Film Review: RESIDENT EVIL (2026): A Blood Splattered Mess That is Actually Pretty Enjoyable

Resident Evil Review

Resident Evil (2026) Film Review, a movie directed by Zach Cregger, written by Shay Hatten and Zach Cregger and starring Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Will Merrick, Andrea Miltner, Karel Dobrý, Zoé Bellas, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Griffin Newman, Emily Piggford, Johnno Wilson, Isla McRae, James Beaumont, Sara Paxton, Shaun W. Loeser and Magdalena Sittova.

A courier who is delivering medical supplies finds himself immersed in a world of zombies and monsters in filmmaker Zach Cregger’s gorefest, Resident Evil. Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, the courier who takes a last-minute job to earn some extra money and discovers that he may just not make it out of a frightening maze of creatures. This film is full of unique ideas that are all over the place, but even though the scenes don’t form a coherent whole in the end, it’s easy to get sucked up in the action and simply enjoy watching Bryan go to hell and back as he fights for his survival.

Bryan is talking to his girlfriend on the phone as the movie’s storyline begins. We discover she’s pregnant and thinking about what choice she wants to make regarding having the baby. This movie’s plot kicks in when there’s a snowstorm and a hole in the ground appears that proves something is rotten in the state of Denmark. Bryan hits a woman with his car, which further complicates matters. An evil dog with tentacles reminds one a bit of John Carpenter’s The Thing, and this movie becomes one twisted idea after another, building to a last half-hour or so that will have audiences covering their eyes in disgust and on the edge of their seats, simultaneously.

Austin Abrams has a distinct personality that makes his character relatable to watch. Bryan can’t shoot guns well and when he tries to shoot a lock open, he misses, thus declaring that he “sucks” at shooting. He’s determined to get a signature for the item(s) he is delivering from the head of the operation hidden all the way up on a top floor in a mysterious building, Carl (Zach Cherry). At one point, a fat man’s stomach opens up and rats come out of it, determined to hunt Bryan down. Those rats can’t be killed, apparently, as they’re shot apart and then put themselves back together again. It’s one of those types of situations, as these stories typically go.

Zach Cregger pulls out all the stops with a vomiting man (Shaun W. Loeser), who throws up acid at Bryan while he’s in an elevator, trying to make his way up to the 28th floor. This acid burns the floor underneath Bryan as he goes through video game-type endeavors, trying to save civilization as we know it or, rather, just get that signature for the supplies so he can get paid and go back to his girlfriend.

There are a number of imaginative ideas like a baby ward where the creatures start to “bubble” right before some zombies go after Bryan, who has taken a mop with him, which comes in handy when he sticks it in a door to hold the zombies back. Cregger’s themes are often intriguing, but his movie sometimes gets too gruesome for its own good. Cregger doesn’t resolve the problems the movie proposes, but rather simply sets the stage for another follow-up film. The overstuffed scenes that make it such a roller coaster ride of a gorefest are fun if the viewer doesn’t expect any typical resolve to the storyline boasted in this otherwise successful reboot.

Resident Evil has a lot to enjoy for hardcore horror movie fans. When it finally reaches the lab near the end, there is an injection that has to be given to an infected Bryan. These scenes are frustrating, but immensely well done as they build to the open-ended conclusion.

Cregger could do much better work than Resident Evil. Still, the creativity employed in this new Resident Evil is rather commendable. There are a few sprinkled in characters who help drive the action, but this is essentially Austin Abrams’ show to run away with. It’s fun to see Cregger do something different from the intelligent horror movies he’s known best for such as Barbarian and Weapons. He’s having fun with this material, although it’s definitely not the complex horror that Cregger has received countless accolades for over the past couple of years.

While it’s gory beyond a reasonable doubt, Resident Evil is a rowdy good time for those who like the video game or have enjoyed previous adaptations of this material. This reboot looks like it’s simply setting the stage for more entries that could be even better than this introductory one. Resident Evil is nothing less than a splatterfest that will have a built-in audience regardless of whether or not it’s best that Cregger can do after he proved his genius with the great Weapons.

Rating: 7/10

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