REVIEW:
Talk about a cool movie. This one was both funny and exciting at the same time. Really at all times. It was a combination of They Will Kill You and the Substance, mixed with some Walking Dead. But all that sounds like it plays in familiar territory, and what makes this movie so great is how it takes a genre that’s been done again and again, and finds something new. It’s own unique angle.
This movie is only ninety minutes long and yet it still takes its time on small moments, and shows us the practicality and logistics of everything. How is that even possible. The answer is that it chooses what to use its limited screen time on wisely. This is mainly true of the first half. That’s where we get the smaller moments, before the second half goes all out.
The movie was written and directed by Zack Creeger, who made Barbarian and Weapons, and clearly is a guy with a vision. Like Zack Snyder when he made Dawn of the Dead and was new to the business and hungry, and out to prove himself, Creeger clearly has creativity on his side, and keeps going for it. Barbarian wasn’t great, but it was inspired. Ever since then, Creeger has found his rhythm and has been hitting it out of the park. Weapons was all about style, with its method of showing one short story, only to cut back to seeing a character who made a brief appearance in that story, and now follow his story. Even Barbarian had a similar fractured narrative structure. Not so much here. In Resident Evil it’s linear the whole way through, straight-forward, almost like a no-time-to-lose, no time to play games, approach.
The movie starts with our protagonist, Bryan (Austin Abrams,) walking through hospital hallways, trying to find someone who works there to sign for a package. He’s a courier. And he can’t find anyone to sign. That includes the secretary, who gives him a hard time before telling him to just sign it himself. This gives him the idea to forge her name. This whole thing is a quick, relatable, humorous opening.
From there, Bryan takes another job to deliver something else, because it pays double. This time he’s headed to Raccoon City, which is outside the delivery zone limits. His car isn’t equipped for the snow, which comes up when agreeing to take the job, and Bryan lies about it. And then he’s off, car swerving around in the snowy woods as he not only tries to drive, but also to have a phone conversation with his recently pregnant girlfriend. Talk about establishing a lot in a small amount of time.
And then Bryan hits someone, out in the woods, and it’s on. But it’s not suddenly action. Instead we get the tension and buildup of Bryan trying to drive with this woman as his passenger who keeps trying to touch his face. There’s a bit of a Shaun of the Dead vibe here, with Bryan being the ultimate slacker and also not noticing that there is something seriously wrong with this zombified woman sitting beside him. He just brushes it off as she is being silly or playful, and in terms of humor, it really works.
Bryan gets pulled over by a cop, and the fun ensues. Instead of trying to hide this woman, or what happened to her, like most movies would have Bryan do, he confesses everything. He even gets the cop to take the woman, with Bryan following behind. These are some of the ways that director Creeger carves out his own path. He takes the usual move, that most movies would do, and does the opposite. When the police car flips over right up ahead of Bryan, it’s fantastic. So is the chase around the car between Bryan and the woman that takes place afterwards. These are the small moments I was talking about. You feel the space, out there in the woods. Another was when Bryan first hit the woman with his car, and had to keep walking further and further into the woods until he found the body.
Bryan gets the gun off the now-dead policeman, and fires at the woman, but ends up just shooting up the hood and engine of his car. So now his car won’t start. There are a couple of running jokes in this movie, and one of them involves cars, and how from this moment on, he can never get one to work or work out. In a later moment, he can’t drive a car through a locked gate. But after disabling his car here, with the gunshots, Bryan has to be m ok go it on foot and finds a nearby farm. There he has an encounter with a dog. And again, it’s all about the logistics and the small moments. Like what Bryan and doesn’t do with a ladder.
Many people have said this movie is like playing the video games. While I haven’t played much Resident Evil, that idea seems to pan out. Nearly the entire movie is just Bryan on his own (there are quick cameos here and there, but it’s mainly a solo outing,) and it’s very much about what he can pick up and how he can use it in order to survive. The barn sequence at the farm is a perfect example of that. So is the way that Bryan continues to pick up different guns throughout the movie. After the barn, it’s the house. Then it’s a tunnel Bryan comes across, and the vehicles he has to walk through to get to one end of the tunnel to the other. It’s all a lot of fun, and very practical.
At about the three quarter mark or so, Bryan is picked up by two characters and taken into the city. Here’s where things change. We start to get some answers for the first time, but even more importantly, the stakes get ratcheted up. The slow build moments are gone, but the excitement and thrills are still there. So for example, the sewer scene doesn’t have nearly as much detail as the barn scene or the chase around the car from earlier, but that’s okay. A movie should move a little quicker and raise the stakes a little more in the second half. And this one does.
We even get a final mission, if you will, which involves Bryan having to get all the way up to the top floor of a building. Which means he has to go through the garage, the stairs, the elevator, an elevator shaft, and even a baby ward. It’s a blast. Even the walkway he has to get across when he reaches the top floors, is pretty cool. This movie is a lot of fun. Is it over the top, and outrageous? Of course. Is it smart and creative and filled with humor? You betcha. It’s not deep by any means, but as a guilty-pleasure, check your brain at the door and enjoy the ride, kind of movie, it definitely works!