Retronauts - 798: Resident Evil (2026)

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

After 24 years of disappointment, it finally happened: they made a great Resident Evil movie—which also happens to be a great regular movie. Yes, thanks to abandoning any notion of lore and tapping into the creative talents of director Zach Cregger, this latest adaptation of Capcom's survival horror series manages to evoke the spirit of the games, even if it lacks the iconic characters and monsters. On this episode of Retronauts, join Bob Mackey, Stuart Gipp and Jess O'Brien (AKA Voidburger) as the crew searches the now-snowy streets of Raccoon City in search of survivors and fatherhood issues.Retronauts is a completely fan-funded operation. To support the show, and get two full-length exclusive episodes every month, as well as access to 100+ previous bonus episodes, please visit the official Retronauts Patreon at patreon.com/retronauts.

This week on Retronauts, a zombie apocalypse is no excuse for a potty mouth. Hello everybody. Welcome to another episode of Retronauts. I'm your host for this one, Bob Mackey. And this week we are talking about Resident Evil and specifically the 2026 film directed by Zach Krieger, which is essentially a soft reboot of a film series that's been going on for nearly 25 years. And yes, like the very first Resident Evil movie, it has very little to do with the source material. But that's okay. And that's what we're doing today. And it's going to be a little discussion of the movie, full of spoilers, but before that we'll cover the history, so that'll be a spoiler-free section. Before I continue, though, who is here with me today in this Zencaster room? Let's go over to the UK.

Oh, hello. My name is Stuart Gipp, and I like to say Zach Kregor. It's a great name. And coming at you from Finland in Helsinki, it's Jess Voidberger, O'Brien. Fuck yeah, video games. Yes, it's a good time to be excited about video game movies unless they have the words Silent Hill in them. I know. I know. You brought on the perfect person on an ironic front.

I mean, we've all seen bad horror movies, but Jess, you in particular, I think you know what a bad video game horror movie is like. You're intimately familiar with that. I think so. I could be considered some sort of expert, perhaps. But also, I mean, maybe not,

because I like the original Super Mario Brothers movie and that's lost me a lot of points with some people. That's okay. They can hate if they want. It's really grown on me. I don't think it's good, but they don't make them like that anymore and that's why I want to see it.

The important thing is we've all seen this film, Resident Evil 2026, so we're all equipped to talk about this and I assume we'll like it, but we'll figure that out later. Before I go on any further, I want to know everyone's experience with the movies and the games.

Let's start with Jess. Just very briefly, like, what is Resident Evil to you and how important is it to you in your life? It is less formative and less important than Silent Hill, as the big Silent Hill idiot on the retronauts.

podcasts. But I was like just kind of, I brought up the list and I checked off which ones I've played and I was surprised that I've played pretty much all of them for the most part. I played the remake of R.E. 1, 2, and 3. Not the originals, though.

I played the, my first Resident Evil was the fourth one. So I played the OG RE4, RE5. I was actually quite fond of. Good co-op. Even though it's the really bonkers racist one. RE6 is super weird. I liked Revelations 1 and 2, which no one talks about.

Also great co-op in that one. I chickened out of the opening of 7, because I played it in VR, and it was too scary. And then I watched my husband play 7, 8, and 9. So to sum up, I'm missing 0 and Code Veronica and the original first 3. And how about the movies? Yeah, when it comes to the movies, I have only seen Resident Evil Vendetta from 2017, which is one of the CG ones where Chris shoots a guy in a circle in like a gun-kata fight on a roof, I think, is that one? I don't remember anything about it.

Yeah, the CGI ones are a mystery to me. I know they're real movies, but no one has convinced me of that yet. Yeah, I feel like I dreamt this or something. Yeah. I know the other ones were actually in movie theaters, and that's what counts, for me at least. And I've not seen a single one of those somehow, even though I know, like, as a B-movie fan, this is, like, a huge blind spot for me. And, Stuart, what about you in Resident Evil? I love the games.

I didn't really get into them until 4 on PS2, of all places. The first three, well, the first one in particular, a friend of mine had, and it did scare the shit out of me when I was probably too old to be scared the shit out of by it. But it's terrifying, I think. You haven't played anything like it before. But the later action ones, the ones that I really love and everything that they sort of evolved into. I can't think of one since four that I've... Apart from six, which is appalling.

But it's appalling in a very funny way. I like pretty much all of them. Revelations 2 is probably my favorite, which is just me being a big weirdo again. But I really did love that. I thought that was a brilliant experience. It's a good game. It's underrated, I think.

Sorry, Jess. No, I was saying exactly what you were saying. It's underrated. And it has my favorite line in any of the games, which is the, I can't remember what her name is, but the sort of teenage character saying, of course, this factory had to be a fucked up factory, which is just incredibly funny in context.

And it gives you playable Barry. Yes, last. We really burden in tonight. And as for the movies, I've seen about five of them. I think the first one has some merit. I think it's quite good looking. It's got an oddly arty kind of look to it, which I find interesting.

But then they sort of just turn into sort of silly nonsense, which, you know, it can be fun. It can be enjoyable, but it's mostly incomprehensible. I had to tap out eventually, unfortunately, so I can't tell you too much about those movies. And I haven't seen any of the CG ones, because, like you said, the late sort of Shrodinger's movies,

they both do and don't exist. There's no force on this earth that will ever get me to put them up on the top of, I must watch this. I just, I don't know why. I don't want to watch, like, a two-hour cutscene. That's what they are. That is what they are. It feels like you're just watching a series of badass gifts.

But I can't stress this enough. I'm not saying they're bad. I'm saying I'm not going to watch them. Sure, sure. I mean, there's a lot of movies. Some of them you'll never get around to watching, and that's funny. And as for me, I've only seen the first Resident Evil movie outside of this one. And I did a podcast about it for Retronauts like, I don't know, 15 years ago or something like that.

And, yeah, at the time, I thought, well, it's nothing like the game. Why would I want to see it? Also, it's getting bad reviews. And I don't particularly like it today. But now I've gotten over. It's not like the source material. I'm fine with that. I don't know why.

Maybe it's something that happens to you as you age or as you realize how, how, like, nerd culture can be very toxic. with that. When things aren't exactly like the things that they're based on, people get very mad in unreasonable ways, and I find that very distasteful now. So, yeah, I've only seen the first one and this one, and nothing in between. As for the games, I have played and finished

I think 2, 3, 4, 6, and Revelations 1 and 2, and also the remake of 4. But when they got into the first person, Resident Evil, those are too scary for me. I like horror movies. Yeah, man, those are fucking scary. I mean, they are.

Yes. We're a bunch of Frady cats on this podcast. We're not afraid to admit it. I have purchased all of these in the hopes that I will overcome my fear. But for whatever reason, I can watch horror movies fine.

I have no issue with them. I like them now. It took me a while to eventually enjoy them. I started liking them in my 20s, kind of late in life. But maybe it's like an underlying anxiety disorder. But scary games make me too jumpy. I'm not having a good time.

Actually, I don't like roller coasters either. Like, I keep trying to go on them. And every time I get off one, I'm like, I don't want to do that again. I didn't get over my fear. In fact, I think I made it worse. Yeah. Oh, geez.

I think my thing is that, like, if it's a video game, the pressure is on for me to do something correctly when I'm panicking. But if I'm just watching a movie, there's no responsibility on me, you know? It takes some of the stress off for some reason. I don't know. It's very strange with horror games. I mean, I guess that's why they're effective. I know I'm looking at my TV. I know I'm not in the game, but my body is reacting like, you are actually in this situation.

and we're going to send you the actual brain chemicals that make you feel sick. Yeah. And that's me with first person horror, too. I don't really like most first person horror games because they fuck me up too much. Can I just make it clear to the listeners at this point that I have in fact beaten 7, 8 and 9 because I am rock hard and nails. That's all I want to say. Thanks. Stuart, the notorious tough guy.

I am super tough. I only was a little bit scared by the baby in number 8. The baby part. That was too scary, but the rest of it was fine. Yeah. I'm going to make it my mission at some point to play 7, 8, 9. Again, I buy them just to say, okay, I paid for it. This will encourage me in some way to eventually get around to it. Hasn't happen yet.

It might happen in the future. Tis the season. It's, you know, almost October. It really is, yeah. Put it on the list, maybe. I'm actually thinking of playing the RE3 remake because I did not touch the RE2 or three remakes because those seem too scary for me. But I figure RE3 remake is like five or six hours, and that might be a good intro into newer Resident Evil

remakes in some of the new content like 7, 8, and 9. I love the remake of 4, but 4 is not really too scary. I like the action horror, and that might seem like Sacrily Jiffrey, Resident Evil fan, but I love 4. I think 5 is pretty good. Six is a disaster, but I had a good time playing and never want to go back to that 40-hour

Resident Evil again in my life. Yeah, it took me since released until about three months ago to beat Resident Evil 6. It's just an appalling game, but what a spectacle. What a spectacle. It's like three mediocre games in one, but they went really hard and it's fun to see,

okay, this is a turning point. They could not do this again in the history of Resident Evil. Maybe if you wanted to do seven, maybe you could simply buy the micro-transaction that gives you infinite magnanim-am all the time. There you go. That would be nice. You know what? I have not streamed a game in a very long time. I'm thinking the way for me to get over

my fear of these games is to stream them and talk to people in a chat room as I am playing through them. I think that will either get me through the games or reveal what a coward I am. all the people watching, so it could backfire very easily. So I'm not sure what I'll do. But yes, we've gone over our history with the movies and the games.

Some of us are shrieking cowards, and that's okay. Let's talk about the history of the 26 Resident Evil movie. There's not much of a history, but there's enough that's worth talking about because it all starts with a little guy named Zach Krieger, who is not in any way a fresh young talent. You might think that. You might think, oh, is you like the backrooms guy? Is he in his early 20s?

No, Zach Kregor is 45. In his 40s, he entered this new chapter of his life, making these crowd-placing horror films. He had an entirely different first chapter that a lot of people are aware of, and they find it interesting that he went down this very different path. Are either of you aware of what Zach Kregor did before he was the Auteur horror director? I only became aware of this after I saw this movie, and my husband told me, you know, that's the guy from whitest kids you know. And I was like, what? Yeah, that's kind of mind-blowing. Have you ever heard of this American sketch group, Stuart?

Yeah, I have because they had this one sketch, and I'm sorry if this is slightly crass, where this guy was basically sort of pretending to, like, jerk off, but he was doing it wrong, and they kept saying, no, you're taking too long, you're doing it wrong. Which I remember seeing back in the day on YouTube, and it's kind of blowing my mind that he was in that, you know? That is the slow jerk sketch.

It's one of the most popular sketches. It's extremely funny, yeah. They had a five-season sketch show on IFC. It is intentionally offensive comedy of the a lot of this has not aged well. I think some of their sketches are very classic. So go into that knowing like this is made to be offensive 15 to 20 years ago. But yes, notably he was like the one very handsome guy of the sketch group. There's always one guy that's too handsome for sketch comedy.

And he was that guy. So if you're looking, which one is that, Craigor? He's the handsome one. I also think this is interesting because like I think like horror and comedy are very like chocolate and peanut butter. It just gets along very well. They're both really timing-based and anticipation-based. And it reminds me that, like, Jordan Peel had the same career trajectory of being a comedy guy first. And now he's, like, this very, like, well-renowned horror director.

And it's like, oh, who else is going to make this little transition? It's popular to do it now. And if you look at their sketches, what is kids you know in Key and Peel, a lot of them are about characters in a situation where they are about to die. And let's mind the humor from that. Like, what is the worst decision you can make that could result in your death? or what is a funny way a person could die in this sketch. So, yeah, like horror and comedy are so close to each other. They all are about surprise.

So I feel like that is why these guys make this transition. And he's in this sketch group for a very long time. Their show ends. They kind of go their own separate ways. And from there, he was mostly like a regular in sitcoms, although we should note his first movie came about in 2009. He directed this film, by the way. It was the 2009 sex comedy, Miss March,

which he starred in with another way-est kid you know member, the late Trevor Moore. So nobody likes this movie. I don't even think he likes it. But he directs a movie in 2009 and does not return to direct again until Barbarian in, I believe, 2022. So there's a large portion of his life where he's just kind of finding his way, trying to become like a character actor, appearing in things, regular roles, bit roles. But he's done a lot before this phase of his career. Nobody has seen Miss March, I take it by your silence. No.

Isn't 2009 kind of late for the raunchy sex comedy? Yes. It arrived really late. And as a fan of the group, I thought like, wow, why are you doing this? Only two of you are in it. And it's not up to the level of comedy I expect from you. It's like a very, let's call it low concept, raunchy sex comedy. But there was a market for that.

I think an executive said, okay, you're the two most attractive guys in this sketch group. Everyone else can sit down. Come over here. We'll milk you for all your words. and see if you're screen ready and it turns out the America decided we don't want to see these two guys so they kind of just did their own things after that. That's the first chapter of Zach Craigers' life. The second chapter begins in 2022 with the release of Barbarian. He follows it up with weapons in 2025. These are both extremely critically acclaimed, very popular, profitable horror movies. And then he rises to the rank of hot new director as he is entering his 40s. So an amazing transition to this new phase of his life. and people love his movies

and I'm curious I can give my own thoughts but have either of you seen Barbarian or Weapons His two previous movies Released not too long ago I haven't but I will now You know I haven't seen them I'd heard people talk them up

I'd been a bit kind of off horror Because I kind of go like up and down with horror And I lose interest in it completely And then I massively get into it again Which I am now But having seen Resident Evil Yes I will definitely be going back and watching these I hope that doesn't spoil my opinion

end of the movie. And Jess? I have only seen Barbarian and I think I may not have seen weapons because Barbarian really squick the hell out of me. It was really yeesh to me. So I think I heard it was so really well acclaimed though and I heard I had a really bonkers ending but I was like, I'm too much of a baby for this one. Barbarian was great. It's my favorite of his movies and I went to see it because it's one of those movies that the studio almost didn't release. The studio almost just burned it up for tax money. But for someone, for whatever, reason they gave it a theatrical release, I thought, oh my God, it's the guy from the sketch group I like. I'll give this movie a shot. And it was great. It is his scariest movie. I was

legitimately scared during that film. Not so much during weapons. I didn't like that as much as much as everyone else. But what I think is great about his movies is that they are kind of elevated horror, but they're not up their own butts about it. You can get a lot of these 824 movies, and I like their output for the most part, but they forget to have fun. They forget this is a horror movie, let's have fun. And I think the comedian in Crager realized is that we can have a high concept that says things about stuff, but I also want to have fun. And I think he has not lost that with the three movies he's made so far.

I think that's a good point. And I feel like other directors try to put a little too much weight into elevated horror or trying to emulate elevated horror and just are not people that are capable of doing that. And then they totally blow it like Christoph Gans and return to Sinal. He loves elevated horror. He's not too up front with themes. And when they're in his movies, they work in a very subtle way.

Of course, every movie ever is about trauma. And I'm sure you can say that about all of the films he's made so far, but it's not so in your face where you're like, okay, I get the metaphor. Please take it away.

And, yes, there's not a whole lot of history here because it sounds like this movie came together really quickly because this is the second reboot of the President Evil. film series. It had another reboot in 2021. One I just became aware of. It was called Welcome to Raccoon City. This is a more direct adaptation that combines the events of RE1 and RE2 and one movie. And people seemingly thought it was all right. They thought this is a nice new direction. But then the movie franchise immediately kind of destroyed any faith people had in it by releasing then a follow-up TV series on Netflix, which I also just became aware of. What? So I didn't know about that.

Yes, eight episodes, 2022 or something like that. And it's all about like Wesker's children. Oh. Yeah. What is? Yes. I don't know.

If anyone out there has watched this, let me know. But it seems like that destroyed any momentum, that destroyed any interest in let's see what Resident Evil can do on the small screen or the big screen. So they need to like reassess. What are we going to do? But it sounds like any plans to make any other adaptations were scrapped as soon as Craigger came upon board. Because he is this hot young director. director, Young being 40, he is, you know, everyone's talking about him and they're giving him a chance to basically do whatever he wants.

And up front, he says to the world, this is a love letter to the games, but not a direct adaptation. And he's also up front by saying, I like Evil Dead too. And I kind of want to do a movie like that where it's like one guy trying to escape a series of extreme situations and you're on his side the entire time. And the camera's zooming around and there's great practical effects. And I think he does come close, as a big evil two fan, he does come close to like capturing what Sam Ramey did so long ago. And part, I want to know what you two feel about this because part of the big PR push for this movie is was sending Craigar around on a PR tour, which is what happens with every movie, obviously. But he realized like who the audience is for this movie. So it was all about showing his gamer badge of honor.

Like, yes, I played the games. Don't worry. I love the games. Let me tell you about all the games. I know about everything in the games. And I really don't envy him for having to do this because obviously there are some very great people in the gaming audience. Like our audience, like Retronaut's audience. They're all very nice people.

But the gaming audience is known notorious, you would say, for having outsized reactions to things that aren't very important or, you know, things that aren't really that significant, let's say, right? Yes. And this is not a spot you want to be in as someone given this opportunity. I'm not sure if either of you have seen these interviews. A lot of them are embarrassing. A lot of them. I mean, like, any junket interview is now very embarrassing because it's not even about it.

Let me ask you about the movie. It's like, let's play this improv game. Or here's like this fun, this fun new meme I want you to do that we can put it on our website for hits. I never like them, but I did, like he looked miserable by the end of this junket. The only one of these that I think I've seen, and I'm sorry to everyone, because I'm shooting holding this. again was 28 weeks 28 what's it called 28 years later when they got um the director danny boyle and

the writer who's named temporarily escapes me um Alex garland that's his name the writer direct interviewed by the v-tubeer inugami coronet everyone's stamping their steward at bingo card now uh but boil is into it being interviewed by sort of this japanese squeaky cartoon dog thing and uh Alex Alex Garland is genuinely the most miserable I've ever seen a human being in my life. It's worth Googling. It's worth looking at art because it is very, very funny to see his, how did I get hair expression? Yeah. I mean, like, these junkin interviews were always about, you ask a provocative question.

You were looking for a fun answer. They were always like that before the internet. But now it's like, hey, Jeff Goldblum, can you say six, seven? Can you read this Simpsons bit with me? Like, it's really embarrassing. And I know I don't hold it against the people that are being forced to do this because I'm sure they want to have like a fun conversation with the writer or the director, but I hold it against the executives or whoever they're saying like make them do the meme, make them do something that'll

bring us hits on this dining website. So it sucks and I hate it and he looks so miserable. Capitalism, baby. And also Zach Kragher said up front, I didn't watch any of the movie. So he has good taste. Good. Oh my God. That's like one of the best things you could probably say in an interview like that. Yeah. He was not saying I want this is a love letter to the original movies that we all like, No, I've never seen them. I don't really care. I'm doing my own thing. And we'll talk more about direct versus indirect adaptations when we get to the movie discussion segment

because that's a big element of what this movie gets right. By freeing itself from overly complicated Resident Evil lore, it gets to do what it wants and still remain true to the spirit of the games. And yes, he took this opportunity, but Zach Krieger wants to do his own stuff. And he said up front, I'm not doing anything like this again. I'm not going to become the IP guy. I know what I'm in for and I had fun making the movie, but this is not the path I'm choosing,

but I could not turn this down. And he really took advantage of the scenario to make a movie. It just feels like a Zach Craigor movie that happens to have like, oh, there's a typewriter in one scene in the background. All right, sure. That makes it Resident Evil. I read somewhere that he, the actual spec script or whatever for it, like he made it so that he could just like rub the serial numbers off of it

if they just said, no, you're not doing Resident Evil. So he could just make his own version of this anyway. I think that's smart. Yeah, I think he essentially said, this is a movie I wanted to make anyway. And I might have made it even if there wasn't a Resident Evil name attached to it. Uh, integrity. That really interests me because it is so, I feel like, we're going to get to this, obviously, but I feel like Resident Evil really kind of runs to the matter of this movie, like,

which is, which fascinates me that it was originally something completely different. Well, it was, it was a Resident Evil thing that he was writing, but he was, He did it in such a way that it could be something else if they said no. So, yeah. And I want to go over a few of the folks that are involved with the movie. I mean, it really just stars one guy so we can talk about him. But we can talk about the writer because Crager wrote this with another writer, Shea Hatton, does not have the best track record unless you like latter John Wick movies or Zach.

Snyder's attempt to make Star Wars, whatever those movies are called. There's a few of them and nobody really likes them. But there's not a ton of dialogue in the movie unless you count just the main character muttering the F word to himself. So maybe his strength is more in creating fun scenarios than in writing dialogue or making compelling characters. But I had no issues with the script. So I'm not going to put down Shea Hatton despite me not wanting to see anything else he's written so far. Same. And the star of the show, of course, is Austin Abrams as Brian. He was also in weapons and my wife had to point this out like he was the drug addict in weapons and he is about he's a skinny guy I swear to God he's like 20 pounds thinner in weapons and that was one of these

standout performances but he looks so different and it's such a different performance that I did not even notice so if you like him in this and you have not seen weapons check out weapons it's great and I have never outside of weapons I had never seen him before in anything he's 30 he's been acting for 15 years but he needs to carry this entire film on his shoulders the camera is on him for, I don't know, 80 of the 90 minutes. That's basically his job. I'm carrying this. I have to be charismatic.

You have to believe in me. You have to be rooting for me. And he absolutely pulls this off. They found the exact right guy for this. Just kind of like an every man schmuck, a gig worker, like somebody on the lower end of the totem pole, you want to see make it out the other end of this story. He's perfect. I also have never seen him in anything before on account of having not seen weapons. and I loved him to absolute bits.

I was parisocially invested in this poor schmuck, basically. Yes. And I think he's already getting a lot of fan art is what my wife is telling me about this character. Somebody said compared him to an oh, that's Raspberry comic character, because she's done all these comics about Resident Evil and Metal Gear, all of them, and stuff like that. And it's like, yes, 100% this is what's happening with this character. He's so perfectly gormless.

A hapless but sometimes overly confident moron. Yeah. Just stumbling his way through situations. It's great. Charismatic doofus. I love him. And that's where a lot of the comedy comes from. And I guess Craigor cut out a lot of the comedy because this was a funnier movie and he thought the audience was laughing too much.

So he thought, well, this is not my intent. I want there to be like laughter relief basically. Like, aha, it's funny. The tension is breaking. But he thought there was too much earlier. So this was originally a funnier movie. Maybe he will release the funny cuts. Yeah, I want to see the funny cuts so bad because it's like, it's already really funny.

Like, how hilarious was this before you toned it down? Because it's already like, yeah, Evil Dead, like you said. I was really pleased when Paul Walder Hauser turned up, playing a character who is also named Paul Stingray from Coburkeye because I love him. He's the scientist who's in the car with him being obstinate for about 10 minutes. And I love, it was just happy to see him and I wanted to mention that. And Jess wanted to mention someone, you put that in the notes, Jess. Yeah, my, oh my God, it's that guy I recognize him.

Unexpected cameo from Zach Cherry, who plays Dylan on Severance. He's like the head scientist at the end, and it was so funny because, like, he talks him on the intercom earlier, and I was like, this guy's voice is really familiar. I don't know. He's just got a friendly guy voice, whatever, it's probably nobody. And then it was almost like a gag or a jump scare in itself, because when he's revealed, it's just like, elevator doors open. Surprise, it's Jack, it's Zach Cherry from fucking.

Ever and I was like, whoa. Yeah, I've seen a lot of stuff. I think I saw him in the fallout series as well. Yes, he was great in that too. But I think Umbrella's main problem is they're hiring improv comedians and podcasters because Griffin Newman is also one of the scientists. And I'm like, well, this guy knows about movies. I'm not going to trust him with like zombie cures or biological research.

All the other scientists died. They only had podcasters left. It's a sad world when podcasters are running it. So other production details, this is filmed in Prague. and that means you're seeing a lot of snow because of that reason. And it doesn't come cheap if you're wondering why more horror movies aren't set in snowy locales, snow is expensive. It's why if you watch the Until Dawn movie, they said, well, what if it's not about snow?

What if it's about the evil clock and the logo? And we made a movie about that that has nothing to do with the video game. Okay, that sounds cheap. Let's roll with it. That's why you're not seeing snow in movies like that. Quick question. I don't know if it's rude. Is it not pronounced Prague?

Oh, what did I say? Did I say Prague? You said Prague. Like, Prager U. Yes. You know what? Maybe I'm thinking of Prager U. No, you're right, Jess.

It is Prague. That was not a rude question. Okay. I was rude for mispronouncing it. Cool. And apparently Barbarian was filmed in Bulgaria. So I think, I mean, this is the nature of movie production, but it sounds like Zach Krieger is okay with working in Eastern Europe.

He finds that like, okay, if this is how I have to make my movies, if this is how I have to get a lot of snow, let it be. Like I will work in Prague or Bulgaria. I'm sure he had a fun time. there. I believe the production company Davis Films is just kind of like based in this like eastern, centrally Eastern European like area. So a lot of, a lot of those things are filmed in Prague and like Czech Republic and Bulgaria and stuff like that. I think like the Silent Hill movies were partially filmed there, the one that wasn't filmed in Canada. Okay. Yeah, that makes sense because

no movie is filmed in America and no actor is American. No. Never. They don't want to take any risks. You don't know what an American is going to do if they're on your film set. So it's like, well, now Australian people and New Zealand people are really great at masking their accents. They didn't used to be. So I've been fooled so many times. In fact, I forgot who this actor was because I forgot about his role in weapons. And I thought like, oh, he's got to be British. They're going to pull the rug over me at my eyes again or pull the wool over my eyes again. No, it's like, he's from Florida. Okay. We have an American starring in a movie again. Ah, what a relief. What a refreshing relief.

I was like, I know he's masking an accent. Sorry, Stuart, but it's become a real problem. In fact, they stop putting British people in movies. It's all Australians now. Oh, that's okay. We're not very good in them. Well, you had a real era, though. Yeah, I suppose we did.

We had Hugh Grant and James Bond, I suppose. They were supposed to be British, though. They weren't pretending to be Americans or anything. They weren't? Yeah, I know, like, a recent movie, it was like everybody was British or Australian. I think it was, like, Venom 3. There's, like, not an American to be found. everybody was putting on an American accent.

Even Venom was doing an accent. Yes. Nobody needs to see Venom 3, though. And also, I want to know if there's anything else I should cover. Jess, you had something to throw out about the production company, Davis Films. Yeah. In addition to, like, oh, it's Davis Films. They all film in Eastern European-ish sort of places.

This is also from producer Victor Hadita, who produced another survival horror adaptation this year. And yes, I'm on my bullshit again, folks. It was returned to Silent Hill. 18% on Rotten Tomatoes. So it breaks my heart how good this movie is when that thing just came out and it's just like awful. Yeah, I guess it goes to show what happens

when you trust a director who knows what they're doing and you just tell them, do what you want. I'm so curious about what is the difference between these productions. Is it budget? Is it like a Konami not trusting the IP and Capcom being like just go for it,

do what you want? Is it just like the director bad at job? Like I'm so curious about how this production company can put out like such similar things of horrifically different quality levels. Like how did this happen? I'm so interested. Yeah. Yeah, because when I'm watching this movie in particular, I'm thinking I don't see any compromises. I don't see like, all right, now have Leon show up in the background or put a liquor here.

Have a big bad guy monologue that explains everything so that the stupids can. you know, catch up to what the movie was talking about, you know. We'll talk about it, but the references, the handful there are, are so subtle you can miss them. And I'd rather they not be in the movie at all, actually, because they're kind of distracting. But they don't feel like compromises. They feel like, all right, there's some Resident Evil stuff in this world. Here's a typewriter. Have fun.

Maybe it's not the one you save your game on. Sorry, Chris. No, I really liked the little Easter egg references for some reason. It was appealing to me in just the right way because, yeah, it didn't linger on it. It was all very background stuff. And they felt like jokes just for me because they were placed in such a way

to be punchlines in that sort of way. And very early on, like, I realized like, oh, this is, I'm watching somebody play the game bad. And that's like the through line of this, basically. He's like, oh, he's bad at video games. That's great. Like he very early on, like, just completely does something very that's going to hurt the hell out of him. And right next to him are two health sprays.

And it's just like the incident where he does this dangerous jump, they show this wider shot that has these two health sprays. It's just kind of like, off in the corner, video game style, you can see them. You have to be a little unobservant as a game player to not notice them. And he's just not very observant in this exact same video game way. And that's just an extra joke for me. Yeah, this is one of my future questions, but I can tackle it now. But the only reason I didn't like the references, it's because the audience I saw it with was great. I saw an IMAX screening.

You never know what you're going to get with an audience. Are they going to be looking at their phones? Are they going to be too loud? They were like weirdly respectful. And I think they were just really wrapped up in it. But the only time I heard them talking. And I wasn't annoyed by the talking aspect because it's like you hear laughter. You hear people like laughing and reacting to things.

But like the few times there was a reference on the screen. All I heard it was the typewriter. You see the typewriter? That's typewriter. Like, everyone was just murmuring. And I'm like, yes, we're all here. We know what we're here for. Your, your girlfriend or your boyfriend or your aunt or uncle, you know, you can tell

them afterwards. You don't need to tell them like in the moment. Like, you see the reference? It's a reference on the screen. What was your, a theater experience like, Stuart? It was pretty good. I went to IMAX as well because it was literally my only option. Normally I wouldn't want to pay that much.

But, yeah, everyone just shut up, which surprised me because over here, I don't go to the cinema anymore. because nobody ever shuts up and I get extremely cross. But it was great. I mean, I want to say with regards to references, I'm feeling kind of stupid now, because I don't remember seeing the typewriter. I did see the first aid sprays,

and I saw the green herb. I feel like the referencing to the game is quite, it's quite meta, because there are so many shots that evoke some of the games in the series. There's a part where he's creeping through the dark forest and the snow that's like the beginning of village, almost exactly. and then you've got actual first person shots, you've got third person over the shoulder kind of shot,

you've got weird stuff like the locks on the doors, the big comedy cartoon locks on the doors that you can shoot off, or he can't shoot off to be more accurate. But also it's little things like he'll encounter a fence that if you were being chased by a big sort of conglomeration of corpses, you would just climb over the fence, but he can't because the fence is locked.

You are not allowed to climb over the fence. And that felt to me like kind of a meta sort of a thing that was going on there. I appreciated that a lot. Yeah, it's like, well, why can't I just knock the fence down with the car? Well, the car can't break through it either. And it's like, oh, shit, this isn't like video games, actually. Because, like, maybe bullets don't break locks. What do I know?

I only see that shit in video games. I also really appreciated the, some of the camera angles were like kind of, it was like the camera was scurried up into a corner somewhere. And that's also very like the early fixed camera angle, Resident Evil stuff. and that's like, oh, I see what you're doing there. It's so cute. My theater experience was unique because, and I've complained-ish about this before, because Finnish people watch movies differently than Americans do. And it's like they're in detention or church. And it's like not just like respect, but like stony respect.

Like they don't even like laugh at stuff really. It's like very polite laughter. And it's really weird because, I felt like a big, weird, obnoxious idiot because, like, every joke landed for me. And I just was cackling at this shit. And nobody else was. Not a single fucking person. And I looked extra crazy because I was noticing all the little background thingies.

I noticed him walk right past a greener, but I was like, ah! And, like, no one, no one reacted to anything. I, like, laughed at the typewriter, just being a typewriter. I laughed at a scene that for everyone else was a very serious, sad scene, which is, I mean, we're going to get into the plan, skipping our head a little bit, but, you know, whatever. It was when he was, like, leaving a voice message for his girlfriend because, like, things were looking, things were looking bad. I was looking like he wasn't going to make it. He was sending his desperate voice message. And, like, the instant he sat down, you can see he looks at the back of the, some car that has a sticker family on it.

I fucking cackled at that. And then I realized that those don't exist here in this country. So I look like I laughed at something completely inappropriate because it's like this very somber scene about him wishing he could have had a family and stuff like that but I just look at this that's the fucking stickers that I'm so familiar with and are so crass.

You know I don't see the sticker families around here either in Canada so maybe we've abolished them. I think. I don't know but yeah I haven't seen them since I moved and I saw that and it just like jump scared me with a very specific cultural reference to something I hate and it made me laugh and then him just doing the dying message made me laugh too because it's like

you know oh he's he's that one gross skeleton that's like tell my wife I loved her I think of dying itchy tasty maybe an audio log I thought that was hilarious that he was leaving behind one of the audio logs but like that was completely not a joke to anyone but me well let's get into the general movie discussion here and we've hinted at this up front but like what are our general thoughts I'm also just say that I like the movie a lot I don't like the ending and that affected my overall enjoyment

but I'm glad he made it this way I really like it and I don't like when things are accurate anymore I find it very boring and tedious so we'll talk more about that later but I feel like this is a home run for Kregor but I'm also glad like okay now go do your own thing you played in this little realm

you had your own fun in this world now I want to see original ideas from you and that's fine I don't want to see you in like Marvel jail or IP jail I want to see the Zach Craigger experience. Like what's going on in your mind? I feel like this movie kind of encapsulated Resident Evil

so perfectly, like crystallized the essence of it so well that any sequel is just going to be inevitably dragged screaming into law. I feel like there'll be this. Well, that movie was good, but the problem is the fans didn't like it, so let's bring Jill in, you know, let's bring Chris in. And I don't want that. I just want this to sit. There's this lovely little artifact just forever by itself. I would like that very.

much. Agree. It's just like this was just a very good slam dunk and like you said it kind of like crystallizes what the vibe of Resident Evil is sort of. It's like it's action, it's horror, it's very campy at times, very silly at times. And it's like good on Zach Craigor for understanding what this feels like, which is funny because like I do feel like the series has gone through a lot of different vibes. over time. So it's interesting you see them condensed

in one spot in a way that makes sense. Well done. I feel like when you've had in the past, you've had this is an adaptation of a video game and it is literally adapting the story of a video game. But this is an adaptation of broadly speaking, a video game. And that's something very fresh.

It's made synapses in my brain explode. I was very excited by it because I couldn't think of anything like this before. I mean, you get terrible movies about video games like gamer and stuff like that. But this came along and just did something completely new and interesting and people are just mad that it doesn't have like Edelong in it they can they can go swivel to be honest they don't understand anything

I think that like part of the blessing of this being the IP that it is is that when you really get down to it the lore of Resident Evil is it's very sci-fi-ish and it's just like Wesker's doing some stupid shit over here Chris is doing some stuff over here but like the basic gist is umbrella is bad and keeps doing the thing. And the location changes every time and the people change every time. But the basic gist is umbrella is bad and they keep doing the virus thing. And it's a zombie virus. And that's like the brass tacks of it. And it's like this is a really good like jumping off point for lots of different stories. And you don't have to adapt previous ones because it's just, you know, the next time of Resident Evil comes out, it's going to be

umbrella be up to it again in a different place this time. You could place this movie if you really wanted to You could say this is taking place at the same time as this game or whatever But he's avoided that by setting it in the modern day I think that Rezi 2 is set in 98 specifically and some people are not happy about that as well He's on a good job evading any possible connection to the video games Yes the movie is very game-like but not in a distracting way I feel like it does remind me of movies that are focused on character solving problems

Which are movies and TV shows I like I like I like character drama more realistic movies, but I love mysteries, I love horror for that reason. Like a character encounters a series of problems and it's very satisfying to watch them solve those problems and it does feel like Evil Dead too, a fantastic film because that's mostly Sam Ramey

focusing on one character. What are you going to do now? What are you going to do now? You're in this one location, very few supplies. It's like the original survival horror with ash. So I feel like it just reminds me of other movies about problem solving, other media about problem solving. So I'm not thinking about like it's very game-like

But then thinking about it a little harder, like, yes, he is thinking about how much ammo do I have? He's getting a series of new weapons throughout. He's meeting new characters. He's meeting new monsters. He's failing every quick time event. Yes. You can't, like, unlike in RE4, you can't shoot locks. It's impossible.

So, yes, it's game-like, but also not game-like. But I think it just boils down to, I love, I guess, competency. Even though this character is kind of incompetent. I love watching a person solve problems even when they're messing up. It's like It's like being a game master at an escape room It's like you see these Dufus doing stuff And you're just like oh I'm rooting for you

Oh I'm rooting for you You can do it little guy And this whole this whole thing is like that He's so endearing And what are the strengths of this movie being so indirect Because like I said I've done a 180 on adaptations Before I wanted them faithful

And I think a lot of young nerds fall into that trap Like when I saw Sin City the movie I thought like oh It's like panel for panel is on the screen. It's perfect. This is the ideal form. Then you realize, well, like, a movie's a different format. It needs to be something different than the source material. And I didn't like 2002 Resident Evil because it was so different. This bears no resemblance to the games in terms of, like, the world, the lore, the characters. But I like it for that reason. And it might be

because after you get past the third game, Resident Evil lore becomes just an insane web that is so contradictory. Like, nothing makes sense anymore. There's so many characters, so many conspiracies. This is why I'm glad there was a hard reset with seven, saying let's clean the board. Umbrella can still be involved, but here's a new character, is completely divorced from Leon and Claire and Chris and all the rest. And that lasted what two games? Yeah. And they brought it all back. And it's like, and I'm okay with Leon being an RE9. Yeah. Like he's old now and, you know, uh, what, only a few of the games really matter in that scenario. You're not thinking of the grand scheme of things. Like, where was Leon and RE5?

and all this stuff. Like it manages to kind of tighten things a little bit. I think, I think something that's funny about this movie is that Brian feels like the anti-Leon. Like he's very incompetent, whereas Leon's hyper-competent. He can't do a one-liner to save his fucking little life. And I think that's such a funny running gag that,

like, he has all these opportunities to say something cool. And he always just says like, yeah, fuck you. Monsters. Yeah. He's so unlikely on. That was my opening joke because this guy, I swear to God, he says the F word or some very enough about 400 times. It's always just like muttered under his breath. But it just, this is how you would be reacting in a situation.

Yeah, for sure. You cannot pull together your thoughts enough to say anything clever. And also, no one's listening to you. So you might as well just say the F word over and over again. I mean, if it was me, I'd just be dead in the car at the beginning. Like that would be it for me. I wouldn't make it any further than that. But I think forsaking, well, forsaking.

that sounds so bad, like stripping away all of that law and the baggage. And I'm saying this as a big, resident evil fan. Those are absolute, like, pulp nonsense. That story is just terrible. Like, as a story, it's storytelling, it is very bad. As a story, it is basically nothing. It's a load of incomprehensible, like, organizations that don't mean anything to me, warring with each other in some way.

But stripping that back, they've made this film, which is really simple. Like, story-wise, it's incredibly simple. get this to there, there's really not much else. There's only really one character. Anyone else who turns up is alive for about five seconds. Yeah. And even like the get this to their equation doesn't really happen until about half, like half an hour in or maybe more. Yeah. He's focused on survival and then he realizes, okay, this thing that I've been carrying is actually very important. So it has to be about more than survival. I think like, you know, when it comes to adapting a video game to be a movie, I think like one of the things people keep goofing up.

is trying to make it too faithful to the, I mean, here's the thing. If you're going to adapt, like, Silent Hill, too, you are saying a very specific thing about which one you're adapting. And I think, like, this makes it so that, like, you're just going to compare it one to one. And comparison is the thief of joy. And so everything they mess up, you're going to notice it real, because it's just you're, you're quizzing yourself on what they're getting right and wrong in this sort of case. So I think, like, this was a smart move for it to be.

in the world, but independent of all the plots. Yeah, and references can be fun. I know, I understand, like, there's a joy in seeing something you recognize. It's a very, like, base form of joy. Like, oh, it's something I remember, and it's there now. Great. But then I feel like it makes the final product less memorable. Like, I liked the Mario Galaxy movie.

It sounds crazy. I know. I thought it was fine. But I have no memories of it right now. I cannot tell you what happened, what that movie contained, because it was just in the moment, like sorting through the movie. reference loaf, picking out my favorite pieces and saying, oh, it's this one, oh, it's that one.

And then a day later, I thought, like, I have the podcast about this. Oh, crap. Let me go read a Wikipedia summary of the plot. This one, it's all concrete in my brain because it means more than just showing me things I've seen before. There's more going on. It's trying to do something a lot more than just trying to

give me that base joy of recognition. Well, it's more interested obviously in being a good horror movie, a good horror action comedy. And it is that in sort of invariably, like critics like it, which which is the first time that's ever happened for a Resident Evil movie and possibly

for a video game movie in general. It's interesting you mentioned Mario Galaxy because I feel like that was completely referenced overdosed as the TV tropes, lunatics would say, but it also did weave it into the story, which was, again, sort of an original story for once, which is one of the reasons why I did like that movie as well, compared

to the first movie, which is just kind of like, look, here's that stuff from that thing. Here it is. Look, there's nothing else. Just look at it. Whereas with Resident Evil, we've just immersed ourselves in a far superior piece of cinema in general. Even if it wasn't called Resident Evil, I would enjoy this movie exactly the same amount. I would have a great time with it.

It being Resident Evil is just kind of the icing on the cake so I can go, oh yeah, I see what they're trying to evoke here. I see how this is like that. See, that monster is like the one from that game. They've even got the leeches from Resident Evil Zero in there and just not commented on it. It's just if you've played that game, you go, oh, that's similar to that. It's more just evocation rather than directly going,

look, look, in the background, there's a picture of friggin' Wesker. Look, he's got his shades on, that's the guy. Like, the monsters are interesting because they're clearly based in some way, like spiritually on certain Resident Evil monsters, but outside of just pure zombies, they're not trying to say, there's the liquor, there's the other thing, there's the other thing. It's more like, okay, we're kind of doing a lost plagues thing, but not really. But here are the ways it can mutate people.

Isn't that interesting? And then every monster is very different to the point where, like, towards the end of the movie, there's like a left for dead guy hanging out there who's vomiting everywhere. And I'm like, well, that's not in Resident Evil. That's a fun idea for a set piece. That is a Resident Evil outbreak two type guy. Oh. This is a Deep Cut.

That's a Deep Cut. I've also had people saying online, I heard people saying online that this movie is actually loosely adapting an outbreak story. and that could be true, but I have no familiarity with those games. But I'm not sure if either of you've heard that. No, I've heard that. I didn't get that far because they're not very good.

Yeah, I never got a chance to play the games. But, well, if that's the case to it, then they're going for, like, very deep cuts with these monsters. And I brought this up earlier, but I wanted to know what you guys felt about the snowy backdrop because it does make this movie very distinct, both as a Resident Evil movie and as a horror movie, because Resident Evil doesn't really get into snowy areas

outside of like some parts of eight I believe but that gives it a completely fresh look for the series and few horror movies are set in snow because it's so expensive and I feel like that makes this movie so memorable because snow it makes the movie look different but it also provides a lot of new challenges for the protagonist it's hard to get around in you can freeze to death you can't drive in it and so on and so on so I feel like it makes the movie look different in a fun way and it gives new challenges to our particular And like visibility is down too, which is like bread and butter survival horror stuff. If I can be a film prick for just a few seconds. I thought that the movie looked fantastic in general. This is what made me want to watch the other Zach Kroger movies is there's a sequence to very near the beginning of the movie where he's circling the overturned cop car. And you've just got white on like one half of the screen and just jet black on the other half with only the lights from the overturned car loading it up.

And he's moving between the open doors of it and they're acting like frames within frames. And I'm just sitting there kind of going like, this guy knows his shit. This is really good. Like this is a really well-made film. And that person pushed me through it. He really knows how to shoot a movie.

And I feel like this could be his best-looking movie just in terms of what he's doing. And the other movies weren't set in this kind of stark, snowy area. So you don't have the big contrast in his other movies between light and dark. But yeah, I feel like his movies have always looked really good. And I was really happy with what I saw on the screen. It's really difficult to make things shot on digital look good, have impact.

And he did that hair really well, I thought. Really just impressed with the use of color and everything. Yeah, it's a great-looking movie. And a lot of the movie is all about Brian solving problems, which I feel is very satisfying. Of course, he often does not do the right thing, which can be frustrating. But I like how it's putting him in these scenarios, asking what are the tools available, how will he use them either correctly or incorrectly?

And I wanted to go over a few of these and talk about what you guys thought of them Because some people might think, okay, he might be a little too competent action heroie by the end of the film With what he's doing like in the hospital area But I feel like it is all pretty believable normal guy stuff And that is really shown to you in that first real issue The first real problem to solve in the movie And that is in the barn with the dog And I will say also this is going to be a frustrating movie

If you're one of those people who gets mad at movies characters for doing the wrong thing because he's doing the wrong thing a lot of the time. It's so funny. It's like, you know, I think it's like a very, like, well-done subversion of what you're used to in a video game. Like, you're usually playing pretty competent guys. You're playing stars agents and stuff like that. They know what to do. They know how solve puzzles.

You got this idiot throwing perfectly good ladders away because he thought he was doing something cool and he was doing some stupid. I just said this guy rules. I don't know for being an idiot. Yeah, that really sets the tone because when he's dealing with the zombie initially, he's not sure what's going on. I think so this is a sick woman. What do I do? I'll take her to the cop and see what happens there. And then she realizes, oh, this woman is after me.

She's mad because I seemingly tried to kill her. I have to escape. It's all about running to the next location. And then he's trapped. He has to solve a problem. That's the first real problem. And I think it sets the tone for the movie. It's like, this guy, he's doing his best.

You know, he's doing what he can. He's being brave. He's going to goof up, but obviously he has to succeed for us to follow him for the next 80 minutes. So you're going to watch him mess up, but it's going to be charming. You know, he's like, I think what matters is that he seems like he's a good person. And like that's evidenced very early on by him still carrying around that organ transplant bag when he could have just left it in his car ages ago. But he's like, no, this is somebody, somebody's relying on this organ that I'm transporting. I'm still going to do my best, even though my car is totaled.

I think I shot a woman Things are crazy I still should bring this orion with me Because it's the right thing to do And then later on it's like Oh well good thing you did It's like very very important To what's going on

But it's like that's like a really good guy thing to do And he didn't have to Even earlier than that I find like Right at the very beginning of the movie He's obviously said the wrong thing to his To his girlfriend She's freezing him out The receptionist at the hospital is freezing him out

Really kind of passive aggressive hostile hostile way. All the doctors are completely ignoring him or treating him with contempt. And I feel like that just sets you immediately in for like, oh, come on, give him a break. He's doing his best, you know? And, you know, the fact that he does have the,

even during all this chaos, he has the time to process his feelings about starting a family and come around on that in a way that wasn't like just kind of intrusive or soppy or overly sentimental. It's all just done really with flair, the storytelling.

I do want to circle back to that. I do want to focus on the problem-solving nature of the character in the movie. And part of the problem-solving all boils down to what am I going to do with these monsters. And I like, so I'm a little conflicted on this because I like the fact that a new monster means a new problem for the character. He doesn't know how to handle it. He's got to learn in the moment and figure it out. What bothers me a tiny, like a tiny bit, a pedantic part of me, I wish there was more consistency to the monsters in this world because in this movie, a monster, can be anything. And that provides interesting

scenarios, but then I'm thinking like, okay, what are the rules? What, like, what can and can't he do to them, et cetera, et cetera? And then later he realized like, oh, something happened where they're not getting back up. I wasn't really clear why. I also was a little fuzzy on that because very soon before that scene,

there was a whole bunch of rats came out of a zombie in the sewer, and he just managed to shoot all of them into goo, but they started doing the reforming thing that we learned from this movie is like, just, they just keep going no matter what, basically. And then he gets out of the sewers, and then that scene happens where all the bodies are falling from, all the zombies are falling from the buildings and splashing down next to him, which apparently was an actual practical effect and a real stunt, which is fucking insane.

I can't believe it. Big if true. I'm not sure I fully believe it, because that seems incredibly dangerous. But hell, it was cool and it worked. But yeah, he, after, you know, all those zombies get blown up by getting. squashed on the pavement, he's like, oh, they can stay down. Okay. But I was like, well, how's that different than all the rats you just shot and turned

into slurry? It's a bit confusing. And I don't want to seem like I'm no fun because I'm insisting on rules, but I like when stories have boundaries because the writers have to try a little harder and it's more satisfying when they're working within those boundaries. It's why I like mystery so much. It's just like, you can't like phase through walls in a mystery. You can't fly or anything.

There has to be like grounded reality that we're operating within. So like just a tiny. little thing that bothered me, but the movie was so fun, I was able to overlook at Stewart. I think you're right in terms of establishing the rules. I suppose I see that in a sort of to be charitable about it. The games are the same. And it's instead of revoking the games so much, it's like, oh, this zombie, no, zombies can't go through doors. This one can. You know, little things like that. I guess when I received that, it just kind of like, well, no, the rules of this world that he's in don't make sense. So that didn't really bother me. But at the same time,

I do see where you're coming from. And I wanted to cover that fatherhood subplot that Stewart you brought up earlier. It's something I'm not really sure how to take it if it was necessary, if it was effective. I thought it could have been taken from the movie entirely removed and we could have still sympathized with Brian. There could have been another underlying problem in his life. But weirdly enough, I'm not sure if either of you saw this movie, the exact same thing is happening in another video game adaptation movie, The Exitate, like almost the exact same thing. It's like a man deciding whether or not he wants to be a father and also trapped in an nightmare scenario and trying to call his girlfriend and failing to communicate with her. And I felt like maybe I would like this more if I hadn't seen it before.

But I don't think we need any bigger themes in this movie. And I don't know also, is Craig are making fun of this? Is Craig are making fun of this kind of a plot shoehorn into a movie? I don't want to chalk up everything to 40 chess because I feel like a lot of people are explaining the ending through that and I don't like it. But it didn't work on me, and I thought this character was sympathetic enough without a few phone calls to his girlfriend. Although it did make the scene wandering through the hospital nursery, it may be a little more effective because that was on his mind. Yeah. I feel like it made him a more tragic character.

Yeah, yeah. Like necessarily more sympathetic, which also, oh, sure. And it was used as a gag in some parts. But it is good that he had some sort of internal. a character arc of some sort about like taking responsibility not running away. I think he was kind of like doing that with the

organ. It's like no this is my responsibility I'm going to see this through like even just doing that was like part of his arc and like I don't really know what this movie would look like if he didn't have some sort of like I'm trying I'm trying my best

I'm growing up. You also see him be nice to that little girl who is clearly infected and it's like oh like he's like he would be maybe a good dad. Like that's very sweet. And it was his fucking undoing. Oops. Maybe he shouldn't know.

It turns out you shouldn't want to be a father. Oh, idiot. Yeah. Just go home. Just go home. I felt personally like it wrapped it all together quite nicely. You know, he's avoiding this idea of a family because he's obviously frightened. But he's channeling that energy into protecting this, this thing.

Like it is his child, you know. And I guess he realizes the connection there at some point. but I hate to admit this because it's going to damage my standing as the hard, tough man of retronauts. But I did actually find the scene where he's recording the audio log to be found later by another character quite moving when he looks at that stupid sticker. Because I was kind of like, this guy's kind of simple and maybe that is his concept of a family is he wants to have one of those stickers. And now he never will. And I genuinely found that weirdly quite moving. I thought it worked personally.

Yeah, I mean, I feel like it wasn't ineffective. I just had seen this before. And if you've heard my other podcast, you've heard me complain about this. I feel like we don't have to shoehorn fathers and fatherhood in every movie. And I know it is just a part of human life. You either have a father or you might become a father. We are all around fathers or our fathers at some point. But it feels like an easy button to hit.

Like sympathy, okay, hit the father button again. And it just pops up so much. And I wasn't expecting to see it here. So maybe I've just become hardened to that idea that even when it's done well, I kind of bristle, I kind of bristle against it. No more father, says Bob Mackey. I'm sick of all this dad propaganda says Bob Mackey. Yeah.

I mean, as we all know, even the Super Mario Brothers movie had that shit in it. Yeah. You're not wrong, though. Wanting to be a dad was his undoing. So it turns out, don't be a father. Yeah, do not do it. Yeah. Sorry, Jess. I think I was talking over you.

No, no. I was disagree with you. Yeah, I mean, like, how did you feel about that, Jess? The fatherhood part of this movie? I'm totally fine with it I thought it was it did feel simultaneously like a bit of a gag

I also it's just like how on the nose that he has to go through the maternity ward to get to the final location that's got to be so annoying for the guys that work in the lab they have to go through

the fraternity award with all the babies every day to go to work that's like hilarious that's ridiculous and you could tell like Craigor wanted this movie to be fun because he is not

shooting zombie babies at least ones that you can see there's one moment where like a baby's arm comes out of a of a little bassinet and it's very, very long. Oh, my God, I love that. I think, I think he kills the, the zombie baby, but we don't see that happen, right? Yeah, it's kind of like, you see him swing at it and off screen, there's a big sploosh or something like that.

But yeah, I was laughing at that because it's like, oh man, like how ridiculously on the nose is that that's funny to me. But I do think, like, it was, you know, he did a really good performance during that dying message thing, even though I initially was like, while he's doing the dying message thing, like every corpse you find in this game has a fucking recording device on them or a notepad with a pen. So, I don't know, it was like a pretty good best of both world situation. It managed to be funny to me, but also simultaneously, like, earned enough, heartwarming. I felt for the guy in this way.

Well, I've got you too liked it. Again, I didn't hate it. I just thought, like, I'd seen it before. I do agree with you that there's a lot of dad stuff. Yeah. I understand being just like fed up with seeing it all the time though. Yeah, maybe if it wasn't so prevalent, I don't know. But if I ever see this movie again, I probably will.

Maybe going into it knowing I'll be seeing that kind of content. I'll be like, I'll lighten up a bit about it. It didn't ruin the movie. I just thought like this five minutes we don't need in an already short movie. But sure, it's not bringing things down for me. But I will say what did bring things down for me a little bit was the ending of the movie. It's very polarizing. Definitely want to have a discussion about this because my experience was

the movie ends and for a few seconds my brain is like is there a problem in the projection booth? There's more movie right? Like this is not the end of the movie and then the credits start rolling and I realize like oh this is the end of the movie because you made it this far obviously you're dealing with spoilers but essentially Brian is bitten at some point during the movie he delivers the cure to the umbrella scientist on the top floor and that's when he starts transforming he kills them all he becomes essentially a tyrant style enemy with a big shoulder eyeball.

And the last time we see him, he's being attacked by helicopters. He drops the cure. He has never cured. And this was a big bummer for me. And I know a lot of horror endings, sorry, a lot of horror movies had bad endings, and I understand that.

But I was rooting for this guy, and I wanted to see him succeed. And in a way, he really doesn't. And I thought it was kind of cruel to the main character. And I've heard people try to fordie chest their way into enjoying this. And I'm sure they do. enjoy this ending by saying, well, it's the story of how a Resident Evil enemy was made. So, like,

this is an enemy you fight. This is their backstory. And I was like, okay, that's fine. Well, I mean, you've got to watch the movie again and this time trigger the right flag and get the good ending, I guess. It's just a bad ending for Resident Evil. He played it too bad. Yeah. Or they didn't get the good ending. But ultimately, like, I thought, I know this movie could have a good ending in Resident Evil lore, probably in this lore, too, the city is nuked. And this guy's not going to survive, but I wanted to see a victory within that scenario. And I feel like he does all of this for not. And I really, it was kind of a bummer, honestly.

Like, I left not feeling great. And then I had to remember, no, I had a good time with this movie until the last, like, 30 seconds. It felt mean. It felt a little mean. But, like, I was also, the way I was trying to 40 chest myself into being like, oh, no, it's still good. It's still good. was like first of all

yes he's bad at playing the game so he gets a bad ending that was one of the 40 chesses I was doing too but it's another subversion right this this whole movie is subverting and subverting and subverting you know this is the anti Leon doing this stupid bullshit

he fails every quick time until like you know they have the really climactic one where he's like on the sky bridge and the zombies are going to come through if he can only shoot the broomstick it correctly with his last bullet. Oh my God. And the guy's crawling up the building. If he could do this, everything's cool. And you're just sitting there being like, okay, I am on the edge of my seat because this movie has established he sucks at this. So he could just miss like all the other times he's

missed. And that would be funny. Or he could. And I'm like, is he really going to action hero this at the last second? That seems like, I don't know. So like, but it's like the, you know, the, the music swelling. And you're just like, no way, no way, no way. And he actually does it. And it. And It's also fucking funny. And so you're like, okay, maybe this can work out for him if he can do something like that in a clutch moment. And then, you know, it slams a brick wall in your face with a bad ending anyway. And it's just like, no, we're going to subvert the whole idea that we were like leading this hero through a journey of redemption. And he's going to be fine.

He's going to be a dad at the end of it. And everything is going to be hunky dory by the end. And it's just like, were you expecting that? Is this a kind of story where that happens? Or were you just really hoping for it? And the answer was like, yeah, well, it's because it's a movie and it has a formula. And I want this nice boy to have a good time. Yeah, I mean, I didn't, I wasn't expecting the last shot to beat him in a suburban home holding his new baby and smiling his wife.

Yeah. The ending I wrote in my head is he somehow is jab with the needle as he's killing the last scientist. And then he turns back into a human and then he's confronted by a bunch of soldiers. And he gives that like sheepish smile at them and then the movie ends. Like, all right, he's never going to see the light of day again. but at least he's not going to die a monster. Yeah, the happiest ending. What is the happiest ending possible?

Really? He doesn't take the job. And there is no movie, I guess. I was hoping that, you know, if they're showing him at the end and he's like turned into the Birkin style boss monster and roaring and stuff like that and everything is all for not, all is lost. I was really hoping a nuke would go off right there at the end and just like put a cap on it. Like just if you're going to go so extreme anyway, just go and notch up and nuke the place

anyway because we know we're getting nuked, right? Yeah. I mean, you're helping me refine my thoughts, just, because ultimately I feel like the movie ends at what I feel is an arbitrary point, although I'm glad it's a shorter movie. And also, even though, even if there are some galaxy brain thing, like generating the ending, some kind of galaxy brain idea that's making this ending possible, I still feel like it's unsatisfying. It's like, okay, good.

I like the idea is interesting, but ultimately, you got me on this guy's side for so long, and you really brought me down with his demise. It's a feel bad. I love the ending. It's such a, I mean, I don't, this is, I don't want to sound condescending, because I don't know how much horror you watch or if you're into horror or anything like that. It's such a classic, especially contemporary horror thing to do this, to just to pull the rug out from you right at the end.

And in that respect, I can see it being unsatisfying because it's just kind of, oh, they're doing this again, where everything sucks and it doesn't work out. But also, it gave us the sight of him to, tearing people into pieces while feeding them into a giant mouth on his, like, chest cavity, while screaming, give me the shot, give me the shot, which cracked me up because I'm a ghoul. I was laughing my ass off in the cinema. It was like gory, loony tunes at the end. I was dying. It reminded me of brain dirt, which is obviously one of the main comedy horrors of excellence.

Stuart, I was really enjoying the last scene until the logo hit and the credits started rolling. I was like, what? Wait. And I loved the final shot of him on the remains of the Skybridge with all the lights being shown on him. And, you know, I was kind of 40-cheting the whole time. I just loved it. I thought it would create a very complete story of the downfall of civilization thanks to the T-virus or whatever. It just worked for me.

If he had a victory, his victory was eating all of the podcasters and improv comedians pretending to be scientists who started this tragedy. So I guess they got theirs and that could be like. I just even, I know horror movies often have a bad ending, but usually there is success within that scenario. There is a noble sacrifice that is made for something to carry for. But he drops, he drops the cure. I don't think anyone is finding that needle in the chaos. The city's about to be nuked. There is like, it's hopeless. He did his job. He got the cure thing to them. They sent that they took it off him and that was had completed the job. He'd given them the thing. He was done. So that's his victory. He did a good job. Will he get a good review on TaskRabbit, though? The servers might be done.

The servers might be down. I don't know. But I thought it was quite, he sends the whole movie. As you say, you know, they get theirs. He's getting his, like, from start to finish for like 80 minutes of that movie. And then in the last 10 minutes or so, he is encountering a bunch of people who, in the same situation he's been in confronted with the infected, they're just as hapless as he is. And he just completely sort of turns the tables. I mean, he doesn't want to do it. But that is what it is.

And, yeah, I mean, I dug it. I thought it was cool. But also, I can see why it would be unsatisfying. because it is not a satisfying hero's journey. And some people out there might not know what's going on with the production of the film

but I saw a few people saying oh no, Craigor setting up the sequel and I thought, well no, he's not doing this again. This is the end of this character story. The next movie is not going to pick up

with the shot of him on the hospital screaming at helicopters. Of course not. What the hell? This is the end of his story. It's possibly the end of humanity. It's very final. Just because the army is there

or whatever, they don't have the cure. That's gone. we're all fucked it's over it's gonna be a lot of fix-it-fick for this thing I think I will watch this film again

and I think like going into this knowing he's not going to make it out I mean I didn't think he was going to make it up but I thought like he will do something that will make all this worth it but ultimately it felt a little cruel to the character by making his efforts futile

I guess I guess he proved he was capable of being a father even if he wasn't going to let that happen Although maybe So here's a thing His girlfriend is pregnant Right And that's what the first discussion is about

On the phone So maybe like there is a little Brian in the oven Who can carry on his dad's legacy That could be the hope that this movie contains I guess Maybe I'm grasping at straws here Yeah exactly

Because the first call is like He's having a conversation with his girlfriend About whether or not to get an abortion And she does not live in rack and raccoon city. Raccoon City is like, oh, you've got to go all the way to Raccoon City. So she is presumably fine. She might be fine.

Hopefully. Little Brian can live. For how long, you know. Yes. Little Brian can live to avenge his father in Resident Evil, uh, the two, whatever they call the next movie. That's my pitch. Zach Kragher don't make it.

Please. Don't do it. And, uh, I guess that is it for the, anything else you want to mention before I, I have one final question to pose to everybody. Anything else you want to mention about the third. I'm kind of tapped out. I really, yes, I think we all recommend this movie. The few tiny problems I have with it do not interfere with this being a very enjoyable experience. I gave it a four out of five on Letterbox. It is by far the best Resident Evil movie that was ever made.

I haven't seen any of them, and I can say that. I feel comfortable saying that. I guess I'm hoping that the Street Fighter movie is going to be as fun as this, you know, because that doesn't seem to be a direct adaptation of anything either. So maybe this is the new wave of the future. We get a bunch of genuinely good video game movies. It started with Sonic and it continues with Resident Evil. I just hope the Resident Evil, or sorry, I hope the Street Fighter movie is more than just a very good cosplay because that's all I'm seeing in these trailers. Yeah. But before we go, I wanted to ask both of you, they're going to make another Resident Evil movie.

What do you want to see from it? Craigor is not going to be around. What is your ideal version of whatever they do next? Do you think they're going to fall right on their ass and do another garbage movie or do you think it'll be elevated like this? Hmm. I think it could only be good if you got another like horror, auteur type guy like Craigor and got like Jordan Peel or Backroom's Kid or somebody that has a vision. I don't know what I would want to see besides somebody competent doing it. I mean, they've already made like what 11 of these now.

something like 10, 9, I don't know. There's nothing left. It's just fumes. I mean, it's a miracle that this movie was as good as it was. And I loved this. I had a great time watching this. It reminded me of, I saw recently Evil Dead Burn, which is a really, really enjoyable in a really dark way,

which I felt like this was capturing as well. Although you might prefer Evil Dead Burn, Bob. I don't see what they can do that wouldn't be shite A follow-up to this could be fun if they just do another kind of balls to the wall movie like this that really isn't anything to do with Resident Evil fundamentally

and I'll probably enjoy it as an action-horror comic I like my comedy to be action sorry my horror to be kind of action-y and comedy-e Yeah, me too I don't get scared, I get bored when it's just like oh look, a ghost might be there

Oh shit. So just, you know, be crazy. Make something silly and OTT and campy again. That's all I really want. I don't know who there is. Who would do that well. Peter Jackson, maybe if they just let him do what he wanted.

I don't know. Yeah, I agree with both of you because I feel like, to go back to what Jess was saying, I don't think lightning is going to strike twice. I don't think the next movie is going to be as good as this one. But this feels like this could have the potential of a tradition in that Resident Evil as a movie series is just we get a director that's upcoming or

it's got a lot of buzz and say do whatever you want. Put a green herb in the background. We're good. And then they have a nice, tight 90-minute horror movie that's a lot of fun that is not tied to anything specifically. Like if you have to make IP movies like this, this is the best possible scenario. I wish they didn't have to, but I'm glad this movie came out of it ultimately because it is a great horror movie.

And I think it is like another great entry on Zach Krieger's track record that completely erases Miss March. We can forget about Miss March entirely now. He's made three great movies. Been forgiven. Yes. All is forgiven in movie court. But that is it for this episode of Retronauts.

Thanks for listening, everybody. This is a main feed episodes. We'll do all the plugs up here. And if you want to hear all of these episodes ad free, by the way, and also access a vast catalog of exclusive episodes that are all full length. I think there's at least six years worth of them by now. check out patreon.com slash retronauts sign up for five bucks a month when you do you'll access all the back catalog content we've made for the past geez i don't know like i think 12 years at this point and also you'll

access the two bonus episodes every month and also you'll access a new weekly column and podcast by contributor diamond fight it's all happening at patreon dot com slash retronauts and it supports the show we really appreciate it if you would sign up today and i will do my plugs last let's go around the zancaster room let's start with jess jess what are you working on i know you're streaming a lot I know you're YouTube and a lot. Yeah, I need to stream more,

honestly. I was playing Big Walk and I'm still, I got to get back to it. But I've been playing a control resident because I'm the spouse of one of the developers,

so I get to play it early. I just beat it earlier today and I got to say it fucking rules. Everyone go play control resonant. I'm really biased, but you should play control resonant. It's cool as hell.

And the other stuff, I mean, also go watch my video essay that was plug in the last time, I think, which is my return to Silent Hill essay called In My Restless Dreams, I See That Clown, Christoph Gons. Give me your views, not super I patch wolf, who just also came out with a video that is about return to Silent Hill. He's a nice guy. You can watch this, too. Just the video is as good as its title. Yes, thank you. It's a hard title to live up to.

It's so clever. I love it. I bet I bet John's jealous that I got a better title than him, in my opinion. But that's what I'm doing, and I'm void-burne. burger on everything that matters. Blue Sky, Patreon, coffee, all those fun things. Awesome. And Stuart, how about you? I'm mostly on Retronauts. I'm Stuart Jip everywhere. I like Blue Sky. I've been doing something called

the Master System Directory for Retronauts for the past seven or eight weeks now, and I'm going to be reviewing or talking about every single Sega Master System game that's ever been made. And I've been doing it for ages, and I'm only up to B, so I think I may have let myself in for something of a disastrous project here, but, you know,

stick with it, and we'll watch my mental health slowly erode as I have to play. Increasingly poor Master System games. But I love the Master System. I say this with out of love. Well, Stuart, unlike Brian, you'll make it out the other end of live. Oh, God, will I, though? We'll get to see. And as for me, I'm Bob Mackie.

I do other things for the Talking Simpsons Network at patreon.com slash talking Simpsons, including Talking Simpsons, which covers the Simpsons, obviously. And what a cartoon, which looks at a different cartoon from a different series every month. You can find those wherever you find podcasts, or go to patreon.com slash Talking Simpsons and look up our stuff there. There's an entire back catalog there as well. And also, I will be at Portland Retro Gaming Expo coming up very soon.

So please check out the Retronauts panel celebrating the 20th anniversary of this great podcast. But that is it for this episode. We'll see you again next time for another new episode of Retronauts. Take care.