Zach Cregger‘s Resident Evil has arrived — and the critics are embracing the latest reimaginging on the long-running video game franchise.
Based on the popular Capcom video games, Resident Evil stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, an outmatched medical courier who becomes trapped in a monster outbreak in Raccoon City during a single night of chaos and has to try to survive.
The Sony Pictures‘ film reunites Abrams with his Weapons director Cregger, who also co-wrote the script. The cast also features Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser.
While Cregger’s take on Resident Evil is the eighth installment in the live-action franchise, it’s also a reboot and serves as a fresh start.
Speaking with The Hollywood Reporter earlier this week, Cregger defended his decision to scrap the games’ legacy characters. Responding to online pushback, he said, “I know that when you dive into an IP you’re going to get flack, a certain degree, from the fandom. It would be weird if I were shocked that that was happening. But I think that when the people who love these games the way I do see the movie, my hope is that they feel seen and they feel like this movie is paying homage to the games, because it is, it’s obvious.”
As of publication, it has an 96 percent critics score on Rotten Tomatoes and a 91 percent audience score. As the movie enters theaters, THR has rounded up what critics are saying, below.
THR’s Frank Scheck, wrote in his review, “Abrams’ shaggy appeal as the everyman hero who somehow manages to overcome every obstacle thrown in his way, including the most monstrous creatures Cregger and his talented creative team could devise, is a key factor in the film’s success. Filled with baroque gore and wildly imaginative set pieces delivered at a feverish pace, Resident Evil transcends its simplistic premise with the sort of cinematic wit and flair for which the filmmaker has been justly acclaimed.”
IGN’s Tom Jorgensen wrote, “Whatever your idea of what a good Resident Evil movie should be, I have to recommend to the skeptical to put that to one side and lock in for what Zach Cregger delivers with this new adaptation of the Capcom games. With a clear appreciation for odds stacked against the protagonist and all manner of freaky foes to stand against them, Cregger ably adapts the spirit, if not the letter, of the Resident Evil games into a jet-fueled horror experience that has room for lots of tension, some great laughs, and a strong central performance from Austin Abrams.”
He added, “With a tendency towards celebrating the feel of the games and not the specifics of the plot, Resident Evil succeeds in amplifying classic gameplay moments into horror movie beats in a way that goes far beyond simple fan service.”
The New York Times’ Brandon Yu praised the tone, writing, “It’s a thriller that’s as funny as it is jumpy, with a remarkable number of jokes rooted simply in Abrams either shrieking in fear or muttering with incredulity. Cregger weaponizes comedy not only as an irrepressible reflex, but as a tool: If horror is about tension and release, he sees the relief of a laugh the same way he might a scream. But it only works because of Abrams. The movie is essentially a one-man show.”
Meanwhile, YouTube critic Jeremy Jahns said the humor “they could have pulled it back a little bit to make the last act a little smoother.” Overall, however, he added, “I actually really enjoyed it. The nods were there without feeling like nostalgia bait. The vibe, the fish out of water scenario that grows bigger and bigger as the film goes on does decidedly feel like Resident Evil. Also, it is decidedly and works well as a Zach Cregger horror film. I guess these two concepts just work well together. And I thought Austin Abrams did a great job carrying us through it. This movie being a Resident Evil dark horror comedy was a surprise to be sure, but a welcome one.”
Inverse’s Chrishaun Baker explained that the movie, “playfully engages with the first, is totally uninterested in the second, and cashes all in on the third. For a movie and a filmmaker to have spent months at ground zero of a battle over what form video game adaptations should take, it’s ironic that Resident Evil would end up being one of the best video game films ever made. By bucking the cloying attempts at “pleasing fans” that have sunk so many other movies of this kind, Zach Cregger has made the platonic ideal of what a video game movie should be: a cinematic experience that approximates the medium-specific idiosyncrasies of the game, while offering something new and satisfying for fans and newcomers.”
The Guardians’s Jesse Hassenger compared it to Cregger’s prior film, writing, “Weapons had a creepy, evocative aversion to simple metaphorical reads that ultimately increased its effectiveness; the same isn’t quite true here. Resident Evil foregrounds one obvious bit of character change for Bryan, but after doing a great job making us care about him for more than 90 minutes, Cregger seems to abandon him a few steps shy of completing any real journey. Is he awaiting a level up that never arrives? Hard to say. But maybe bringing a video game sensibility to the big screen while keeping any gamer cheesiness on the margins is journey enough.”
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