There have been several film adaptations of the Resident Evil video game series over the years. While some have been fun, they mostly haven’t captured the feel of the beloved survival horror games. Now, Zach Cregger, the director behind Barbarian and Weapons, has tried his hand at bringing the video games to life. Does his new movie, simply titled Resident Evil, live up to what long-time fans have been hoping for, or is it dead on arrival? Let’s explore further to find out.

The Good

This is a horror movie first, and it delivers on the frights. It’s scary, both with its atmosphere and with constantly effective jump scares. The buildup of everything only adds to it. The scares start small and grounded, and things get more hectic and intense as the film progresses. The suspense throughout the movie’s entire run time is practically palpable. This is overall terrific horror.

Something that’s particularly captivating is that the movie sticks to following one single character throughout the story. It never jumps to others or even to a flashback. The focus is always on the protagonist. Somehow, it works extraordinarily well. This angle manages to pull the audience in and keep them invested and attached to this character as he faces obstacle after obstacle. It makes us feel like we’re there with him.

Video game elements are adapted to the big screen surprisingly well without feeling too gimmicky, which is quite impressive. The protagonist being stuck by himself, collecting weapon upgrades, solving puzzles, searching for loot, and collecting necessary survival supplies all feel like how a video game is played, but it never takes away from the movie. It’s all presented in a way that’s realistic to the movie and is honestly really clever. It replicated the video game experience while still feeling like a movie.

There’s also a welcome level of emotion seen throughout the film. Seeing what the protagonist, Bryan, is going through in his personal life outside the horror makes him feel more lifelike and worth caring about. We relate to him on an emotional level enough that we root for him to succeed. We feel for him when things don’t go his way. This showcases the excellent writing, directing, and acting when it comes to these emotional moments.

The film also features quite a bit of humor. Austin Abrams’ reactions are often hilarious, and the situational humor is genuinely solid. In the theater, the audience was laughing uproariously at some of Bryan’s misfortune. The amount of dark humor is certainly welcome. Best of all, it never takes away from the emotion or the frights.

The Bad

Spoiler alert for the ending of 2026’s Resident Evil, but there could have been more to the ending. Unhappy endings in movies are fine, especially when it comes to horror. However, this film happens to end in a way that means that everything we saw leading up to it didn’t truly matter, which is rather frustrating. It also just sort of ends. It’s not on a point that’s too sudden or random, but there definitely could have been more to it. Sure, Bryan meets a tragic end, but it still could have shown us more of what comes after, something a bit more satisfying. A scientist or soldier or government official could have found the syringe with the cure in it. We could have seen Bryan’s girlfriend watching the news of everything that happened. What’s in the movie is far from a terrible ending, but it could have been more satisfying.

Most of the visual effects look absolutely incredible. The gore, the monsters, the explosions, and everything else looks life-like… most of the time. There are a couple of instances when the CGI could have used a little bit more time to cook. These instances make the effects look watery and visibly fake. It’s not a lot, but when it happens, it’s hard not to unsee it.

The angle Cregger took with this movie is that he wanted to tell a completely original story rather than putting one of the games directly onto the big screen. This leads to a lack of characters and other elements from the source material. While it doesn’t hurt the movie or hold it back from being great, it would be understandable and expected if long-time fans found issue with this.

Conclusion

While Resident Evil could have been wrapped up a little better toward the end, the journey there is especially excellent. It’s scary, suspenseful, captivating, funny, and an overall fun time. Focusing on a single character throughout a movie like this is surprisingly effective. Fans of the Resident Evil video game series will still get a lot out of this one, and horror movie fans have a lot to enjoy even if they haven’t played the games. 

Rating: 8.5/10

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