THIS REVIEW CONTAINS SPOILERS.

I know what you’re thinking. You saw this on my website or my Letterboxd and thought, “Resident Evil? Has Nate even played the games? Has he seen any of the movies?”. And the answer to both of those questions would be no. I have zero experience with the Resident Evil universe, but I do have (limited) experience with Zach Cregger, and after really enjoying Weapons last year, his take on Resident Evil deserved a look. I had no idea I would love it as much as I did.

Knowing nothing about Resident Evil coming in, I wasn’t ready for anything that the story threw at me. I think my surprise at the first few “scary-ass monsters”, as Bryan put it, was pretty clear as I regularly jumped out of my seat and let out a smattering of “Damnit!”s and “Good Lord”s. I was initially a little put off by the randomness of those monsters, but they only felt random because they hadn’t been explained yet. Knowing what was in the bag (great patience from Cregger) made it all make sense. I loved how Bryan reacted to every new monster and situation; even as the story got crazier, Bryan never let you forget how much this was all inconveniencing him (everything from his car to his Js got blood on them, and he’s going to have to buy a new windshield!).

The humor was one of the biggest welcome surprises of the whole movie. Knowing Cregger as a comedian (and nervously laughing through some of Weapons last year), I expected him to try some jokes, but I didn’t think I’d be laughing almost nonstop. Austin Abrams gave a hell of a performance, especially comedically. I imagine he voiced the thoughts of someone playing these games perfectly. I was also really impressed by the look of this movie, and not just the times it switched into a first-person shooter perspective. The colors and contrast popped, the gore was exaggerated and satisfying, and the monsters’ CGI was pretty solid. The narrative was bonkers and featured one of the best twist endings I’ve seen in a horror movie. Don’t read ahead if you don’t like spoilers, but…the protagonist became the villain (and won)!

I didn’t do any preparation before watching Resident Evil for the first time. Having seen how perfectly Cregger brought this story to life, though, why bother going back to the old movies and the games? Cregger’s Resident Evil was wild, unpredictable, relentlessly hilarious, and really pretty to look at, and I can’t imagine any of the previous entries in this franchise even come close. I don’t think I had any “favorite horror directors” coming into this movie tonight, but Zach Cregger may be the very first. Time to watch Barbarian!