Old School. Biblically Independent.
By Dustin Rowles | Film | September 21, 2026
Over the weekend, Resident Evil racked up a $60 million opening weekend, the best opening weekend of Zach Cregger’s career, which is why the guy behind Barbarian and Weapons made a franchise film. A great director with an impeccable track record and decent IP makes the studio executives sweat a lot less.
It’s a good film, too, even if it doesn’t achieve the heights of the previous two horror entries. It didn’t have to — the previous six entries hit between 19 percent and 39 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, while this one received a generous 96 percent, which obviously doesn’t mean it’s worthy of a 96 out of 100. It’s more like: 96 percent of critics gave it a B+. And that’s what it is: A strong B+ outing from Cregger, the highest-rated video game adaptation ever tracked on Rotten Tomatoes.
Resident Evil largely succeeds on its simplicity: Bryan (Austin Abrams), a courier, has to transport what he thinks is a kidney or a heart or some other life-saving organ from one hospital to another one in Raccoon City. Abrams carries the first half of the film, cursing his luck in the snow after he hits a woman crossing the street. What isn’t immediately clear is that the woman has been infected by the T-virus, a virus that turns everyone into murderous, mutant creatures.
Resident Evil is best when Bryan has no idea what he’s encountered, and just thinks that he’s had a terrible run of bad luck: He picks up the woman, a cop pulls him over and takes the woman, the cop crashes into a field, the infected woman chases Bryan into a farmhouse, where he encounters an angry dog, and then he discovers that its owner is not quite right in the head. There’s a lot of tension, a few great jump scares, and a few moments of genuinely good comic relief.
And then he drives into Raccoon City, and Resident Evil becomes what it is: a video-game movie, albeit a much, much better one than most. Turns out, the thing he believes is a life-saving organ is actually the last component needed for the antidote, and he has to transport it to the top floor of Raccoon City’s hospital before he’s devoured by the many mutants he encounters.
He also stumbles upon characters who work for the virus manufacturer, the Umbrella Corporation, played by Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser, who mostly inject a little more comedy and a lot more gore into the proceedings. There is a lot of blood, peaking when scores of mutants rain down from the roofs of buildings in an attempt to splatter Bryan to death. It’s legit hysterical.
But ultimately, it’s a zombie movie, though I do appreciate the old-school George Romero approach. And it’s an IP-movie, so Cregger has little choice but to go big — more mutants, more near-death experiences, more blood. But also, less of what makes great horror work: mood, tension, and scares. It’s still entertaining as hell—a great ride through the Raccoon City hospital. But it’s still a B+ movie, the kind you’ll enjoy once, but unlike Barbarian and Weapons, likely never revisit.
