Zach Cregger Made A Great ‘Resident Evil’ Movie
It makes no sense, but also somehow makes perfect sense that Zach Cregger would want to make a Resident Evil movie, a video game based film franchise that has somehow been around for 24 years now. Though, notably and understandably, this new Resident Evil has nothing to do with any of the prior films.
Also, it's always weird seeing my first non film festival movie upon returning to New York City. When you're at the Toronto International Film Festival, it's like being two months in the future. (Well, as far as movies available to watch, not for sports betting. I cannot tell you who wins the World Series, but it's probably the Dodgers.) Though, at least this year it's a Zach Cregger movie waiting for me back in reality, as opposed to something like the Flatliners remake. (Speaking of Toronto, on my last day there I met Alden Ehrenreich out for breakfast for an interview and I thought he was interesting.)
Zach Cregger's previous two horror movies, Barbarian and Weapons, were only mildly scary, but were also hilarious. Which means I liked both of them. Weapons even garnered Amy Madigan an Oscar. (In my Letterboxd review of Weapons I only wrote "give Amy Madigan an Oscar," which is the kind of thing I say when I really like someone's performance, but it's in the kind of movie that will never get a nomination. Then, this time, it actually happened.) But Cregger has a lot of capital right now, and it's kind of remarkable he used it to make a Resident Evil movie. It's kind of like if Brady Corbet decided he had a good idea for a new Police Academy.
With both Barbarian and Weapons, there were fairly shocking tonal changes midway though each film upon the introduction of a new character. Which is now at least starting to feel like Cregger's directorial calling card. Before this week, early screenings of his new Resident Evil were only showing the first 30 minutes of the film. So what is this movie hiding that even junket press wasn't allowed to see?
So, here's the surprising thing about Zach Cregger's vision of a Resident Evil movie...
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