We have never had much luck with the adaptation of video games to the big screen. Perhaps containing a wider world to a linear storyline is too constraining, with cinema limiting the creativity of the original form. The original 'Resident Evil', released in 2002 and written and directed by Paul W.S. Anderson, scored just 35 out of 100 from critics (better from users, with 6.9 out of 10) on Metacritic. So, with 14 years of distance, why would Sony and Zach Cregger ('Weapons', 'Barbarian') choose to take on the franchise again, and lose Milla Jovovich's female hero lead?
The 2026 reboot/reimaging of 'Resident Evil' fixes its focus on Bryan (Austin Abrams, TV's 'Euphoria', 'Scary Stories to Tell in the Dark'), a particularly incompetent medical delivery driver and all-round hopeless human being. When he's handed an urgent package to transport to Raccoon City General Hospital through the snowy night, it seems like a simpler solution than dealing with the potential problems facing him and his girlfriend. But this isn't an organ for surgery he's shipping - it's the final part of an antidote being hastily created by the Umbrella Corporation after the development of a bioweapon gone awry. But with "monsters" mutating around every corner, will he make it to the lab before it spreads out of the city?
SWITCH: 'RESIDENT EVIL' (2026) TRAILER
This story stands apart from the video game plots and previous films, introducing a standalone character. It's one of the smartest things Cregger and co-writer Shay Hatten ('Ballerina', 'John Wick: Chapter 4') could have done when choosing how to proceed with the reboot. Having our hapless driver blunder through every scenario initially feels like Hollywood's attempts to infuse every genre to keep every demographic happy - here, melding comedy, horror and action - but Bryan's hapless everyman soon becomes mildly endearing, and having an unexplored adventure for audiences to embark on means there's no fear of fatigue.
The next smart move is casting Austin Abrams. Perhaps not a household name or a recognisable face, yet the 30-year-old holds his own in this role. He commits fully, whether he's muttering expletive-laden lines to himself or walking the tightrope between immature jerk and charismatic buffoon. Everything - down to the high-pitched screams as he's attacked by increasingly unrecognisable creatures - is more relatable than the usual gun-toting, brash macho characters we're used to seeing in these kinds of films.
Abrams commits fully, whether he's muttering expletive-laden lines to himself or walking the tightrope between immature jerk and charismatic buffoon.
Abrams' success is a necessity - because, in reality, everyone else is a background character to Bryan and his story. Cregger himself says the film is "a love letter to the games", and the way it's structured completely reflects that. Keeping Bryan at the heart of it and making the plot almost episodic - passing missions or levels as the "big bad" gets increasingly more powerful - keeps in with the video game feel. Some parts of Dariusz Wolski's ('The Martian') cinematography are even captured in the style of a first-person shooter.
While the film does tend to rely on a solid helping of jump scares for its horror element, it also does an excellent job of setting up a general sense of dread and foreboding. This might come from something as simple as the framing - like when Bryan is trying to rescue a police officer from his vehicle, and as he keeps leaning in, leaving too much empty space behind him - or situations where the plot drives us into perilously dark parts of the city, with nothing but the light of a phone to see by. It doesn't help that Bryan, in his utter ineptitude, feels the need to call out loudly, wander into places he clearly shouldn't, or linger endlessly to watch these monstrosities gain on him. It's almost like he himself has never seen a horror film before.
This iteration of 'Resident Evil' is one of the year's most enjoyable outings, largely because it breaks many of the rules of the genres it's offering up. By having us tag along with a bumbling protagonist, we can follow along with the fun with more fathomable empathy. For this reason, it's perhaps not just one of 2026's most interesting films, but one of the best video game adaptations of all time. Will we see Austin Abrams return in a sequel? You can be dead sure about that.