Resident Evil (2026) Review

Resident Evil (2026) Review 

One of my most anticipated movies of the fall, Resident Evil has dropped in theaters. I am not a Resident Evil fan; I have not played any of the video games or seen any of the movies. But it is directed by Zach Cregger, who directed Barbarian and Weapons, and Weapons was my favorite movie of last year. What do I think about the movie? Is it as good as his other movies? Here are my thoughts!

The Good

I will just cut right to the chase, but Zach Cregger has done it again as Resident Evil is another great movie from him. I’ve now seen Weapons four times and watched Barbarian for the first time last night, and what he’s so good at is creating these unsettling environments that have this creepiness to them and right out of the gate you’re invested in the story and the creepy atmosphere gets to you. He did that so well with Barbarian and Weapons, and in the case of those movies they are mysteries, so it works well in those movies' cases. It also works in the case of Resident Evil as our lead a character is surrounded by these infected monsters so you have this creepy environment and Raccoon City being this rundown city it doesn’t have to do much in order for it to be creepy environment because it takes place at night in this rundown city with infected creatures so any normal person would of course be terrified of this environment. Our lead character keep on getting put in these different situations from the snowy road to this cabin to this house to the city to this specific location in the third act, so it does the great job of putting our character in the terrifying environment but it’s finding all of these different ways to do so with the movie constantly changing environments. 

The other thing that really works about this film and it's sort of connected to what I just said, but Zach Cregger is a great writer and director. Like I said he does a great job with the creepy environments and atmosphere. But in terms of writing the script and how he directed this movie I thought was cool. In terms of the script, he wrote the film as if the audience is playing a video game. What I mean by that is you keep on having our lead character, Brian having to overcome an obstacle or crazy situation and he is having to use the environments around him to overcome the challenge. There is a part when he finds a shotgun, but it does not have any ammo, so he then needs to find ammo to load the gun and continue. Or there is another part where he must go through this RV in a tunnel and it feels like something you would see in a video game. Like I said, I’ve never played a Resident Evil video game but I felt like I was when I watched this movie and I don’t know of very many video game movie adaptations that have the audience feeling like they’re playing a video while watching it. On the directing level, Cregger does a really good job. He stages the jump scares appropriately; I do not normally get startled by jump scares but there’s a couple that got me in this movie. Even how the camera is used in the movie it feels like the camera is a character in the film. Where with how it is positioned and moving with Brian you feel like you are in the environment with him. There are one-shot takes in the film that are done very well. Once the adventure kicks in and he starts being chased, the movie is told in real time. Brian is in every single scene of this movie and when he is having to walk from one location to another, you feel him progressing through the adventure. It’s so well done, and it honestly continues to prove that Cregger is one of the best directors working today and he’s reached a point where he can do whatever he wants and I’ll be excited for it simply because his name is attached to it. 

From there, a big reason the movie works is because of Brian played by Austin Abrams. He is one of the rising stars of the last couple of years, he was in Weapons and he was a fun standout in that movie. He was on Euphoria, which of course is a super popular show. He is in Whalefall next month (which I am excited for). This movie shows that Abrams is setting himself up to be a big movie star. This movie lives and breathes on his shoulders, the reason the movie works as well as it does is because of him. He is in every single scene of the movie and so he is carrying the weight of the film. He can play this compelling character that you like going on this adventure with. We’ll talk about this later, but the movie is really funny and the way he’s able to deliver these jokes, whether it’s verbally and subtly mannerisms that he does, it had my audience laughing out loud from beginning to end. What I love about Abrams in this role is that he does not feel like an action hero. He is so easily able to come across as this normal guy that got swept up in this crazy situation. Abrams is only 5’8, which means I am a few inches taller than him. I think by casting an actor that does not give off the action star persona I think works for the character as well as the movie. It is a subtle thing that I feel most people would miss, but it really worked. 

As it is a horror film, you must talk about the horror side of things. I have talked about the creepy and unsettling environment of the movie, but there is more to the horror side of things with this film. The infested monsters and creatures are so creepy and unsettling in all the right ways, and I love that it is practical. The horror side of things works so well because it is practical and you know that there was not much CGI used here so they look even more horrifying because they are real. The film is not afraid to get gross with the monsters and what they do, and I appreciate that about the film that he is willing to push boundaries and really go for it with some of the gore and violence. But even the design for certain creatures such as this weird spinning ball of people is just such a creepy image and they use just the right amount to make it creepy and scary every time it appears. 

Finally, I alluded to this earlier, but the movie is funny, and it had my audience laughing aloud. Despite being a very tense and thrilling movie, this might be Cregger’s funniest film. Some of that was because I watched it with the biggest audience, so the audience reaction helped. But he finds the right ways to integrate humor into the film, but it never undermines the scariness of what is going on. It breaks the tension at just the right moments and that can be a tricky line to balance with intense movies like this. We will talk more about the humor later. But the way the humor was used I thought worked well and it added plenty of entertainment value to the film and it was able to balance being thrilling and funny well. There is this whole sequence with Paul Walter Hauser that I thought was great and shows that Hauser is a funny guy. 

The Bad

The first negative I am going to talk about is going against what I just said. I did just praise the movie’s humor and its ability to find jokes and be funny. But at a certain point in time, the movie gets a bit too funny for its own good. It felt like the intensity of what was going on the humor also went up and up. I think the movie would have worked just a little bit better if the movie was really ramping up with the intensity the humor was dialing back so the audience knows what to focus on and what is important. There’s this whole bit on the sky bridge that’s paying off a moment from earlier on and it does get a laugh out of the audience, but it did feel a little bit forced and like that moment didn’t need to be there. There is this other joke involving padlocks that is a running gag throughout the film, and I do not think the joke needed to happen a third time in the third act. 

Also, as is the case with many horror and survival movies like this there are a few parts where you are questioning Brian’s decision making in all of this. There are a few parts where you think to yourself “why doesn’t he just do this” or “that probably wasn’t super smart,” and those decisions are not super smart and end up having negative repercussions for what is next. It is not a big issue; it did not drastically bring the movie down for me. But it was something that I noticed, and I wish it was fixed at a few moments in time. 

Final Thoughts: Overall, Resident Evil (2026) was an absolute blast and as somebody who is not a Resident Evil fan, I really dug this movie and continues Zach Cregger as being one of the best directors currently working in Hollywood. I have seen a lot of Resident Evil fans be disappointed with much of a departure this movie is from the games, I am curious to see what the discourse is surrounding this film this weekend. This movie will end up being one of my favorite movies of 2026.

 

The Score: 8.9/10 (B+)