image: Sony Pictures
directed and written by Zach Cregger; written by Shay Hatten; starring Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser
One time I was delivering newspapers in Boise, Idaho and got surrounded by a herd of deer. I was trying to find an address for a new subscriber and was idling near a curb. It was about four in the morning. The moon was high and bright, and I was in the Boise equivalent of the suburbs, which is about three blocks from downtown.
It was a normal sight at four in the morning. Animals of all kinds roam around our streets when we are not paying attention. A fox once stayed in front of me for three blocks and two turns. Deer were often hanging around the green spaces, and more than a few times I had to pause and wonder as I approached a house if that mama deer was gonna kick me to death. One night a man in a leather vest, trilby hat with a long feather, and not much else walked across the road right in front of me. Animals of all shapes and sizes.
I saw the deer on a lawn and took a picture with my phone out the car window. It was not until later that I looked at that picture and saw in my side mirror that I had been surrounded. At least seven or eight deer surrounded me on that lonely night.
So when I say I understand how Bryan the medical courier feels trying to escape a plague of mutant zombies, you get what I mean. The new Resident Evil by Zach Cregger is a visceral splash of gore and tentacles right out of H.P. Lovecraft's dreams minus all the cats and puritanical racism. The film clips along at a brusque pace from a lone farmhouse to the empty Raccoon City without taking much of a breath. A hell of a good time at the movies.
Characters
Bryan (Abrams) - our everyman medical courier trying to get to the hospital on his latest delivery
Best line: "I don't have a pen, but someone is going to have to sign for this shit."
Michelle - Bryan's partner who is in the family way; currently lives in a phone
Zombie King - a relentless goopy mass of tentacles and zombies that starts as a single woman (put a ring on it!) and ends as a multi-armed-legged abomination in the eyes of all creation; on the move
Rat King - just a guy sitting around the sewer with a belly full of zombie rats
Scientists (Cherry, Reis, Hauser) - They tried and looked sharp in those lab coats from the streets to the top of the hospital
Setting
Snowy woods - home to wandering zombies
Farmhouse - home to stay-at-home zombies
Barn - there's a dog, be-tentacled
Racoon City, Colorado - snowy isolated mountain metropolis
Tunnel - packed with cars and a camper with a crying girl
Sewers - absurdly large and home of the Rat King
Hospital - 28 floors and two towers of medical marvels and a skybridge; currently damaged
Plot Summary
Medical courier Bryan finds himself chased and surrounded by tentacle sprouting undead as he struggles to deliver a package to Raccoon City General Hospital. Oh, and surviving.
Favorite Scenes
Chase around the car - Bryan and a zombie have a little ring around the rosy, which is apt because that song is about a plague
Barn escape - when Bryan dropped the ladder everyone in my theater was on his side because we also would like to live in a hayloft, but converted nice like in Road House
Camper reveal - Bryan slowly creeping his way through the dark tunnel, trying to be quiet, and runs across a little girl with a weird foot
"Chased by crazy ass monster people and my socks are all wet."
The falling bodies. Just what the hell.
Maxine getting pulled away as Bryan reaches for the keys.
Touching voicemail home when all hope is lost
Maternity ward. What the absolute hell? Cregger has something with having children.
Bryan putting on his lanyard as he walks into the hospital. Little details made me laugh.
That ending fight where the tables are turned and the tentacles are well and truly loosened.
Discussion Questions
Bryan is facing a hard choice during the course of the movie. Have you ever continued doing a job for extra money even though you should have ran away?
Have you ever tried to help a small abandoned child even though you knew they would infect you with a deadly worm virus?
Have you ever worked a delivery job? Do you tip when you order delivery? How much do you tip? Is it at least twenty percent, you lazy cheapskate?
If you got someone pregnant, would you drive out into a snow storm to avoid going home and talking to them?
Science is hard. Talk about a time you tried to do science and it led to a global catastrophe.
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