"Resident Evil": Disgusting. Repulsive. Damn good.
Darkness, barely any ammo, and things no human should ever see: Zach Cregger's 'Resident Evil' is disgusting, absurd, and damn scary. That is exactly how survival horror should be.
Don't worry: The following film review contains no spoilers. I won't reveal anything more than what is already known and visible in the trailers. «Resident Evil» has been in theaters since September 17th.
I was afraid of this film – but not because of zombies, mutated dogs, or other abominations in the dark corners of Raccoon City. I was afraid because of «Weapons». I didn't like that one – at least in part.
Director Zach Cregger did build a dark, oppressive atmosphere in it that left me puzzled and shuddering. But in the final third, he suddenly unleashed so much black humor that I wondered if I had literally ended up in the wrong movie. Horror turned almost into comedy, tension into absurdity. Of all people, this man was now supposed to adapt «Resident Evil».
I should have worried less.
Just quickly deliver this package
Bryan's job could hardly be more mundane. The medical courier, played by Austin Abrams (who also appeared in «Weapons»), is supposed to take a sealed package to the hospital in Raccoon City as quickly as possible. A drive through snowy mountains in the middle of the night. A few hours of work. Nothing more. What could possibly go wrong?
A whole lot, obviously. On the way, Bryan hits a woman with his car, or so he thinks. From that point on, the night turns into an increasingly grotesque odyssey that leads him from lonely forest roads through a remote farm, houses, and tunnels, all the way to the sewers and hospitals of Raccoon City.
You don't really need to know more. Cregger is less interested in retelling the story of the video games anyway (the film apparently takes place at the same time as «Resident Evil 2», the game, but you won't notice that). Instead, he wants to translate their feeling onto the screen. And damn, he succeeds well!
What is lurking around the next corner?
Above all, this darkness makes the film so effective. No matter where Bryan is, Cregger rarely lets me see more than what the beam of a cell phone flashlight reveals. Beyond that, there is only black – and the constant possibility that something is waiting there that I don't actually want to see.
Source: Constantin Film
Cregger turns this lack of knowledge into perhaps the most effective weapon of his film. Whether Bryan is standing in a clearing in the woods, creeping through an abandoned house, or later fighting his way through the sewers in the middle of Raccoon City: the space outside his field of vision remains a permanent threat. Eventually, I catch myself thinking the same thing before every new corner – please let there be nothing there.
Added to this is the scarcity of resources, which Cregger treats almost like a game mechanic. Bryan starts with nothing, then gets a pistol, later a shotgun, and finally even a submachine gun. Nevertheless, the overwhelmed courier never becomes an action hero, because ammunition remains scarce and what is chasing him gets stronger faster than Bryan's arsenal grows. What begins with individual infected, which can be dealt with with a few bullets if necessary, escalates further and further.
Source: Constantin Film
Humans merge with other humans or animals (yuck!), and eventually everything with everything. Arms, legs, and heads grow into each other, flesh proliferates over flesh until it is barely recognizable where one body ends and the next begins. Dogs tear their faces open, revealing maws full of razor-sharp teeth from which fleshy tentacles shoot out. Even infants mutate into spider-like creatures that crawl through the darkness on spindly limbs.
At some point, these are no longer individual monsters, but proliferating masses of flesh made of body parts, teeth, limbs, and faces that are sitting where faces definitely do not belong.
Yes. «Resident Evil» gets pretty disgusting.
A completely overwhelmed average guy
All of this also works so well because Austin Abrams does not play a hardened hero who happens to already know how to survive a zombie apocalypse. Bryan is an average guy, perhaps even a rather fearful and cynical one, whose understanding of reality is currently completely collapsing. And his reactions to it feel surprisingly human.
Source: Constantin Film
Of course, I know what I've gotten myself into when playing a «Resident Evil». When the face of a dog suddenly tears open there, I think about ammunition, health, and the next save point. But what if something like that is standing in front of me in the real world? What the hell does my brain do with that information then?
Bryan's answer is: panic, repression – and a healthy dose of sarcasm. He comments on the inconceivable, makes jokes about it, and tries almost desperately to break something down to a human scale that can no longer be explained by human standards. This is exactly where Cregger surprises me the most.
The difference between humor and a punchline
Because this time, the humor does not change the tone of the film, as happened with «Weapons», but describes Bryan's way of dealing with it. The film doesn't find the situation funny – Bryan makes jokes because it is unbearable for him. His sarcasm is a defense mechanism against a world that is literally falling apart into a pile of mutating flesh before his eyes.
That even infects me. When something crawls out of the darkness for the fifth time that looks even more grotesque than everything before it, sometimes all I have left is this incredulous laughter. And the more absurd and disgusting the events become, the more grateful I am for Bryan's gallows humor. It gives me a vent for all the horrible images without taking away any of their horror. I can laugh for a moment, take a deep breath – and still continue to be afraid of what Cregger has in store for me behind the next corner.
Source: Constantin Film
Cregger doesn't entirely escape his penchant for the absurd, however. Paul Walter Hauser and Zach Cherry (you probably know him from «Severance») play two characters from the environment of the Umbrella Corporation who turned out to be much too caricatured for my taste. That is where that Cregger flashes briefly again, who turns black humor so far that people almost become cartoon characters. Fortunately, these moments remain brief.
In a nutshell
Hell awaits around the next corner
I write about technology as if it were cinema, and about films as if they were real life. Between bits and blockbusters, I’m after stories that move people, not just generate clicks. And yes – sometimes I listen to film scores louder than I probably should.
Which films, shows, books, games or board games are genuinely great? Recommendations from our personal experience.
Show all
