I was on the fence about going to see the latest Resident Evil reboot to review, given how uninspired the prior reboot attempt in 2021 turned out to be. But director Zach Cregger gave us last year’s phenomenal Weapons, and early word of mouth was extremely positive, so I took a chance. I’m glad I did, because the film is terrific. Cregger’s distinctive sensibility is just what the flagging franchise needed: a truly fresh take on a well-trodden fictional world that blends horror, humor, and some pretty over-the-top gore in just the right ratios. And you don’t need to be a Resident Evil franchise fan to enjoy it.
(Spoilers below, but we’ll give you a heads-up before any major reveals.)
When the first Resident Evil game debuted in 1996, it was an immediate commercial and critical success, spawning several sequel games, comics, novels, and a very lucrative film franchise directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring Milla Jovovich. Reviews were mixed, despite the films’ massive box office success. The first reboot, Welcome to Raccoon City (2021), was critically panned and had a disappointing box office, grossing just $42 million globally against its $25 million budget. The studio nixed its plans for a direct sequel, and a 2022 Netflix series was also canceled after a less-than-stellar first season.
Enter Cregger, who hadn’t seen any of the original films when he took on the project but was a huge fan of the games, especially Resident Evil 2. Cregger’s take is not a direct game adaptation, but an original story with original characters set in the same fictional universe. Cregger told the audience at CinemaCon earlier this year that his film would have “no narrative acrobatics, time jumps, or disorienting chapter things,” preferring his audience to be “locked in with a protagonist on a foot journey through a world hell-bent on destroying them.” Nor would it be like Weapons; Cregger’s Resident Evil vision, he said, is closer to Evil Dead II yet still “true to the spirit of the games.”
This latest reboot is more of an alternate timeline told from the periphery of the main gaming narratives, like a side quest. Cregger set his story in the present day just as the T-virus is spreading throughout Raccoon City. And he opted to make his protagonist a plucky Everyman: a young medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams) whose girlfriend Michelle (Sara Paxton) has just told him over the phone that she’s pregnant as he’s dropping an organ off at a hospital.
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