ightfoot Medical Transport employee Bryan (Austin Abrams) – though it would seem that no one actually calls him by name in person during the entire runtime – rushes into St. George’s Hospital to deliver an organ of some sort. Before he can so much as acquire the proper signature for the body part, he’s requested to do another run, this time for a Schedule A, top-priority satchel – which means that he’s not allowed to make any stops. The pay is excellent, but the destination is far up past the snowy mountains to Raccoon City General.

“We’re not delivering a pizza, here, man.” Even in the first introductory seconds, the camera favors over-the-shoulder perspectives, which foreshadow the many sequences to come that clearly reference the video game franchise origins. It is, after all, a Playstation Production. Interestingly, the trek through the sleety woods doesn’t immediately betray the standard source material; instead, it’s an opportunity for a wealth of decent jump scares (or the careful anticipation of boo moments that don’t fully arrive) – particularly as a woman crosses the snow-pelted road right in front of Bryan’s car, just as he looks down to his phone, contending with a difficult conversation with his girlfriend Michelle, who insists upon seasonable family-planning input.

Alongside the chills are numerous elements of humor, which tend to work well to counteract the odium of bloodthirsty, bodily devastation. And yet, largely thanks to Bryan talking to himself, as if to guide viewers into understanding his actions and reactions, there are so many insincere lines of dialogue that “Resident Evil” might well be considered a horror-comedy hybrid rather than a straight monster movie. It’s not long before the continual camera tricks (often allowing for enemies to invade personal spaces, hoping that the unbelievable degree to which characters are unperceptive will go unnoticed) and the unrelenting creepiness of a rural environment transitions into more familiar city blocks full of zombie-adjacent entities, which are likewise exposited with flippant commentary and comical interactions. This may make the mutilative yucks easier to digest, yet it simultaneously generates a levity that causes the violence to lose some of its potency.

Nevertheless, the film does an astounding job of adapting the source material; with its lone main persona, labyrinthine locations (consisting of debris-littered streets, fenced alleyways, festering sewers, abandoned vehicles, and all manner of obstacles), boss-like villains that keep coming back, unavoidable pathways or routes through wreckage, and countless nods to iconic imagery (such as a typewriter or the steady acquisition of more powerful weaponry or the opening of so many drawers in desperate search of ammunition), this is one of the best video game movies ever released. And though it’s an exceptionally low bar, it’s easily the best “Resident Evil” film – a fresh new direction for a property that has floundered for decades under the direction of Paul W.S. Anderson. “That wasn’t real!”

As it transitions from a haunted house type of picture into a more action-packed series of alien encounters – borrowing liberally from the likes of “The Thing” and “Silent Hill” and “Slither” – exploring locations that seem to encompass all of the hallmarks of the games, the visuals remain a strong point. Lightless arenas for run-ins with gooey inhabitants are consistently stimulating, even when the star role gets increasingly goofier with his self-aware exclamations about the fairly creative bloodbaths standing in his way to a successful delivery. It’s here that vanishingly brief notes are made about parenting, touching back upon an early topic – essentially an excuse for a pause in the mayhem and a setup for a nightmarish stroll through a maternity ward. In the end, as effective as it is with its zombie frenzies and subtle references for longtime fans – boasting a great deal of fun for its quick 90 minutes – it frequently begs the question as to whether or not watching a faithful video game adaptation is better than replaying the games themselves. For those short on time, this is certainly solid entertainment.

– Mike Massie