Critics Love Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Variant

Has Zach Cregger cracked the video-game-movie code? That seems to be the critical consensus. People are loving his new addition to the Resident Evil film canon. The trick? Keeping it simple. “It’s the Rosencrantz and Guildenstern of adaptations,” writes Vulture’s Alison Willmore, “a horror comedy centering a fumbling minor player whose perspective on the apocalyptic action is limited.” For years, Paul W.S. Anderson made Raccoon City his high-fashion, high-camp playground. Then Welcome to Raccoon City tried to take things back to basics but wound up feeling like the bad kind of basic instead. Now critics are praising the way Cregger’s take on the material feels like playing a horror game, even if it doesn’t have as much fan service as past iterations.

That’s not to say there’s no Easter eggs for the Real Gamers (TM). “There’s a recurring gag in Resident Evil that padlocks are pretty much indestructible in this world (even to point-blank shotgun blasts), because in the games, the only way through a locked door is by solving a puzzle and finding the key,” Polygon’s Jake Kleinman notes. Below, the Resident Evil rave reviews the Umbrella Corporation doesn’t want you to see.

“To filter a movie about the origins of a zombie/monster epidemic through the point of view of a hapless outsider is an amusing, if rather one-note, concept. But Cregger is the filmmaker behind Barbarian and the even better Weapons. He’s the hottest horror director working today, and if Resident Evil is his least interesting film to date, it’s still a deftly done, bitterly funny riff on the absurdities of the genre.” — Alison Willmore, Vulture

“It seemed a step backward when it was announced that Zach Cregger’s next film would be a reboot of the Resident Evil film franchise … Not to worry, however, as the talented filmmaker has completely rejuvenated the series, leaving the six original films and the misbegotten reboot attempt Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City in the dust.” — Frank Scheck, The Hollywood Reporter

“The white-knuckled helplessness of entering a new room and flinching at the way it’s framed to emphasize all the places a monster could jump out. The addictively queasy tug-of-war between wanting to explore the next section and wanting to just say ‘nope’ and turn the whole thing off. The headache of item management, the thrill of blowing a villager’s head off with your last shotgun round, only to see tentacles sprout out of its neck hole as it grows more powerful. Cregger’s side-quest-sized story about a hapless courier has been genetically engineered in an Umbrella Corp. lab as the perfect vehicle for all these sense memories, to the point that his Resident Evil better reflects the essence of its source material than any of the previous movies.” — David Erlich, IndieWire

“Cregger, who has become a horror brand name on the strength of the similarly inventive Barbarian and Weapons, orchestrates the mayhem with expert command of pacing, comic-horrific timing, and even that old standby, the lowly jumpscare. (There’s at least one genuinely masterful version here.) The movie’s comic side isn’t quite Sam Raimi broad (or bold), but Cregger’s sketch-comedy roots are just as delightfully visible here as they were in Barbarian, without the aid of that movie’s clever shifts in timeline or perspective.” — Jesse Hassenger, The Guardian

“Whatever your idea of what a good Resident Evil movie should be, I have to recommend to the skeptical to put that to one side and lock in for what Zach Cregger delivers with this new adaptation of the Capcom games. With a clear appreciation for odds stacked against the protagonist and all manner of freaky foes to stand against them, Cregger ably adapts the spirit, if not the letter, of the Resident Evil games into a jet-fueled horror experience that has room for lots of tension, some great laughs, and a strong central performance from Austin Abrams.” — Tom Jorgensen, IGN

“After watching the movie, I even feel inspired to try playing the games one more time. After all, if Bryan can force himself to keep taking one step forward even when he knows the only thing waiting for him is Cronenbergian horror, then what’s stopping me from picking up a controller and doing the exact same thing?” — Jake Kleinman, Polygon