'Resident Evil' (2026 Review): How to Adapt a Video Game

OVERVIEW

Resident Evil proves once and for all that, yes, it is possible to make a great film out of a video game. Zach Cregger’s third horror feature does not directly adapt any story from the games, nor does it feature a single pre-existing character. There are more than enough callbacks to please fans, but the focus is on telling an interesting story that happens to take place within the world of Resident Evil. That original story follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who accepts one final delivery to Raccoon City while struggling with the news that his girlfriend Michelle is pregnant. His drive is unexpectedly interrupted by some truly strange things, and the night only grows stranger from there.

BACKGROUND

Resident Evil arrives after seven previous live-action attempts at adapting Capcom’s games, including the six films built around Milla Jovovich’s Alice and 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City, which tried a considerably more faithful approach. Cregger went in an entirely different direction. A longtime player of the games who has said he never watched the previous films, he wrote the screenplay before achieving great success with Weapons, initially assuming there was little chance he would ever be allowed to direct such a valuable franchise himself. Once the script was finished, however, he pushed to make it, and his involvement eventually helped trigger a bidding war that brought the property back to Sony through Columbia Pictures. The version audiences are seeing is also considerably less comedic than the one Cregger originally made. After test screenings found the film too funny, he removed a significant number of jokes and later said he preferred the result himself. The unavoidable backlash from fans who cried about their favorite characters being absent made Cregger claim that Resident Evil will be his first and last franchise film. Considering how much money the film will make, we’ll see how long he sticks to his word.

THE REVIEW

There are a lot of things that Cregger gets right here, starting with how organically he incorporates callbacks to the games without letting them distract from Bryan’s story, and how effectively that story unfolds, starting with a simple delivery and gradually expanding into the world of Resident Evil. His talent for keeping a narrative unpredictable remains alive and well. He also keeps the film incredibly economical, packing an impressive number of scares, chases, and laughs into its roughly 90 minutes. Is it the most complex or thematically rich narrative? Not at all. Several moments rely on characters being stupid or logic being stretched just to move the plot forward. But is it guaranteed fun? Absolutely.

A lot of your engagement will depend on whether you find Austin Abrams endearingly funny or simply irritating. The actor, who was already hilarious in Cregger’s last film and was the only good thing about Wolfs, plays Bryan as immature, insecure, and stupid. In other words, he is basically the personification of a video game avatar. He misses plenty of his shots and makes mistakes that would frustrate any player (like dismissing a ladder only to discover seconds later that he actually needs it), but Abrams is so honest in his portrayal that you still become invested in his mission.

His conflict with his girlfriend and his insecurities about becoming a father give the film an emotional center, somewhat like Exit 8. Unlike that film, however, Resident Evil is smart enough not to abuse the storyline or create ambitious parallels between the theme and everything happening around Bryan. It is simply there as an easy way to identify with the character, and it works very well.

Technically, the film impresses mostly through its monster design and the combination of makeup and visual effects used to recreate them. Some become distractingly exaggerated (the vomiting creature or the multiplying babies), but others are genuinely creepy, like the merging of several infected bodies or the young girl Bryan wants to save. These are the moments where Cregger works best, mixing the gore of the effects with the fear that something could happen at any moment, uncomfortable humor, and the tragedy of the situation. Cregger and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski also adapt the games visually very well, not only through the occasional switches to first-person perspective, but also through their use of darkness and shadows, constantly making it feel like something could appear at any moment.

The film ends in an excess that will remind plenty of people of The Substance, and this is where some of the suspense is lost, and the stupidity of the characters becomes more frustrating. Only the stupidest people in the world would have all that protection and infrastructure and still allow Bryan to simply walk into the laboratory with them, and they wouldn’t be scientists. It would have worked much better if he had managed to get inside on his own. The ending itself is predictable but works very well, setting up sequels that would either have to get creative or take the story in another direction. Nothing wrong with that!

FINAL THOUGHTS

Resident Evil is a rare video game adaptation that prioritizes capturing the experience of playing the games instead of faithfully recreating their stories. Cregger does that extremely well, while still making a film that works on its own, mixing humor, horror, and the tragedy of the situation. Bryan may test your patience at times, but overall, Resident Evil can comfortably sit on the not particularly competitive throne of best video game adaptation to date. Sorry, Sonic the Hedgehog 2.

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