, life can get in the way sometimes and this week was life doing just that. So, I was only able to watch Zach Cregger‘s take on Capcom‘s survival-horror video game franchise just a few hours ago. It’s a shame, really. I was really looking forward to seeing it on opening day but I have to take things as they happen. Still, better late than never, I guess.

In a way, I am sort of glad I was able to do so. Usually, when I do get to watch movies on opening day, I get to see it in a virtually empty movie theater. It can be nice as you get to really experience the movie without all of the distractions. But, then again, part of the movie theater experience is to feel the energy of your fellow viewers and, depending on the audience, they can either enhance on detract from how good the movie is. As I saw it over the weekend, I got to see it in a fairly packed cinema… and the crowd yelling and screaming at the right moments did make the experience much more fun. But does that mean Zack Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is actually good? Well, stick around as I give my thoughts on it!

But before I do tell you what I think of the movie, I do have to explain that this will be a SPOILER FREE review. Although it does seem to be doing well in the box office as I’m writing this, I do want to be fair as there might be some people like me who just wasn’t able to see Resident Evil because of stuff getting in the way. So, yeah. SPOILER FREE review in coming.

This take on Resident Evil follows Bryan, a medical courier who gets hired to deliver a package to Raccoon City. And, wouldn’t you know it? He just so happens to be doing so just as the outbreak you’ve seen in the video games starts. Now, Bryan, with the package in tow, has to find a way to survive his trip to Raccoon City and the package he has just might be the salvation everyone needs.

One thing that might catch fans of the Resident Evil games is how Zack Cregger doesn’t really follow much of the lore from the video games. It’s snowing during the movie, which simply didn’t happen in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3, the game when the outbreak happens. Bryan also has a smartphone, which must mean he’s from the future as the Raccoon City outbreak should have happened in 1998, way before smartphones were even possible.

A purist might dismiss Zack Cregger for “not being true to the games” but, if they did, then they’re missing out because this is, hands down, the best Resident Evil movie there is… but I would still have to agree with them a little. What I mean by that is, if you didn’t have the Resident Evil branding, this movie would still work as a really great horror comedy. It does help to have it set in Capcom’s survival-horror franchise as it does cut through a lot of crap, like having to pour in exposition to explain what’s happening. I mean, most people are familiar with Resident Evil’s general story so all Zack Cregger has to do was drop one hapless medical courier into the situation and we already know he’s in for a rough night.

Oh, by the way, did you catch that I called this a horror comedy? Yeah, it feels wrong to call a film based on the Resident Evil franchise that, huh? Well, I stand by it because there are a ton of comedic moments throughout the film and, what’s even weirder is… it does work. It’s actually hard to explain why it works because, at times, the humorous moments do feel inappropriate at times. But they don’t really interfere with the horrific aspects. Actually, at times, it does feel like the jokes are there to enhance the scary stuff. You keep bouncing around between laughing and screaming and, yeah. It feels like it shouldn’t work but Zach Cregger did manage to walk that tightrope extremely well.

Throughout the movie’s very brisk 95-minute runtime, you essentially follow our pretty helpless medical courier, Bryan, played brilliantly by Austin Abrams. When I mean he’s helpless, I mean he’s helpless, especially when you compare him to the protagonists you play in the games. He doesn’t have the steroid-y strength to punch a boulder out of the way. He can’t backflip out of the way to dodge attacks. He’s definitely not a master of unlocking. He can’t mysteriously heal himself from major injuries. And he definitely not proficient at aiming a gun. He’s just an ordinary guy plunged into an extraordinary situation and Austin Abrams plays it perfectly.

In fact, a lot of the jokes are at his expense because, if he did have any of the skills mentioned above, he would’ve easily gotten through the night with nary a scratch on him. But, as he’s just like you and me, he’s just scrambling to stay alive. He does have some emotional moments but, at a certain point, you do kind of forget about his backstory. That’s not necessarily a bad thing but it is something that did get lost in the shuffle and even Austin Abram’s moving performance wasn’t enough to really make me care all that much for it.

Austin Abrams’ Bryan isn’t the only character in the movie, though. There are other “regular” humans he runs across. But I did have to put quotation marks around the word “regular” because these people do not act like normal human beings. They act more like caricatures of human beings. They definitely do not act “normal” by any stretch of the imagination. In a way, they act more like non-playable characters in a video game. Not a Resident Evil video game, mind you as the NPCs in those games act… okay, they also act really weird in those games. But the people in this movie behave almost like they’re comedic relief. Suffice to say, they’re there but they don’t act like they’re even the main character in their own story.

I did mention that this movie is pretty short as it’s only 95-minutes long and I have mixed feelings about that. I do think they could’ve added a few more scary scenes and setpieces but, at the same time, I kind of can see Zack Cregger already padding the film’s runtime. There are some scenarios that feel like he thought would be cool and they are. But they also could have been removed and you wouldn’t have noticed it. There are also a lot of times when Bryan is just… staring at what’s happening instead of doing something, like, oh I don’t know, running away from the thing he’s supposed to be staring at. The staring does linger for a second or two too long for me and it does make Bryan look like an idiot which, in hindsight, is what he is. I’m not saying what these scenarios are as this is a SPOILER FREE review. Still, if he’s supposed to be the everyman, I do think he would be running away almost immediately after all of the danger he’s been through to him instead of looking at the danger intently.

I do have to question some of Zack Cregger’s supposed homages to the Resident Evil games. Sure, fans will notice a lot of the props that are supposed to emulate the items you can pick up in the video game, such as First Aid Sprays, and even the green shotgun shell boxes. But I did find some of the first person point-of-view perspectives a little distracting as it looks like he was really trying to make it look like a video game. I also did see an interview of his saying he tried to emulate the “behind the shoulder” camera angle but this also didn’t really work as a lot of the shots were too tight. It still works because putting the camera close to the character in frame makes things feel claustrophobic and makes you feel like something is just out of frame, waiting to pounce. But nope! It really doesn’t look like the games, Zach Cregger!

The creatures are a little hit-or-miss, in my opinion. The main monster that follows Bryan is… creative. It’s more body horror than what you would expect from something with the Resident Evil brand, though. There are other monsters but, as this is a SPOILER FREE review, I won’t be describing them. I will say each of them just pop up once and that’s it so they don’t really add much and, once again, they come off more like body horror than anything else. Heck, I would say they would be more comfortable in a Silent Hill game than in Resident Evil! They feel out of place but I mostly didn’t mind.

I also do have an issue with the ending and it’s also the same problem I had with how Zack Cregger ended his other movie, Weapons: the ending is just hilarious! I’m not sure if this is a Zack Cregger thing because I haven’t seen Barbarian. But from the two horror movies I’ve seen of his, this does seem like the start of a pattern. At least this time I’m not entirely sure this is intentionally funny. It’s just that the NPCs just act like the NPCs they are so it comes off as silly, not horrific.

Now, while I really did like Zack Cregger’s Resident Evil, it doesn’t really feel like a Resident Evil movie. The amount of humor and the creature designs kind of made me preclude it. Even if that is the case, I do have to recommend it. The scary parts are scary and the funny parts are funny. The creature don’t fit in the Resident Evil universe but do work in the film. If you can go see it, don’t be like me and go do just that.

Have you seen Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil? What did you think of it? Let me know in the comments section below!