To say I’ve been excited for the Resident Evil movie is an understatement. Which in itself is a fairly insane thing for me to say as I’m not exactly the biggest fan of game adaptations.

It’s safe to say I adore Cregger’s take on Resident Evil. To the point I’d say it’s one, If not definitely, my favourite game adaptation of all time. It’s one that prioritises replicating how it feels to play the game instead of throwing characters at you to point and gawp at.

Diving into Raccoon City

The film follows Brian. A courier who delivers high importance items to places like hospitals. After his last delivery for the day, he gets asked if he wants one more high paying job to end the night. One right into the heart of Raccoon City. 

Resident Evil acts almost like one mans descent into hell. The more the film continues, the worse his night gets, the meaner the monsters and the bigger the threat. Just like with any Resident Evil game.

I do think there’s story is probably the weakest element of the film, not because it’s bad but because the focus is more so on the video game aspects, or the actual horror. I guess you could say that’s a homage to the games where the story typically isn’t an overly investing aspect. 

It’s a fun narrative and does a good job putting Bryan into increasingly outlandish and horrifying places, as a viewer I can’t say I didn’t have a great time. But the writing of the overall story definitely could’ve seen some improvements. 

Is it a good adaptation though?

This film got a lot of flak online for “Not being a Resident Evil movie” I want to debunk this, as this is probably one of the most faithful video game adaptations I have ever seen and by far the foundation I believe most other adaptations should be striving for.

Resident Evil (2026) isn’t interested in directly adapting the narrative or characters of the franchise. It’s interested in adapting the gameplay and how it feels to play a Resi game.

I think this is a much better way of adapting a game, especially a horror game with an emphasis on interesting game design like Resident Evil. I think people underestimate that game feel is one of the most important aspects of a video game, especially when it comes to your memory of a game. Being reminded how it felt to play for the first time, to me, is far more powerful than being shown some people or locations from them.

Hell, if I wanted to see the Spencer mansion or the RPD, I would simply replay Resi 1 or 2. I don’t need to be shown a story I’ve already seen before in a medium not as well suited for that experience. Give me fresh ideas built on the mechanical foundations the games created.

So, you ask, how do you adapt gameplay? Cregger focuses on replicating the player experience and makes Brian act as the player surrogate, replicating how you feel when experiencing these games. His reactions all seem like something you have likely said at some point. Seeing a horde of zombies come at you and audibly saying “Fuck that” is something I imagine most of us have done at 2am in a dark room playing a horror game. 

That’s not all. The movie is full of cool nods and is almost built entirely around replicating the process of playing a game. From sprinting around in a circle to avoid a single zombie, to the frustrating puzzles, there’s the inventory management. Hell there’s even a very solid nod to the key puzzles. Cregger also somehow manages to pull off the big “Final Boss” with a giant eye weak point and have it look pretty great in live action. 

Though, I said it before and I’ll say it again. I wish it had a homage to the fixed camera angled from the original games. There’s some first person shots and some bits that felt reminiscent of the over the shoulder perspective. But the fixed camera angles should’ve been shown some respect. 

I’ll die on the hill that fixed camera is the greatest perspective in the entire horror genre for video games. Fight me.

Resident Evil might not include your favourite characters, or (from what I’ve read, for legal reasons) a lot of elements directly from the games. But because of that, it replicates the feeling of the games. And that it does a phenomenal job at.

As scary as the Village dollhouse?

One thing you need to get right with a Resi movie is the scares. And this has them in abundance. I went to see this in a packed cinema with my girlfriend and I can’t count the amount of times I saw people physically jump out of their seats.

I’m not the biggest fan of jump scares as I find they’re a relatively overused way to get you to react, and rarely done well. My god, Cregger uses them well. There’s plenty of jumps that actually scared the life out of me and I still think about days later while writing this. 

I don’t want to discuss them in specifics, since that really defeats the point if you know where the jumps are. But just know you should come prepared when you go to see it.

But overall I wouldn’t say Res Evil was an overly “scary” movie. It has a fair amount of tense moments and some fantastic scares. But it balances them out with plenty of levity and humor.

Where’s everybody going, bingo?

The humor then. It seems to be a point of contention at the moment which I’ll likely add to a bit. Im a big fan of the style of humor Cregger used for this film.

The comedy in Resident Evil more so comes from Bryan’s reactions to everything. Having to go through a dark corridor and having some comment about how much he doesn’t want to. Or missing a shot and complaining he’s so bad at it. 

It’s a departure from typical humor for the games. Where you’ll have someone like Leon Kennedy, a completely competent army of a man throwing away one liners like they were nothing. It’s nothing like how Bryan speaks, I don’t really think any of the game protagonists speak like that. But that’s because Bryan isn’t really supposed to speak like them, he’s meant to speak like us.

Like I said before. I can’t remember just how many times I made comments, just like Brian, in similar moments while playing a resident evil game. Cregger wants you to remember what it was like to play your first horror game again and does that a lot through its humor. 

Granted, yes. I do think there’s a little too much of it. There could’ve been some toning down here and there, and I think when some other characters are introduced they really got old very quickly. But, for the most part, when it’s just Bryan reacting to the world around him. I enjoyed it a ton.

Overall.

If you’ve read all of this, my final take shouldn’t come as a shock. I love Cregger’s resident evil. It’s probably one of my favourite films of the year and easily one of my favourite video game films of all time. 

If you’re a fan of the series, or someone who’s never experienced one of the games. I can highly, HIGHLY recommend you head to a packed theatre and see it for yourself.