The first Resident Evil game was released by Capcom on March 22, 1996, making 2026 the series’ 30th anniversary. Three decades later, the franchise is still finding new ways to evolve with the newest entry into the game’s film adaptations, directed by Zach Cregger, who co-wrote the film, which was released on Sept. 18 and is simply titled “Resident Evil,” with Shay Hatten. The movie stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who finds himself in a race for survival over the course of one horrifying night.
Before his recent successful run as a horror filmmaker, Cregger spent years making sketches with his comedy group, “The Whitest Kids U’ Know,” until his 2022 film “Barbarian” became a breakout hit, followed by “Weapons” in 2025. In an interview with Men's Health, Cregger said sketch comedy trained him to keep looking for surprising turns, a habit he said translated naturally into horror filmmaking.
That background is easy to see in “Resident Evil.” The movie can be grotesque and frightening one moment, then genuinely funny the next without making either side feel out of place. It is a difficult balance, but Cregger largely pulls it off.
Rather than opening with a wall of exposition, the movie takes its time. The beginning is probably the slowest section, but that restraint ultimately works in its favor. Cregger lets the atmosphere settle before explaining too much, allowing the audience to sit with Bryan and absorb the increasingly strange situation around him. There is enough time for the uneasiness to build before the movie starts answering questions.
Once the plot gets moving, though, it rarely slows down: the pacing continually accelerates, with each new development pushing Bryan into a worse situation than the one before it. By the final act, the movie has transformed from a slow-burn mystery into the kind of frantic survival-horror spectacle the Resident Evil name promises.
Abrams is a major reason the movie works as well as it does. Bryan does not feel like an invincible action hero who has been waiting his whole life for a zombie outbreak, but rather a regular guy who has stumbled into something far beyond his understanding. Abrams plays that confusion well, and he is consistently funny without turning Bryan into a joke. His reactions help keep the character relatable even as everything happening around him becomes increasingly absurd.
The performances are strong across the board, but Abrams carries much of the film. He gives the audience someone recognizable to follow through a story filled with monsters, infections and escalating chaos. That ordinary-guy quality makes the danger feel immediate because Bryan often looks about as prepared for it as most people in the audience would be.
The film is also surprisingly good at delivering exposition. When explanations finally arrive, they are often mixed with humor and character interaction instead of being dumped on the audience in a long, lifeless speech. The information feels like part of the scene rather than homework the movie has to finish before getting back to the action.
That approach matters in a franchise with so much lore behind it. Resident Evil could have easily become buried under references, organizations, viruses and callbacks. Instead, the movie is accessible enough to work as a straightforward survival story while still feeling unmistakably connected to the larger franchise.
And, of course, there is plenty of gore. The violence is one of the movie’s strongest elements and feels completely at home in “Resident Evil.” Cregger does not suddenly become restrained here. The movie is graphic, messy and frequently disgusting in exactly the way a film in this franchise should be.
Visually, “Resident Evil” is just as effective. One of the film’s biggest strengths is the sheer variety of its locations. Bryan moves through forests, tunnels, rural countryside, city streets, tall buildings and sewers over the course of the story. That geographical variety keeps the film from becoming visually repetitive and gives each section its own mood.
The cinematography takes advantage of those environments. Forests and tunnels create a more claustrophobic feeling, while the larger urban locations give the outbreak a broader scale. The movie keeps finding new spaces in which to put Bryan in danger, so both he and the audience are constantly forced to adjust to whatever might be waiting around the next corner.
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There is also something distinctly video game-like about the progression, and I mean that as a compliment. Bryan seems to move from one dangerous environment to another, surviving increasingly difficult encounters as the night gets worse. It evokes the structure of moving through different areas of a Resident Evil game without making the movie feel like somebody simply recorded a playthrough and put it on a theater screen.
The movie is not flawless. The opening takes a little while to get moving, and anyone expecting nonstop action from the first scene may find the first stretch slower than expected, but staying patient pays off, as the movie gives its atmosphere room to develop, the later acceleration feels more dramatic.
Cregger understands that “Resident Evil” works best when horror, absurdity and tension exist at the same time. The film is violent without becoming monotonous, funny without becoming a parody and atmospheric without spending half its runtime explaining itself.
Most importantly, it’s plain fun. The original Resident Evil appeal remains remarkably durable: put an ordinary person in an impossible nightmare, give them just enough hope to keep moving and see what happens next. Cregger’s film understands that appeal and builds a fast, gruesome and entertaining movie around it.
It may begin as a slow burn, but by the time the credits roll, “Resident Evil” has become a full-blown sprint.
George Slad is a freelance photographer for the Daily Lobo. He can be reached at photo@dailylobo.com or on X @SladGeorge
