Zach Cregger’s lean, mean zombie-killing machine just resurrected the video game movie.

After many, many years as the butt of everyone’s jokes, it’s safe to say the dawn of a new, more positive video game adaptation era is finally upon us. With titles like The Last of Us and Fallout hitting with audiences and critics alike, it’s now been proven beyond any doubt that you can, in fact, transfer a video game from console to screen successfully. That said, it’s more than a little noticeable that the leading lights in this new era are primarily television shows.

While long-form small screen storytelling appears to be the perfect canvas upon which to adapt a video game, movies continue to lag behind dramatically. Sure, you’ve had huge financial hits like the recent Sonic the Hedgehog and Super Mario Bros films, however, the quality remains disappointingly low and dispiritingly inconsistent, leaving us bereft of genuine quality and yet to witness a bone fide video game great on the big screen.

With every passing poor film adaptation, it becomes harder and harder to believe that we’ll see a good one, however, surely a corner must be turned at some point, right? Right?!

And, while the Resident Evil name has been one of the worst examples of this shocking video game movie run, hope remains (relatively) high that the inclusion of one of the hottest horror directors in town may finally see the tide turn.

Bryan (Austin Abrams) works as a medical courier, transporting organs between hospitals for transplant operations. Late one winter's night he receives a job to take a container to a hospital in remote Raccoon City, Colorado. As his night begins to spiral out of control, he soon finds himself caught in the middle of a horrific viral outbreak and must fight through hordes of mutated creatures to survive.

To say there have been a few guilty parties in the shoddy history of video game movies would be the understatement of the century. There have been so many godawful attempts at transplanting video games to the big screen that it’s hard to point the finger at any one particular culprit. That said, by far one of the biggest offenders has been Resident Evil.

From the franchise’s Milla Jovovich-starring, Paul W. S. Anderson-directed 2002 film debut through a further six increasingly lame attempts to make it work, Resident Evil’s run on the big screen has been an absolute shocker. Which is why, when yet another attempt to reanimate the long-dead series in movie form was announced, barely anyone gave it a moment’s thought. That is, until Zach Cregger’s name was added to the equation.

Hot off the back of a horror hit the size of Weapons, Cregger’s decision to take on Resident Evil initially felt suicidal and one that could’ve quite easily doomed both his career and a franchise on the very brink of irrelevance, however, all things considered, it’s turned into a move that’s managed to simultaneously resurrect the Resident Evil name and elevated its director to the next level.

While the risk of Zach Cregger taking on such a cinematically beleaguered franchise was huge, so too was the potential reward. As a director that undoubtedly knows his stuff, Cregger was clearly aware of this risk/reward balance, and he’s taken full advantage of the scenario by not only embracing the very essence of what makes the Resident Evil name tick but infusing it all with his own distinct filmmaking flavour to produce something that’s able to stand on its own (mutated) feet.

Somewhat paradoxically, this both is and isn’t the Resident Evil film you picture it to be. Although set directly in the instantly recognisable world of the games – mutant zombies, typewriters, Raccoon City, the shady Umbrella Corporation et al – Cregger makes the wise decision to take it all as far away as possible from the super-slick, po-faced, action-heavy setup we’ve long-since become accustomed to, and the result is a clever new direction and a welcome breath of fresh air for a franchise that went stale decades ago.

Bringing with him the fire that made both Barbarian and Weapons such potent hits, any fears that Zach Cregger’s unique vision and approach to the horror genre would be diluted by being attached to such a maligned franchise are instantly quelled as the director brings his own unique energy to proceedings, all while ensuring the games are shown the reverence and respect they warrant. From the moment we’re thrown into the virus-infested world via Austin Abrams’ hapless Bryan you know we’re in for a very different Resident Evil ride, and the resultant bumbling, icky insanity as Bryan hurtles further down Raccoon City’s horrific rabbit hole couldn’t be further from what’s gone before.

With not only a masterful grasp of the horror genre but a clear love of the Resident Evil brand, Cregger’s loose interpretation of the long-running franchise may raise a few eyebrows from hardcore fans yet is otherwise a romping triumph that’s about as close as a movie has ever gotten to invoking the pure immersive thrill of playing a video game.

From minute one, Resident Evil has the energy and narrative thrust of the games in a way that’s terrifyingly enthralling to watch. With missions to complete, areas to explore and progress from, zombies to down, and weapons to upgrade along the way, the film is a bloody, bombastic blast as Cregger takes clear pleasure in pulling you kicking and screaming through the narrative and leaving you satisfied in just the way you want him to.

Offering an infectious sense of balls-to-the-wall, blood-splattered, fear-infused horror fun that’s long since been lacking from the Resident Evil movies, this particular instalment has gore, gags, and gloriously weird shit galore – and it’s all the better for it. With a propulsive swagger, keen sense of fun, and an admirable affection for the source material, Cregger’s Resident Evil absolutely mops the floor with its franchise predecessors while swiftly showing itself to be far and away the best video game movie to date.

Sure, the horror on display here carries a little less weight than what we saw with both Barbarian and Weapons, yet that doesn’t mean Resident Evil is any less effective because of it. And while this film undoubtedly lacks the thematic and emotional depth of Cregger’s previous work, let’s be honest here, a Resident Evil movie really doesn’t need to be that deep. It just needs to understand the source material, hit you in the gut, scare the shit out of you, and show you a good time while doing so. And on all accounts, it succeeds.

Clocking in at an admirably slender 95 minutes, unlike its franchise predecessors, there’s very little flab to this Resident Evil corpse, as its streamline plot and hyper-focused survival horror structure make things race by at a rate of knots. As Austin Abram’s bumbling Bryan hurtles headfirst into hell, we’re barely given a moment to catch our breath in an explosive horror experience that more than makes up for its lack of depth with the kind of all-out, no-holds-barred zombie-fest we all doubted would ever come.

With a little bit of Alien here, a sprinkling of The Thing there, a healthy dose of Evil Dead everywhere, and even a little Die Hard added for good measure, Cregger strikes a delicate balance of influences and tones that, with the help of Austin Abrams’ superbly pitched, wonderfully bad-mouthed, and surprisingly humorous performance, manages to land in an incredibly satisfying way. Part comedic, part genuinely terrifying, the film’s delirious tonal mix really shouldn’t work, but it does so in a way that so few video game adaptations ever come close to, all while being easily accessible to those unfamiliar with the games.

Pumped full of guts, gore, gags and gloriously weird shit, Resident Evil brings an infectious sense of fear-infested horror fun that’s long been missing from the franchise. With a propulsive swagger and a clear affection for the source material, this is the crowd pleasing zombie romp we’ve all been waiting for. Unburdened by the desperate need to crowbar in an exact replica of the game, yet with a clear reverence for the franchise and a drive to do it justice, Zach Cregger’s take on Resident Evil is a sweary, squishy, silly, exhilarating, relentlessly enjoyable zombie-fest and the kind of perfectly rendered big screen video game adaptation we’ve been waiting so long for.

Resident Evil is in cinemas now.