My second favourite film of last year was
Weapons, written and directed by Zach Cregger. He has followed that film with this, a remake and a reimagining of
Resident Evil - the long-running franchise that was written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starred the pouty Milla Jovovich. I have a soft spot for these films, although I can say, I don't believe I saw more than the first three. Anyway, I was happy to see a fresh take from someone like Cregger. What he has given us is something like Martin Scorsese's
After Hours crossed with Carolie Fargeat's
The Substance.
After Hours was a story of an average Joe just trying to get home.
Resident Evil is a story about an average Joe, in this case, Bryan (Austin Abrams - who played the junkie in Weapons), trying to deliver a package. Scorsese and Cregger both place their protagonists in absurd situations, and this is what provides the comedy, how they react to the crazy situations they find themselves in. Yes,
Resident Evil is a horror film, and it is scary at times, but it's also hilarious. I had a ball watching Austin Abrams who can play a goofus like nobody else. He brings a naive buffoonery to his character and I love watching him. I think he is a brilliant actor. So there is that, but then there are the monsters and the blood. John Carpenter's
The Thing has a famous scene of a man's head detaching and turning into a bug/spider. In
Resident Evil they reattach and form a tornado ball of Cirque du Soleil spinning limbs. Then there is
The Substance level of blood and gore. It's pretty wild. The nursery scene is something else; code red.
Resident Evil is no
Weapons but it's still a bloody good time. Catch it in theatres now or rent from Movies 'N Stuff when available.
