Horror Movie Review: Resident Evil (2026)

It really shouldn’t be that difficult, right? Yet somehow Resident Evil has always struggled to get the balance right when it comes to the live-action side of things. In particular, when it comes to the balance between having mainstream appeal and fan appeal. One side is where the money lies, the other is the core of the franchise, and it seems as though the former has often taken precedence over the latter.

Between 2002 and 2016, the live-action side of Resident Evil made a lot of money even if the quality of films were debatable. I am, of course, talking about the Milla Jovovich lead-franchise and mainstream audiences ate them up. Resident Evil fans, less so.

When that side of things ended in 2016, and Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was released in 2021, fans rejoiced as it looked to be as faithful adaption of the first and second games. Except it was terrible. Most fans disliked it and, unsurprisingly, mainstream audiences stayed far away. It was considered a commercial failure, and a planned sequel was cancelled.

Resident Evil in its live-action film format, appeared to be dead. Until rumours started to circulate that another reboot was coming, and this one promised to be different.

Written and directed by Zach Cregger, Resident Evil (2026) stars Austin Abrams as Bryan Hodukavich, a medical courier who is about to have the worst night of his life. Tasked with delivering a last-minute package to Raccoon City General Hospital in the snowy Colorado mountains, Bryan ends up in middle of a horrifying outbreak that has unleashed monsters on the city and its inhabitants.

No spoilers, folks, Resident Evil is simply too much fun, and its events are worth experiencing with fresh eyes and ears. I’m here to tell you why it is the best adaption of Resident Evil to date, and one of the best video game adaptions overall.

Resident Evil is not what you think it is. Some of which will be obvious from the trailer, some of which comes as a real surprise in the film. It is not an adaption of any one game, it doesn’t feature characters from the franchise, and doesn’t follow any known plot points. Instead, it tells the story of a character, an everyday man, who gets caught up in the Racoon City outbreak. This is Bryan’s story, but Resident Evil is the backdrop, and once you accept this, it’s easy to fall in love with the film. Especially as everyone involved clearly respects the franchise and found clever ways to pay homage throughout.

For me, this was a very smart idea. A Resident Evil game, as much as some would like to pretend otherwise, is not an easy thing to adapt into a film. Doing it this way allows creative freedom and the ability to take liberties with the source material. There’s no gnashing and wailing about how they did a character like Leon dirty in Welcome to Racoon City because Leon isn’t in this film.

Alongside this way of thinking comes a story that really does keep it simple. No deep dives into a mansion, Umbrella, viruses, government coverups, and so on, just one man trying to survive against ever-increasing odds.

It sure sounds like a video game, doesn’t?

That is what Zach Cregger has nailed. The feel of a video game and the vibe of a Resident Evil game, while delivering an energetic, frightening, funny, and action-packed horror film that the mainstream can easily enjoy too. You don’t have to like, or even know, Resident Evil to enjoy this film, but if you do, you will be rewarded for it.

While so much of what makes Resident Evil special comes from Zach Cregger’s mind and ability to make horror and comedy work so well together, Austin Abrams portrayal of Bryan is just as important. He is brilliant, perfectly capturing a normal person stuck in the most horrible of situations, while be inherently likable. He is written so well, but it’s the actor that brings this character to life.

Cregger and Abrams make a great pairing and hopefully we’ll see them work together again in the future.

So, pretty much perfect, right? No, not quite. I loved Resident Evil, I really did but when broken into three acts, the flaws in the final one become more apparent. It’s where things become a little tiring, a little silly, and a little less focused. Not to the extent that it hurts the film, but I’d be lying if I didn’t say the final third was just a bit of a drop off.

Strangely though, the most divisive part, the ending, was fine with me. In fact, I liked it. It wraps the film up nicely and left me feeling satisfied. Although I can see why some might disagree.

I hoped that Resident Evil would be good, but I didn’t expect Resident Evil to be good. This film far exceeded all of that, and then some. Now let’s see someone do this with Silent Hill please.