Resident Evil (2026)

It took a single film — 2022’s Barbarian — for Zach Cregger to rebrand himself from a forgotten Noughties comedian to a 2020s horror filmmaker to watch. It took a second — last year’s blockbuster, Oscar-winning Weapons — to cement him as one of the most interesting storytellers of his generation. This fall, Cregger merges his own rising brand to one well-established in video games with the release of Resident Evil.

The last time, a Resident Evil film adaptation made it to theaters without a colon and subtitle was in the spring of 2002. Written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson and starring his then-future/now-longtime wife Milla Jovovich, the Screen Gems release grossed a little over $100 million worldwide on a moderate budget of $33 million. The reviews weren’t great, but that hasn’t always mattered in the realm of action horror sci-fi and, sure enough, a film franchise was born to co-exist with the video game one introduced in 1996 by Japan’s Capcom. The latter reached its ninth main game earlier this year. The film line hit seven in 2021, most of them directed, written, and produced by Anderson and starring Jovovich.

As you can surmise from the lack of colon and subtitle, this eighth movie gives the movie franchise a reset and rebirth. Cregger taking a stab at a franchise after twice helming acclaimed original horror films may surprise you, but only if you are unaware of the $20 million salary Sony Pictures gave him to write, direct, and produce this reboot. Weapons grossed $270 million worldwide on a budget of $38 million. Resident Evil‘s budget is a little more than twice that and it’s safe to say that the studio and its video game branch PlayStation expect healthy returns and a prosperous afterlife.

The good news is that Cregger hasn’t sold out here. He has still very much made a Zach Cregger movie. His Resident Evil is stylish, cinematic, consistently unsettling, extremely graphic, and a lot of fun. I saw Anderson’s first Resident Evil movie a few years back and barely remember anything about it other than not enjoying it enough to prioritize seeing all those sequels. I suspect Cregger doesn’t care much about those seven prior movies, which his movie does not expect you to have seen. Familiarity with the video game line does appear to be rewarded, but you can easily come to this adaptation completely cold and have no difficulty following along or enjoying yourself. This is the kind of franchise filmmaking that would not be diminished by the lack of sequels or continuity. It would probably take a lot of money to make Cregger return and if it performs, he should end up with his pick of high-paying offers elsewhere.

And his Resident Evil should perform, because it is a very good movie that respects its audience and knows how to get under its skin. Weapons cast member Austin Abrams plays our protagonist, a medical courier named Bryan who reluctantly extends his work night with a double-paying high priority delivery on the day his girlfriend has gotten a surprise positive pregnancy test. The job requires Bryan to make a treacherous drive through snowy mountains to Raccoon City. Between the inclement weather, for which his car is not equipped, and the tense phone call with the girlfriend, the drive was already taxing. It gets much worse then a woman not at all dressed for a winter storm steps in front of Bryan’s car and gets sent flying. He does what he thinks — and we’d agree — would be the right thing, putting her in his car and intending to take her to the hospital where he was already headed. But he is soon pulled over by a cop and things escalate from there.

In time, Bryan finds himself without a car, without cell phone service, and without much hope of surviving the night as monstrous creatures with their own laws of physics and anatomy pose a threat from every direction.

One of several compelling presences in Weapons, Abrams is not a conventional leading man, but he is quite great filling those duties here, a young everyman whose reactions to the extraordinary dangers around him are absolutely relatable.

Cregger got his start as one of the creators of the sketch comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know and a writer, director, and star of the 2009 film Miss March. His sudden move to horror raised questions and eyebrows, but so did Jordan Peele’s nearly a decade ago. Like Peele, Cregger continues to use comedy instincts to heighten the thrills. The genres are not as distant as they may seem, both courting, feeding upon, and ultimately rewarding audience reaction. We need not categorize Resident Evil as a horror-comedy, but it has a sharp sense of humor that will certainly not be lost on those appreciating Cregger’s vibes.

Despite that design, Cregger’s movie feels very much like a video game. A serious, atmospheric one that you can make a lot of progress in without dying and having to restart. There is no doubt that Cregger has played and enjoyed some of these games at some point. At the same time, he does not at all seem committed to fan service, which to someone who let their PlayStation Plus subscription expire years ago is just fine. The film just sets out to be its own big self-contained entertainment, boasting genuinely impressive IMAX imagery, some legitimately harrowing chills, and a bloody good time. It is body horror without social commentary or allegory. It is an origin story with no duty to some big corporate 12-year plan. It is the kind of wild and irreverent time that horror lovers enjoy all year round, but especially during the spooky season that is now in effect.

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