Which one’s Resident and which one’s Evil? (CREDIT: Dušan Martinček/Columbia Pictures)
Starring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Johnno Wilson
Director: Zach Cregger
Running Time: 95 Minutes
Rating: R for Monstrous Violence and the Profanity It Provokes
Release Date: September 18, 2026 (Theaters)
What’s It About?: A scrappy medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams) is ready to call it a night after getting through his shift of organ deliveries. But then he’s enticed by one more high-paying dropoff that will require traversing through snowy, mountainous terrain on his way to Raccoon City General hospital. It’s a dangerous enough journey during even the most ideal conditions. But it soon becomes clear that the conditions are pretty much the opposite of ideal, as Bryan encounters a series of infectious, mutated human beings (and a few animals). So he spends the rest of the night running for his life, while also doing his best to get that package to where it belongs, which might just be the key to ensuring that the entire world doesn’t start looking like Raccoon City.
What Made an Impression?: Oops, He Did It Again: This latest adaptation of Resident Evil is at its heart a slapstick adventure. But if you’re confused because you came here to be scared out of your boots, don’t fret! It’s possible to be hilarious without undercutting the terror, and director Zach Cregger nails that balancing act. That’s what happens when survival instincts team up with lack of experience, after all. Bryan has no idea how to make sense of this nightmare, but he undeniably wants to make it out alive. So sometimes, he successfully blasts away zombies, while other times he shoots his own car. Sometimes he lures zombies into splatting against each other, and other times he just falls over a fence. Abrams has the perfect jittery energy for all of this, and my theater just lapped it up.
What’s That Hiding Around the Corner?: When you direct a couple of the most acclaimed horror movies of the past few years, as Zach Cregger has, it creates certain expectations for your subsequent fright flicks. In Cregger’s case, more than anything else, it’s his knack for mid-act reveals that recontextualize everything that came before. That’s easier to pull off with an original screenplay than it is with a property with a decades-long cultural footprint like Resident Evil. But it’s not impossible! While there’s nothing quite as massively world-flipping here as there was in Barbarian and Weapons, there are plenty of smaller moments that had me gratefully cheering, “Hoo boy, I was not expecting that!” He’s quite the magician, this Cregger fellow, always orienting our attention where it needs to go for maximum effect.
Great Care Was Taken: The makeup crew and visual effects artists also deserve plenty of direct praise. I’ve never played any of the RE games, so I don’t know what percentage of their designs were recreations and how much were original. But I do know that it was all effective! Leonardo da Vinci would’ve been quite proud if he were alive today.
Give Yourself Time to Recover: This Resident Evil runs a brisk hour and a half, seemingly more or less in real time. You’ll be thrilled at all the chills and spills packed into that efficient duration, and grateful for the extra minutes to devote to the rest of your day. I recommend spending a chunk of it re-listening to Ryan and Hays Holladays’ score while mulling over what you’ve endured.
Resident Evil is Recommended If You Like: Screaming + Laughing + Cheering
Grade: 4 out of 5 Outbreaks
