Dallas gets early look at new ‘Resident Evil’ film

Dallas was one of only three citites in the U.S. to host a special early screening event of the new film coming to theaters on Sept. 18.

Photo by Austin Zook for Dallas Observer

Since the video game franchise debuted in 1996, there have been seven bad “Resident Evil” movies and zero good ones. Writer/director Zach Cregger (“Barbarian,” last year’s “Weapons”) is hoping to change that when his new take on the iconic series hits theaters Sept. 18.

On Tuesday night, AMC NorthPark hosted a special early preview event for the film, giving a lucky audience (filled with very stylish influencers and this film nerd writer) the chance to see the first 30 minutes of the new film two weeks early. Dallas is one of just three cities to host a preview like this (along with Los Angeles and New York), which was followed by a livestreamed Reddit AMA with Cregger himself moderated by Juju “Straw Hat Goofy” Green.

Along with a bevy of local influencers, we got the invite and, if the footage we saw is any indication, Cregger’s done the impossible and made a “Resident Evil” adaptation that honors the franchise’s video game roots without being slavishly devoted to it. It’s a lean, mean scare machine with some great laughs (Cregger was a member of the sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids You Know, and he flexes those bona fides in his horror flicks) and plenty of easter eggs for die-hard fans.

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The film introduces a new character to the “Resident Evil” universe, a medical courier named Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, who previously acted in Cregger’s breakout horror, “Weapons.” He’s basically the guy responsible for getting donated organs from Hospital A to Hospital B before the transplant is no longer viable, an important but unglamorous job.

When the movie starts, Bryan’s wrapping up his shift and gets a last minute request to make a run outside his usual zone to Raccoon City, a seminal location in the franchise. It’s up in the mountains, it’s late, it’s starting to snow… but the trip pays double his usual rate, and Bryan accepts.

That’s the setup. The movie takes a few minutes to introduce you to Bryan before launching into his journey to Raccoon City without much throat clearing, which is ideal because the full feature is only supposed to be around 94 minutes long. What we saw in the movie’s first third was a hellish journey on an icy road where things go from bad to weird to worse for a guy who slowly has to learn what the audience knows from the beginning: that he’s a character in a “Resident Evil” movie.

Whereas most horror films, Cregger’s previous work included, are 80% buildup, 20% legitimate scares, the director seemed committed to inverting that ratio this time around. Once the tension starts ratcheting up, it never really goes away, and effective jumpscares and sharp camerawork had our entire audience leaning in, gasping and generally celebrating the madness on screen.

“He’s just kind of stumbling from one heavily adrenalized situation to the next,” Cregger said on Tuesday. “’Barbarian’ and ‘Weapons’ had those moments, but it was like, ‘Can I build an interesting movie that is mostly those moments?’”

After the early screening on Tuesday night, writer/director Zach Creggar answered questions via livestream.

Photo by Austin Zook for Dallas Observer

Some fans of the franchise may be turned off by the fact that Cregger’s not bringing in longtime characters from the “Resident Evil” games to tell his story, or choosing not to adapt a specific game’s storyline. The result, however, still feels like it’s happening in parallel to a “Resident Evil” game.

But that’s what makes this adaptation so thrilling. It honors the games’ atmosphere, but it brings its own toys to the sandbox. In Cregger’s film, the t-Virus (which causes the horrific mutations in the games) has just broken out, and he drops an everyman into the middle of the world and makes him learn the rules, set piece by bloody set piece. It’s a faithful adaptation of the world and the vibe, without just delivering a watered down version of something you can play through at home on your PlayStation 5. It’s simultaneously fresh and familiar — a delicate balancing act.

While he wanted to make something true to the spirit of the entire franchise, during the AMA Cregger shared that his two major inspirations on the film were “Resident Evil 4” and “Resident Evil 7.”

“Seven is where Ethan comes into it… I like that you’re just kind of a normal dude going through this horrible situation, but four has the rhythm that I really like, where you’re moving from set piece to set piece, location to location,” he said.

One of the most surprising revelations from the AMA was that Cregger himself has never seen any of the other “Resident Evil” films. He’s a devoted fan of the games, but has never felt compelled to watch the movies because they didn’t seem to capture what he loves about the franchise. He acknowledges the irony, now that he’s created his own adaptation that fans worry will go too far afield from its origins.

“I’ve been kind of, like, bristling a little bit,” Cregger said. “That there’s been so many people who love the games who have been… picking nits with this movie, and then I feel defensive… and I feel like, ‘But they just don’t understand!’ And then I have to realize that is exactly what I did with the other movies that came before, where I had that attitude.”

Having seen a decent chunk of what he’s put together now, we can say with confidence that this is the “Resident Evil” film fans have been waiting for — effectively rendered and thoughtfully constructed. When the roughly 30-minute AMA came to an end, we only had one complaint: that we have to wait two weeks to see the rest of the film.