Resident Evil By Zach Cregger
A Review of Resident Evil, a reimagined film by Zach Cregger
DISCLAIMER: SPOILERS WILL BE LABELED
Whiskey’s Garage
Film Talk
Volume 4
20/09/2026
Resident Evil By Zach Cregger
Release Date: September 18th, 2026
Runtime: 1:37
Budget: $80 Million
Director: Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian)
Starring: Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis
Synopsis: “Follows a hapless courier tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital. He soon finds himself caught in the middle of an outbreak and must fight through hordes of mutated creatures to survive.” - IMDb Description
Zach Cregger has recently made a name for himself, especially after the success of Weapons (2025). His newest film is his own version of the beloved IP, Resident Evil. Resident Evil is primarily a video game franchise, although it has been adapted into 7 different films and a 1-season TV series. Historically, the films have all been flops and are generally viewed as quite bad. There are 8 Resident Evil games, with the first one being released on the PlayStation 1 back in 1998. The franchise has grossed around $13 billion across all forms of media over the past 28 years. The newest adaptation is Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil feature film. Cregger has stated that his take on this franchise isn’t going to follow a game's story 1-to-1, but instead will include elements that parallel the original series. The main character in Cregger’s film, named Bryan, is a new character, not native to any of the games. Cregger faced backlash online after it was announced that his film wasn’t going to follow a specific Resident Evil game's story. A lot of fans were upset that the most famous character in the franchise, Leon Kennedy, wasn’t going to be included in the film. Personally, I really liked the take Cregger took towards his film. Building a story within the Resident Evil universe, rather than adapting the story from one of the games, he put an original spin on a franchise he’s clearly passionate about. Cregger claimed he wanted to capture the feeling of a “player” being dropped into the universe as these events take place. My thoughts and opinions on the film are below.
Honestly, I really enjoyed it! I had a great time watching the film. For the most part, I was entertained, and I thought they did a great job of balancing originality while paying homage to the games; overall, it was just really fun. It’s not a perfect film by any means, but for the target audience, I think they will have a great time with it. The protagonist, Bryan, I thought Austin Abrams did a great job with this character. He was funny, he was likable, he was extremely relatable, but he was also written to be pretty dumb at some points. Classic horror movie decision dumb, which kind of took away from the immersion at times, but it didn’t ruin the film. It doesn’t take long for the film to get into action, which is nice, considering the shorter runtime, and it builds a decent sub-plot off the bat to get you invested in Bryan, although it wasn’t explored much later on in the film. The first half was MUCH stronger and more entertaining, with a good atmosphere and lots of tension off the start; the set choices were great for immersion, out in the wintry, dark woods alone. The second half of the film wasn’t bad by any means; it had its shining moments and unique scenes, but it wasn’t as entertaining and felt rushed at times. However, the ending really, really lost me. The ending sequence felt super rushed, almost as if they didn’t know how or if they wanted to end it. They did leave it wide open for a part 2, which is fine if that’s the route they were going for, but it just felt like they ended it abruptly without a lot of conclusion. The dialogue also has some really weak moments throughout the film, where it gets quite sloppy and silly, but the comedic relief scenes do a great job of winning it back. They are actually really well done, and I found myself laughing out loud at multiple points. But, by far the most shining part of this movie is the homage it pays to the games. It’s clear that director Zach Cregger has actually played the Resident Evil video games. I think he did a great job of including things from the games throughout the movie in a unique way. Not just in the sense of physical set design pieces, but all the way down to the way the scene was written or the camera work being used. The set props they referenced from the game were great; the bullet boxes looked identical to the game, the typewriter was a nice touch to see (save points in the video games), and they weren’t overdone or placed everywhere throughout the movie. They even had a camera zoom in on the monster, exactly how it happens in the game. The 1st-person and over-the-shoulder camera views they include to make it feel “game-like” were really well done. The cinematography in general was great and had a lot of good camera positioning shots. The score was decent and worked well for what type of film it is, and the CGI was pretty good for the most part. You can watch and enjoy this movie without playing the games or knowing the backstory to the Resident Evil franchise, which is a nice touch for a wider audience.
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Cregger leaned into making Bryan a relatable main character, who actually felt like a regular civilian for the most part. He wasn’t able to pick up a gun and have pinpoint accuracy; he handled weapons how an average person would handle a weapon in that scenario. Things actually happened the way they tend to in the games too. For instance, Bryan spent a good portion of a scene trying to break a large padlock off of a gate, shooting and ramming the gate with a truck. Neither worked, and the key to the gate fell out of the sun visor after the truck crashed. Moments like these are odes to the game, when you spend time and resources on something, only for the answer to be right beside you. The map in the ending hospital scene looked exactly how it did in the game, which was a nice homage. There are a few iffy parts, like when Bryan gets bit around the halfway point of the movie. It’s an integral part of the story, but it feels like they kind of forgot about it. He doesn’t really have any negative side effects until the ending, and it seems like they just mentioned it from time to time by sliding his sleeve up to remind you it happened. It wasn’t a huge deal, I just found myself forgetting about it until they reminded you it happened. The ending was by far the weakest part. The entire premise of the film is for Bryan to travel this important, secret package to the hospital (he is a medical courier), which we eventually find out is the antidote for the virus spreading. When Bryan finally gets through to the hospital at the end of the film, he argues for the scientists to give him the antidote, and as the virus begins taking over, they fight for a small amount of time before the antidote eventually breaks and the movie ends. I felt like it was a long journey, the entire movie, for a bit of an anticlimactic ending. Overall, I still really enjoyed the film, the ending just fell a little flat.
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RATING - How well I think the movie is made, the dialogue, the production, the acting, objectively, how good a film it is. Out of 100%
ENJOYMENT - How much I enjoyed the film, subjectively and based on the genre heading into it. Out of 100% - I was expecting an entertaining, creepy film with odes to the franchise
IMMERSIVENESS - How captivating the film is, how well it brings you into the world they are building and makes you forget reality. Out of 100%
Rating: 70%
Enjoyment: 86%
Immersiveness: 83%
PROS:
Homage to the games
Relatable
Entertaining
Unique Cinematography
CONS:
Dialogue
Feels a little rushed at times
Silly moments that ruin it
OSCAR NOMS (Thoughts)
I can’t see it winning or being nominated for anything.
