Director Zach Cregger has taken over the Resident Evil franchise from Paul W.S. Anderson and Milla Jovovich, who helmed the original 2002 film and its sequels. The new film, opening September 18, marks a significant shift in tone and approach for the long-running video-game adaptation.
Starring Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier tasked with delivering a package to Raccoon City, the film follows a straightforward survival narrative. Bryan’s journey becomes increasingly desperate after a series of poor decisions—including lying about having snow tires, getting distracted by his phone while driving icy roads, and venturing into a creepy barn—thrust him into contact with creatures described as resembling hybrids of John Carpenter’s The Thing and H.P. Lovecraft’s Cthulhu.
Cregger, whose 2025 film Weapons earned Amy Madigan an Oscar nomination and whose 2022 debut Barbarian established him as an ambitious filmmaker, brings a notably different sensibility to the franchise. Rather than the action-heavy approach of Anderson’s earlier films, Cregger emphasizes comedy alongside horror and violence. Drawing on his background with sketch-comedy troupe Whitest Kids U’Know, the director structures Bryan’s survival as a series of comic misadventures, punctuating scenes with laugh-out-loud jokes and jump scares in equal measure.
The film demonstrates familiarity with the video-game source material, including shots that mimic the first-person perspective of the games’ point-and-shoot gameplay. However, Cregger avoids slavish adaptation, instead identifying which game elements translate naturally to cinema—primarily loud action and visceral violence—while adding a comedic layer absent from both the games and previous films.
According to the review, the synthesis of comedy and carnage is notably successful, with the filmmakers employing the principle that tragedy becomes comedy through perspective and scale. The film maintains a brisk pace that prevents extended scrutiny of its visual effects, though some digitally-rendered sequences could have benefited from practical effects work.
Abrams, who appeared in Weapons, anchors the film with a sympathetic protagonist. The ending is described as “unnecessarily cruel,” consistent with the darker conclusions of Cregger’s previous films rather than offering conventional feel-good resolution. The production relocated from the Toronto locations favored by Anderson’s films to Prague, though the review suggests future installments could return to Canada.
Key facts
- Resident Evil opens in theatres September 18, directed by Zach Cregger
- Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, a medical courier navigating zombie-infested Raccoon City
- The film combines horror with comedy, unlike the action-focused Anderson/Jovovich films from 2002-2016
- Cregger directed the acclaimed 2025 film Weapons and 2022 debut Barbarian
- The movie was shot in Prague rather than the Toronto locations of previous installments
- The film incorporates first-person perspective shots reminiscent of the video games