Resident Evil – Cregger Brings the Videogame to Cinema

During Bryan Hodukavich's journey to Raccoon City, every turn in the road can hide something even more terrifying. It's probably the most effective way Zach Cregger brings Resident Evil to the big screen without merely reproducing its characters or most famous episodes. His protagonist is a young man who transports organs for transplants, who can't stand the sight of blood, much less violence, seemingly far removed from the saga's usual heroes. His transformation over the course of the night thus also becomes the journey through which the film plays between survival horror and action, albeit with some forced elements.

It is precisely this progressive descent into nightmare that distinguishes the new film from previous cinematic adaptations. Where the series with Milla Jovovich had progressively transformed Resident Evil into a post-apocalyptic action film, Cregger recaptures the feeling of being inside a horror video game, without sacrificing a recognizable cinematic vision, matured in his previous Barbarian and Weapons.

The film tells an original story, but it takes place during the night of the Raccoon City outbreak and in the world of Resident Evil 2. There are no Leon, Claire, or other historical protagonists: Cregger preferred to take a new character and place him within a situation that unfolds at the same time as the events known to players. This choice works especially because the video game is not just referenced, but imitated in the way the film progresses.

Bryan starts with a pistol and, as the nightmare intensifies, his equipment expands. Ammunition becomes a resource to conserve, weapons mark a progression, keys, locks, and obstacles enter the narrative, transforming environments into something very similar to a level to explore. Some passages in first-person horror FPS work great, and there's even the mechanical typewriter, as well as sprays and medicinal herbs.

Raccoon City is one of the levels to traverse

The difference is that these elements are not "placed" on the film like figurines for the fan base, but rather integrated into the narrative mechanism. Each new location seems to open a subsequent phase, each encounter modifies the level of danger, and each acquired weapon accompanies the crescendo of the threat. It is here that the debt to Resident Evil 4 emerges, the chapter that Cregger indicated as a reference, especially for the rhythm and progression of the set pieces. The film continues to change scenery and tone, progressively increasing the scale of the nightmare.

More than ever, the camera is fundamental: Cregger often films as if trying to recreate the player's perspective, predominantly using a third-person grammar and switching, when necessary, to first-person or a more traditional view. It's not a mechanically applied stylistic exercise, given that the distance from the character allows us to observe him as he moves through environments and helps to convey that particular sense of exploration.

And it is also for this reason that the editing is one of the most successful elements of the film, with the director not letting the action get bogged down. Environments change, threats increase, the story continues to move Bryan from one situation to another with a fluidity that gives the sensation of advancing within the video game.

From survival to body horror

Then there's the horror DNA. Here the director fully rediscovers that vein shown in the past, the atmosphere becomes almost Lovecraftian, especially when the human body loses its recognizability and mutation takes on forms that seem to belong to a biological nightmare without rules. Some images inevitably recall John Carpenter's The Thing: flesh transforming, impossible anatomies, beings composed of multiple human elements assembled into ferocious rolling monstrosities.

The gruesome component, however, is not solely the fruit of Cregger's imagination. The production explicitly looked to the video game bestiary, especially Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 6, using anatomical elements to generate unprecedented creatures.

The result can be quite disgusting yet surprisingly entertaining. There's an almost sadistic pleasure in showing bodies that continue to move when they shouldn't anymore, right down to those grotesque balls of flesh composed of legs, arms, and torsos that roll in the snow or climb buildings. It's an imagery that pushes Resident Evil towards body horror without losing that component of absurdity that has always belonged to the saga. There's even an echo of a fragment from the far too maligned The Happening, by M. Night Shyamalan.

Not everything is perfect, however, especially when Bryan has to evolve, or when some "lab rat" scientists act stupidly superficially towards a potential contagion, precisely near the aseptic area where they have barricaded themselves. For much of the film, the protagonist is a Calimero in the wrong place at the wrong time, completely unprepared for what happens. Then he becomes something much closer to Rambo: this transformation is understandable within video game logic — even the player starts with limited resources and progressively becomes more effective — but on a narrative level, some stages feel forced. It's one of the rare occasions where fidelity to the video game's structure ends up clashing with the narrative.

For the rest, Cregger succeeds in an operation that is anything but simple: making a Resident Evil film without trying to make a film of a specific Resident Evil. The result does not turn references to the saga into a mere catalog for fans. Beyond the forced elements, this Resident Evil possesses a precise personality, especially when Cregger lets the images and editing build the relationship with the video game. The ending is a wide-open door to the future of the saga, and considering where it could lead, it's hard to think that this was Bryan's last night in Raccoon City.