Resident Evil (2026)

Zach Cregger's take is a compact and enjoyable survivalist horror

It seems that Hollywood has overcome its videogame adaptation curse. After decades where any attempt at bringing a videogame to the silver screen flopped spectacularly, Hollywood has finally been having successes, with the enjoyable Sonic the Hedgehog (2020), the acceptable Uncharted (2022), and the passable The Super Mario Bros. Movie (2023). Yet most of these cinematic adaptations were average at best, it was on TV screens that game adaptations flourished with the likes of The Last of Us (2023-) sweeping awards and Fallout (2024-) breaking viewership records. This bifurcation appears to have ruptured with the release of Resident Evil (2026).

Resident Evil is the fourth attempt at adapting the horror video game franchise, this time in the hands of up-and-coming horror director Zach Cregger. In it, we follow organ delivery worker Bryan (Austin Abrams) who is given a task that pays double to transport an organ outside the city. Along the way, driving through a snowy night, Bryan runs over a bystander, and his attempts to help them snowball into a survivalist horror, as Bryan finds himself amidst the start of a zombie apocalypse.

Zach Cregger has shown his horror credentials with his first two brilliant films Barbarian (2022) and Weapons (2025), which showcased an original mind with a keen skill for creating atmospheric unease and terror. It was thus with both anticipation and nervousness that I saw his announcement as the new mind behind a Resident Evil adaptation arrive. Would he be able to crack an IP that had eluded many other filmmakers before him? Would his creative flair be snuffed out by studio bigwigs keen on checking boxes? Surprisingly, Cregger was given complete creative freedom and it resulted in a survivalist horror film in its most thrilling form.

As with Barbarian, Cregger chooses to keep his story focused and compact. We follow Bryan as our sole witness, as the impeding apocalypse unfolds through the eyes and confusion of a single regular guy. The story is structured in a linear fashion, in the sense that Bryan simply goes from surviving one sequence to another, pushed by his sense of duty to deliver his organ donation. This helps keeps a clean throughline that audiences can follow throughout, and maintains a steady rhythm.

One thing that has made Cregger’s previous films so enjoyable is the fact that his characters are rather intelligent for horror protagonists. They take logical decisions for the most part, and, as such, intrigue audiences with how they will solve specific situations. Some of the permissible naivetes of Bryan in Resident Evil are down to him being a normal guy, who has never used a gun, and who, if he sees someone in need, his instinct is to help. These tropes are never pushed too far and in the end help add an endearing dimension to our hero.

Cregger stages his scares with more ambiance than jumps, albeit there are still a few jump scares. Nevertheless, Cregger is more focused on the body horror elements to creep out audiences, along with the claustrophobic feeling of survivalist films. His use of lighting and especially playing with shadows, be they in the snow or in a sewer tunnel, are particularly effective and memorable, helping don a moody ambiance upon the entire film.

Yet Cregger also falls into a familiar pitfall, of overusing humor. Apparently, a lot of jokes had been dropped from the final cut after a test screening, but a sizeable amount remain. Sure, humor can help humanize and win over viewers to a protagonist, but an overuse of them, especially within a spooky spell, breaks the effect and pulls you out. Likewise, despite being a compact 1 hour and 35 minutes, there are just one too many survival sequences that stretch the credulity of Bryan having made it this far. By being so keen to jump from one sequence to the next, you never get much character development with Bryan. By cutting one of these action scenes and putting in a more reflective moment, Resident Evil would have flowed better and given us a greater payoff in finale, where a current dramatic scene comes across indifferently.

Abrams has been an actor stealing scenes since he was a child in Paper Towns (2015). He has consistently been a standout, relegated to supporting roles, in projects from Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark (2019),Euphoria (2019-2026), and Cregger’s last film Weapons (2025). The American actor has deservedly gotten a leading nod here and makes the most of it, winning us over with his everyman charisma from his first scene, and never making us tire in rooting for him throughout. Within a demanding physical role, Abrams balances both the moments of humor that Cregger inserts, alongside the believable survivalist beats.

Resident Evil is certainly the best cinematic adaptation the video game has ever gotten, albeit that’s not saying much. However, the film also proves a compact and enjoyable survivalist horror flick, which showcases Cregger’s enviable abilities at creating a terrifying atmosphere, conjuring horrifying images, and sending shivers down your spine as you walk out of the theater.

7.8/10