‘Resident Evil’ Review: Zach Cregger Delivers the Franchise’s Best Film Yet
Austin Abrams proves an engaging guide through Raccoon City as Cregger combines gruesome horror, video-game mechanics and well-judged comedy.
By Ainsley Mura
For die-hard fans of the ever-expanding Resident Evil game franchise, Zach Cregger’s latest film should come as welcome news. This is the best screen adaptation of the series to date.
The franchise is no stranger to disappointing adaptations. Six live-action films starring Milla Jovovich were released between 2002 and 2016, followed by the 2021 reboot Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City. A series of CGI-animated films more closely aligned with the games’ canon also appeared between 2008 and 2023.
While those previous incarnations have their defenders, fans have frequently criticised them for discarding the games’ original stories, sidelining beloved characters and failing to capture what made the source material so compelling.
At its heart, Resident Evil is an ever-expanding exercise in survival horror. Through third-person and first-person gameplay, players must endure terrifying environments populated by zombies and other bio-organic weapons. Basically, it is a bloody, gory and terror-inducing fight for survival. What’s not to love?
Following the success of his acclaimed horror films Barbarian and Weapons, Cregger approaches Resident Evil with a clear affection for the games. That understanding has generated considerable anticipation among fans eager to see where he might take the franchise.
His decision to centre the story on Bryan, an original character played by Austin Abrams, is a creative choice that pays off almost immediately.
A medical courier with the unassuming air of a pizza delivery guy, Bryan is a refreshingly ordinary protagonist. His lack of conventional action-hero credentials makes him an effective audience surrogate, allowing viewers to enter this increasingly nightmarish world alongside him.
Cregger quickly establishes the film’s playful relationship with its source material. Point-of-view shots and Bryan’s steadily improving arsenal draw upon familiar gaming conventions without explicitly dividing the story into levels or stages.
It is the kind of connection to the games that fans have been waiting for.
Without venturing too far into spoiler territory, the film builds tension so effectively during its opening stretch that, when a delayed title card finally appears, the sense of foreboding is almost overwhelming. You could hear a pin drop in the cinema.
Bryan reacts much as a first-time player might when suddenly dropped into the world of Resident Evil. He soon discovers that his delivery is far more consequential than he imagined. Driven by his determination to return home to his girlfriend, he scrambles through a succession of nightmare-inducing encounters that capture the gore, dread and monstrous chaos overtaking Raccoon City.
His raw response to the absurdity unfolding around him makes it difficult not to become invested in whether he survives. Abrams grounds Bryan’s heightened emotional state with an appealing combination of fear, hesitation and distrust as each increasingly outlandish obstacle emerges.
It is a credit to both Abrams’ performance and the screenplay by Cregger and Shay Hatten that a newly created character can inspire so much audience sympathy within such an established universe.
Paul Walter Hauser’s Carl and Zach Cherry’s Dave also play important roles in Bryan’s emotional journey, while giving the film room to indulge in some of its funniest moments.
Cregger has revealed that he removed many of the jokes following test screenings, but those remaining in the final cut are hilarious. Every one of them lands, with the humour becoming more effective as the film grows increasingly unhinged.
Whether you are a longtime fan or a newcomer testing the waters of the franchise, Resident Evil is not one to miss. Building upon their work together in Weapons, the collaboration between Cregger and Abrams continues to produce first-rate genre filmmaking.