Resident Evil is set during a viral outbreak and follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier tasked with delivering an organ to Raccoon City. The movie follows the game's structure very well. Just as the player slowly descends into depths of blood, mayhem, and corporate negligence, so does Bryan. Zach Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatton really hone in on the feeling of an outbreak from the perspective of a simple survivor.
The film is largely a one-man show, and Abrams carries it. He plays a wiry everyman whose haplessness ratchets up both the tension and the comedy. It's tailored to a horror comedy audience, and unlike some of Creggers more recent horror films, his comedic writing really shines through again. It cuts through moments of tension like a knife and yet doesn't feel out of place. The comedy feeds off the moment and keeps the story moving. In fact, it is in moments of comedy that our lead actor becomes even more relatable. The jump scares and eerie nature of the outbreak are largely confined to the first 2 acts. It is in the Snowy farmhouse and the car tunnel that horror fans are in for a treat of quiet fear as the escalation begins from simple zombies to monstrosities. By the time the third act is in full motion, the horror falls more to the wayside in place of a monster movie. That is in line with Resident Evil, though. While the games features zombies, eventually they all become about surviving monsters of varying types.
One of the major themes of this film is the uncertainty of fatherhood according to Zach Cregger's Indiewire interview. The theme comes through at some points in the film and then a full-blown maternity ward scene. It just doesn't sit prominently enough to feel like more than an undercurrent. Bryan's opening scene features him and his girlfriend discussing her pregnancy, and, not to be too on the nose, it becomes a pregnant pause that the horror interrupts. We know it's on his mind and seems to be part of the reason he took the job. He wanted to delay the conversation a little longer. When it does come back up near the end of the film, it feels like a forgotten add on to remind us of Bryans lost future and his chance to be a father. Sad, yes, but it doesn't hit as heavy because so much has happened in the meantime.
This Horror comedy is a great entry way for people unfamiliar with Resident Evil into the mythos of the game world. It hasn't pleased Die-Hard fans, but rarely do these adaptations please all the fans. What matters is that it was a good movie that only falls flat on the emotional stakes it sets up and doesn't deliver on. That said, Resident Evil is a fun movie.
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