Resident Evil
Zach Cregger exploded onto the horror scene in 2022 with Barbarian and then made an even bigger splash with his 2025 follow-up, Weapons. After that hit, he decided to try something sneakily ambitious: he signed on to make a new Resident Evil movie, a horror videogame that has already been adapted into seven movies and a tv show. His idea was not to directly adapt one of the games. Instead, he chose to center his screenplay on a new story, set in the world of the games, that would be faithful to the feel of that universe. That concept made some fans, who want to see the characters they have played as represented on the big screen, pretty upset. Cregger has now vowed not to get involved with existing franchises again. However, if Resident Evil is his only attempt at it, it is a really good one.
Though I don’t have a ton of experience with the games, this definitely feels like he captured the mood perfectly. This is open-world survival horror, that acts as a kind of prologue to the real chaos that could potentially be unleashed in sequels. We follow an everyman protagonist who stumbles into a terrifying situation and must think quickly, using his dwindling resources in order to stay alive. That premise sounds like it would fit just fine in one of the games.
Cregger doesn’t rush any of this. It is always moving, yet it takes its time, letting the horror develop organically. He builds tension through the natural progression of events. It escalates logically (well, using the consistent internal logic of the story), getting increasingly crazier as it goes. Using the journey of one man, he paints a picture of a world that doesn’t even know it is teetering on the edge of madness. This is gross, suspenseful, occasionally funny and very entertaining. Zach Cregger has turned into a great horror director.
Bryan is a courier who drives body parts to hospitals for doctors to perform transplants. One night, he accepts a job doing a delivery to a hospital in the mountains. On the way there, a disturbed woman runs in front of his car. That is just the beginning of Bryan’s hellish nightmare.
Resident Evil (87 minutes, minus the end credits) is a love letter to its source material in style and mood. It has been made with videogame logic, but without sacrificing cinematic technique. When Austin Abrams, as Bryan, wanders through a farmhouse, holding a gun he barely understands how to use, with no clue what awaits him around the next corner, it is very easy to imagine controlling his actions on a PS5. It is also unnervingly suspenseful to see what the filmmakers came up with. It succeeds on both levels.
This is by far the most graphic entry in Zach Cregger’s filmography. There are all kinds of fluids, as well as things coming out of people that shouldn’t have been in them in the first place. He utilizes location extremely well here, whether it is a field, a city street, a sewer or a large office building. He knows how much to reveal and when. This is an ideal reboot because it restarts the franchise from a different angle, not at all reusing what has come before it. This isn’t a soldier or a mercenary. It is just a guy, looking to make some extra cash while dealing with fears of growing up. It takes the world of Resident Evil and focuses on a small part of it. It is skillful, intense and clever genre filmmaking.
4 out of 5
Cast:
Austin Abrams as Bryan
Directed by Zach Cregger
Written by Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten
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