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# Resident Evil
- URL: https://www.afterimages.film/resident-evil/
- Published: 2026-09-29T08:16:27.000Z
- Updated: 2026-09-29T08:40:14.000Z
- Description: Zach Cregger's latest is a blood-soaked splatterfest that sets a high benchmark for all future video game adaptations.
- Author: Dennis Ramirez
- Tags: Feature Review, First Time Watch, In Theaters, 2026, #rating-8, Score: 8

### Going In

Zach Cregger's new reboot is the eighth movie in the *Resident Evil* horror franchise, tying it with *Child's Play* and *The Howling*, and with *Friday the 13th* at twelve if you count the animated movies (not even counting the now-canceled TV series). While it's not unique in horror for popular franchises to lurch forward endlessly like zombies, impervious to quality or box-office returns (the opening credits of [Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma](https://www.afterimages.film/teenage-sex-and-death-at-camp-miasma/) describe this perfectly), what makes this remarkable for *Resident Evil* is that it's based on a video game.

Video game adaptations are notorious for being universally awful, partly because they are difficult to adapt. Distilling tens of hours of complex lore into 1.5-2 hours while keeping fans happy is challenging, and can feel thankless when more aggressive segments of a fandom start venting. Films are passive, whereas video games are experiential: in the former, you are a *viewer*; in the latter, a *player*. Empathy and sympathy can be powerful triggers in a film when a zombie bites your favorite character, but they're no match for being the one who has to shoot them in the head, as in a video game.

The other part is harder to pin down because it's a matter of taste; almost all video game adaptations have mediocre, if not abysmal, reviews, and studios have never felt the need to take them seriously the way they did superhero movies after Marvel's ascension with *Iron Man* in 2008.

The *Resident Evil* films all had that against them, yet somehow have grossed over $1 billion combined at the box office. The six films starring Milla Jovovich and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson have found a cult following (myself included), despite abandoning any pretense of fidelity to the source material or even to horror, mutating into an action series with occasional goopy monsters. *Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City* was an attempt to reboot the series in a more faithful vein, but it was a critical and box-office bomb, with even fans complaining about apparently poor character translations, low-budget effects, and an overstuffed script.

When it was announced that Zach Cregger's new movie would be another *Resident Evil* reboot, the news was met with excitement. He'd already made his name as the new wunderkind in the comedian-to-horror-director pipeline after *Weapons*, the follow-up to his debut *Barbarian*, was a runaway mainstream smash. He's also a self-professed gamer and, specifically, a *Resident Evil* fan, so this seemed like a recipe for success.

Then reports emerged about the film's tone, which would capture the feeling of playing the games rather than adapting any specific storyline or characters. This sparked an outcry from irate fans who felt they were about to be let down again, prompting Zach Cregger to [address](https://www.avclub.com/zach-cregger-not-afraid-resident-evil-fan-backlash-because-hes-an-adult?ref=afterimages.film) these [concerns](https://theplaylist.net/zach-cregger-austin-abrams-resident-evil-sequel-ideas-interview-20260904/?ref=afterimages.film) several times during the film's press tour.

Video game adaptations have long been searching for their own *Iron Man* moment. HBO's *The Last of Us* proved that a faithful adaptation can succeed both critically and commercially, at least on television. Can Zach Cregger pull off the impossible and achieve the same in film?

### Review

Bryan (Austin Abrams) just found out his girlfriend Michelle is pregnant, and his reaction over the phone is less joy than an "OK, but are you sure?" panic masked as pragmatism. His job as a medical courier gives him a convenient escape from the conversation, though navigating unbothered receptionists and doctors too busy to help isn't much easier. Nevertheless, he completes the delivery and is hired for a last-minute, high-priority delivery to nearby Raccoon City that pays twice as much as usual.

He's back on the phone with Michelle as he drives the snow-covered mountains toward Raccoon City. She's frustrated he's still avoiding the situation, but he stresses this new gig is too important, too lucrative, and promises he'll absolutely come home afterward to figure this out with her. Right on cue, a woman suddenly stumbles out of the surrounding woods into the middle of the road, and he crashes into her. He goes to check on her, but there's no trace save for a pool of blood and a set of footprints leading back into the forest. Wracked with guilt, he follows the footsteps, and what he finds will mark the beginning of the absolute worst night anyone has ever had in the history of terrible nights.

Zach Cregger's *Resident Evil* is an absolute thrill ride. It's light on plot and heavy on momentum, each set piece escalating from the last and mimicking the rising difficulty of a player progressing through a video game. It's also disgusting in the most complimentary way this side of John Carpenter's body horror classic *The Thing*.

True to his word, Cregger's film cares less about the games' lore and characters than about capturing the survival-horror feeling a newbie player might experience. Bryan is the furthest thing from an action hero: a true Everyman thrust into a situation beyond reason or prior context. He knows what guns are because he plays video games, but he doesn't actually know how to use them. He acquires an increasingly powerful arsenal of weapons as the ~~game~~ progresses, and while the logic behind it is contrived, it celebrates how contrivance is essential to both video games and narrative films. 

The creature design expands beyond zombies, drawing on later-game concepts about what's possible after the initial contagion, building on those ideas to create uniquely creative monstrosities of its own. This spawns a truly gnarly and gloriously nasty mess of flesh, teeth, and bodily fluids that should appeal to the appetites of horror fans looking for a splatterhouse fix. Austin Abrams' performance anchors us through all the madness that unfolds during this One Bad Night. He imbues Bryan with an innate decency that outweighs his flaws, conjuring a slacker who cuts corners and fears serious emotional conflict, yet shows real empathy and concern for others he meets, even as madness descends upon him and that concern becomes unreasonable.

As mentioned earlier, there's barely any plot here. It's a simple delivery mission, fueled by constant tension earned through subverting expected horror tropes and jump scares. Horror fans looking for a truly scary experience will have mixed reactions due to the sheer amount of comedy throughout, as Cregger's roots as a comedian shine more here than in any of his other films. While that helps speed the film through its tidy 97 minutes, it occasionally undercuts truly upsetting dilemmas, particularly one in an abandoned RV. Bryan is set up for an emotional arc, as his fears of fatherhood and growing up are reflected in the nightmare scenarios he encounters, but they're so outlandish, and he's so focused on survival mode that when the arc resolves, it feels superfluous instead of earned (and even this moment is undercut by a joke). 

None of these minor flaws are enough to derail *Resident Evil's* bullet train of gleeful carnage as it careens toward its gonzo ending. There's too much fun to be had and too much viscera to wade through to waste time worrying about them. The ending leaves the door open for others to take the reins, as Cregger has said this was just a one-and-done for him, and the ecstatic critical response and healthy box-office almost guarantee someone will pick up where he left off. And while it's too early to tell if *Resident Evil* is going to be the *Iron Man* moment for video game adaptations, Zach Cregger has thrown down a blood-soaked gauntlet and set a very high benchmark for all future adaptations to come.

### The Afterimage

*All the things that stick with me after the credits roll*

What I've thought about most after watching *Resident Evil* are the many reactions people and fandoms have towards film adaptations. For me, I rarely feel protective of source material. Storywise, I think everything is fair game, and I even tend to like the audacity of adaptations that depart significantly from their source. For example, I really love Alex Garland's *Annihilation*, which grafts the bare-bones structure of Jeff VanderMeer's also excellent novel onto an original story he wanted to tell but couldn't quite crack until he read it. 

One of my friends is an avid moviegoer who loves the *Dune* books, but refuses to watch any of the movies, old or new. She feels any adaptation of that story will only let her down, unable to live up to the world she's created in her head. This attitude is as bewildering as it is fascinating to me. Not wanting to watch a movie because the filmmaker's interpretation isn't the same as mine doesn't compute for me. I feel the differences would only enrich my own takes, especially if I didn't like them. It's not wrong for her to feel the way she does, of course, and maybe I've just not found a story I love so much that I couldn't brook any deviation from my personal interpretation. 

With *Resident Evil*, I'm not an avid gamer (unless it's *Mario Kart*), so I didn't go into the screening with expectations beyond excitement for a new Zach Cregger movie. The group I was with did have seasoned gamers, all fans of the series, and while we all liked the movie, they had some complaints and wishes about the lack of Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, or any of the other characters from the games. Their complaints weren't anywhere near the level of animosity that the more toxic elements of online fandom can reach, but they were genuine and did diminish their experience. The explicit lack of obligation to the games is exactly why I enjoyed the movie so much. There are definitely easter eggs for fans, evidenced by the snickers and claps during certain moments that meant nothing to me, but those moments felt natural to the story. They didn't feel like the movie was grabbing my shoulders to make sure I could see the keys it was jingling. I don't mean that dismissively, as I'm an avowed MCU fan (at least during the *Infinity Saga*), and that whole franchise runs on jingling keys. 

There has been exactly one time when an adaptation's deviations really upset me. Francis Lawrence's *I Am Legend* had me on board until the end, when it trades the novel's bleak interpretation of the film's title for a more uplifting one. I was OK with the other changes, like trading vampires for whatever those weird monsters were. Still, the happier ending always felt cowardly to me, especially when I learned they actually filmed a faithful ending and changed it after test audiences felt too depressed. 

This is a point of interaction with art that I've always been curious about: the different reactions people have to adaptations. I definitely advocate that they not be exact replicas of their sources, at the very least, and that they take wild swings for the fences wherever possible. I made a deal with my friend who loves *Dune* (after years of bugging her) that she'll watch the movies if I read the books, and I've started the first. It's a daunting task, and I don't know if I'll be able to read both *Dun*e and *Dune Messiah* in time for the final Denis Villeneuve film in December. Still, I'm already enjoying it, and it's making me appreciate the art of adaptations even more. 

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/fQpxJXfOm0QSHj3eB8QDjOvYL3t.webp)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/1NfRdAbcvWxO6rzUaHdiJ8ziRGZ.webp)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/mbwT1xX90NuE84DBBlxEVngUOJp.webp)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/mRM28tIIm8y0gKy9GKYGwotxuPM.webp)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/n9SBqkGttTmkHtoXiyuB1NOBV9v.webp)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/tOLGgDfKC2tCfANk6BgxW06yaQ1.webp)

![](https://storage.ghost.io/c/77/3d/773db866-d3be-4fde-a53a-fae62a9629e6/content/images/2026/09/vfxDfXlu4Oe6CuGYALtURZvBJ7c.webp)

### Projection Booth

Cinematographer

Dariusz Wolski

Aspect Ratio

2.39:1

- Bryan  
  - You know what? Fuck you.
- Bryan  
  - YEAH! VIDEO GAMES!
- Bryan  
  - God damn it. I fucking suck at guns.

### Line Readings

Writers

Zach Cregger, Shay Hatten

![Resident Evil](https://image.tmdb.org/t/p/w342/guq5cJ43v0qcMtLqrYHe5P9fgFM.jpg) 

Director

#### Zach Cregger

Budget

##### $75M

Release Date

Released

##### Sep 16, 2026

Runtime

##### 1h 35m

[ ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mNd1gb19A-c&ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35538033/?ref=afterimages.film) [ ](https://letterboxd.com/film/resident-evil-2026/?ref=afterimages.film) 

Data provided by TMDB

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