Film: Resident Evil (2026)
Director: Zach Cregger
Writers: Zach Cregger, Shay Hatten
Featuring: Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis
Release Date: September 18, 2026
Robert’s Rating: 3.5 out of 5
This Zach Cregger Resident Evil review starts with an easy claim to defend: If any horror director has deserved a meteoric rise as of late, it’s Zach Cregger. His first (horror) film, Barbarian, exploded onto the scene back in 2022. Then came Weapons (2025), which was a bit more ambitious in scope (Amy Madigan took Best Supporting Actress at the Oscars). And now we’ve moved on to his adaptation of a famous and beloved IP—Resident Evil. But do Cregger’s talents translate to adapting an established property with millions of multi-generational fans?
Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who gets tasked with an important delivery on a dark and snowy night. With an important family decision hanging over his head and a rapidly intensifying outbreak happening around him, Bryan must navigate to his destination in one piece. Cregger’s film isn’t a straight-up adaptation of one of the games, but rather, his own story set within that world.
Cregger’s leading man—Austin Abrams—is, likewise, having a great few years. He was in Weapons and later this year he’ll star in Whalefall, a movie where a man gets swallowed by a, you guessed it, whale.
Capone’s editor’s note: Daniel Kraus wrote the book from which the film is adapted, and you should be reading his stuff!
If you’ve seen Weapons you’ll know Abrams is charismatically funny. But his talents don’t stop there. Abrams has a scene late in Resident Evil where he turns in some great emotion—some of the best I’ve seen lately actually.
Cregger’s Resident Evil looks really great – great dark colors and brilliant white snow, and fun use of lighting as well. There’s a scene early on where Bryan is driving away from the camera in the dead of night. As he drives off, the car gets smaller and smaller, and since it’s the only source of light, it’s essentially swallowed by the night. It’s a great symbol of the dark journey the film will take us on.
As some of you may know, I absolutely love when work is put into a film’s geography. A great example of that kind of attention to detail lands well in Resident Evil.
A scene plays out that features a police car’s flashing lights. Bryan then has to visit a house a few hundred yards away from the cop car, and that scene stretches on for a while (for horrifying reasons). When he’s working to leave that property a little bit later, we can still see the distant flashing lights of the cop car. That detail may seem small, but it tells me that the filmmakers are paying attention to the geography (and the world generally) of the film. This kind of thing goes a long way to make me more immersed in the movie—it ups the Immersion Factor, if you will (if there’s an actual term for this I don’t know it).
For all the positives, Resident Evil is Cregger’s most frustrating film, for me.
First: The movie can’t quite seem to decide if what’s happening is a full blown apocalypse or not. A scene in the back half of the movie grinds everything to a halt for me, partly because it introduces some new characters, one of whom is played by a pretty funny actor (in other words, he’s a bit too distracting when combined with Abrams’ Bryan).
And my biggest complaint about the film by far has to do with its ending. I won’t spoil anything, but I just… didn’t get it. It didn’t seem to connect with the rest of the film from a plot perspective or a thematic one.
“But what about the horror?” I can hear you asking.
The horror was fun. The horror was nasty. There’s a crazy monster I dubbed “The Roller”. And, not to bury the lede, the movie features what is quite possibly – no lie – the most disturbing thing I’ve ever seen.
The Zach Cregger Resident Evil Review: Final Verdict
One slow section and a frustrating ending couldn’t derail my enjoyment of Cregger’s Resident Evil. There’s enough craft, heart, horror, and video game shenanigans to satisfy everyone. And if you’re like me, you won’t be able to wait to see what Cregger, with his blend of humor and horror, does next.
Robert Zerbe’s writing has previously appeared in Trembling With Fear and on the Creepy podcast. He has yet to hack his obsessive-compulsive disorder into something useful. Robert lives in Florida with his wife, two children, and love of movies. You can follow him on Bluesky at @runonsandwich.
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