Before I begin, quick disclaimer. I am not a video game person. I never have been, not even when I was a child. I have also never seen a Resident Evil movie. It was just never something that interested me and there has never been hype significant enough surrounding a Resident Evil movie to attract someone like me, who has never been the target audience. Well, today that’s changed. In the past five years, writer/director Zach Cregger has given us Barbarian and Weapons, two very successful horror movies that masterfully incorporate a biting sense of humor in their tone. But it’s happened so many times before where I’ve seen a really exciting up-and-coming filmmaker take on a big franchise and fumble the bag. And I think this hook is what’s going to bring a lot of people like myself, who would never otherwise see a Resident Evil movie, to the movies. Because while I did not care about a Resident Evil movie, I did care about a new Zach Cregger movie. And this might be his best one yet. 

On a dark and snowy winter night, Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a medical courier who has just delivered an organ to a hospital, and is asked by a doctor to take another important package to Raccoon City General Hospital. He does, even though he lies about his car having the proper equipment for the weather conditions – the job pays double so he jumps at the chance. En route, he hits a woman with his car who’s basically in a catatonic state. Horrified, he brings her into his car to try to find help. And things begin to get weird. 

I’ve never seen a video game movie work as well as Resident Evil (2026). It feels like the film is doing a lot to bring non-fans into the fold, but it never seems like it’s doing too much. Zach Cregger has simultaneously made a masterful horror/comedy movie, and something that will no doubt resurrect a zombie IP (a phrase I borrow from Jane Schoenbrun’s recent Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma) and will likely lead to a lot of sequels that aren’t as good. But I think fans of this franchise certainly have cause for celebration at this moment in time. But also, you do not need to be a fan of the Resident Evil games, the movies, or even really know anything about them to have a blast with this. Because I walked in a total blank slate and I had a fantastic time. 

Austin Abrams had a standout role in Cregger’s Weapons last year, and he’s perfect for this too. We see the entire movie from Bryan’s perspective, and occasionally we’ll see a first-person POV, like you’re in a video game, but this is never overdone. Abrams is full of charm, has great comedic timing, and successfully carries this thing from beginning to end. He’s a character put in a series of increasingly stressful situations as he navigates a zombie apocalypse, and he’s shocked by every new, crazy thing that happens. But his performance is never limited to just reacting to things. And as an audience conduit into this terrifying new world, Abrams couldn’t be better. He really makes you care about what happens to Bryan, which is a testament to what he can do as an actor, but also a credit to the script, which is telling you just enough about Bryan’s life outside of this situation to make his fate matter. 

We also care about Bryan because there’s barely anybody else in this movie that registers. Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser pop up as scientists with the Umbrella Corporation, a name even I recognized from the very little I’ve retained about the Resident Evil franchise over the years. None of these actors have enough screen time to really make an impression, but Hauser, in particular, makes the most of his limited time. Hauser is basically here to deliver exposition, and he does so with a very ‘okay I guess we have to do this now’ kind of energy, and I found his delivery very funny. 

Ridley Scott’s usual cinematographer Dariusz Wolski, who also worked with Cregger on Weapons, shot this. There are a lot of really cool, long, smooth unbroken takes that go on for awhile, and Wolski makes the smart choice to mostly avoid shaky cam, which frequently takes me out of a movie like this. And also, like I was saying, there are some first-person POV shots that look very much like a video game. That could also take you out of it, but it’s a smart choice the movie never does this too much. 

Ryan and Hays Holliday, who also composed the Weapons score, return for this, and you definitely notice the synth-y, techno-influenced tension the score is bringing to the film at many points over the runtime. I’ve always heard the best scores in movies are those you don’t even notice, that blend right into the film. This score is a solid argument against that idea. Production designer Tom Hammock (also returning from Weapons) is also very good at creating this atmosphere of tension and dread, while effectively escalating the absurdity of the new world Bryan finds himself in. Also, hats off to the visual effects and sound design teams, because they’re doing a lot of heavy lifting here as well.

But the biggest reason why Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil works so indisputably well is Cregger himself. He co-writes the script with Shay Hatten, and that script is taking this material seriously, to a degree, but is also goofing on it in ways I think fans will enjoy. And Cregger displays a masterful understanding of tone – this film makes you laugh and scares the living daylights out of you, often in the same sequence, often in the same frame. I also need to mention the grip Cregger has on pacing. Resident Evil runs just about 90 minutes, and that’s the perfect length for this movie. We never linger on one thing too long, and the film is constantly zippy and exciting, and ends perfectly. It sends you out the door on a high, pumped about what you’ve just seen, and I love that increasingly rare feeling a movie can give you.

Overall, I’m shocked by how much I enjoyed Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, but I really shouldn’t be. Cregger has already proven himself one of the best horror filmmakers working today, and this film continues to solidify his place in the genre. He’s given me no reason to doubt him, so it shouldn’t come as a surprise he knocks this out of the park. The film is brisk, exciting, hilarious and terrifying. Cregger has now made three horror/comedy films that do not undermine either the comedy or horror, and many directors have never gotten that balance right, and now he’s done it three times. This early in his career, he’s earned the kind of reputation where I’ll watch just about anything he does, because I know it’ll thrill and surprise me. I’m not going to go and watch all the other Resident Evil movies, but I’d welcome a sequel to this one if Cregger’s in the director’s chair.