Resident Evil (2026)

I'll start out by saying I've never seen a Resident Evil movie nor have a played the video game. While I am vaguely familiar with the concept of the story that's about all I know. So I went into Gregger's take on this with fresh eyes other than my experience with enjoying his previous works. I recognize some of his signature style right away; his eye for visuals, his talent for building suspense, his love of an old school, B-movie-ish horror aesthetic. All of this is evident in his Resident Evil movie which ends up being a hell of a good time even if, like Barbarian and Weapons before it, it does start to almost jump the shark by the end. 

Cregger is a wonderful storyteller. He uses that skill here. He introduces us to his central character, who is going to take us through this story, in an effective and concise manner and gets us right into the story. Zombie apocalypse movies (and I admit there are reasons not to lump this into that catagory) are so ubiquitous we as an audience barely need much set up to get us into the meat of the story. He uses that cultural knowledge paired with some smart writing to be very effective in getting his movie going and hitting high gear. 

The winning recipe here is Abrams. His incredible screen charisma and his talent for organic humour carry this film and make it work. He is so engaging to watch and his survival through each up and down is electric. The weight of this movie is on his shoulders and he pulls it off managing the film's humour and pathos. This really is more of a horror comedy than straight horror and it is successful in being scary and funny without ever treading into parody. The humour is very rooted in the story and grounded. 

There is a moment where I started to feel it had gone a little too far. For those who've seen it it's the elevator scene. The final act is a bit much in the silly zone. I feel that Barbarian really falls down in that too while Weapons mostly avoids it despite having some symptoms. Still, this film's climax was appropriate and I'm glad he didn't chicken out of going there. I just wish he'd kept the tone from the first two thirds of the film. 

Still Resident Evil is a good time and I'd be back to watch more sequels of this iteration of the franchise.  

Resident Evil

Starring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser

Director: Zach Cregger

Writers: Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger