Resident Evil is a gnarly, tongue-in-cheek video game adaptation with an endearing lead performance at its core.
The track record for video game adaptations has been fairly dour in recent years with many stale, forgettable examples such as Assassin’s Creed (2016 ) and Uncharted (2022 ).
These films did attract A-list stars such as Michael Fassbender and Mark Wahlberg, but without success.
The Last of Us (2023 ) was the breakthrough video game fans were waiting for, albeit on TV rather than the big screen.
I have not played a Resident Evil game. I do not have nostalgia or fandom for this world.
It was the filmmaker Zach Cregger whose previous work convinced me I should see this. In the past few years he has written and directed two of the most unpredictable, layered and gripping horror films in recent memory, Barbarian (2022 ) and Weapons (2025 ). Despite trading original stories for a well-trodden franchise, I had faith he would utilise the creative instincts which elevated his previous films.
The film opens frantically as medical courier Bryan (Austin Abrams ) hurries around a hospital looking to deliver life-saving cargo while also, ironically, contemplating with his pregnant partner over the phone whether or not to bring a baby into the world.
Financially motivated, Brian agrees to transport a high-priority package through treacherously snowy terrain to Raccoon City. A freak motor accident complicates his journey further however, and he is suddenly thrust into survival mode against a strange and terrifying threat.
Because you are immediately dropped into Bryan’s frenzied perspective without setup or exposition, the film feels like a rollercoaster ride, whisking one away without warning. From that point onwards, the audience is instantly aligned with Bryan, discovering this mysterious outbreak together. The film keeps you intensely involved as a result.
Austin Abrams, whose manic portrayal of a drug-addict in Weapons was a major standout, exudes a similar energy with this performance.
He is introduced as someone who might be considered irresponsible or unsympathetic by how he speaks with his partner, but what this detail reveals is that he has identifiably human doubts and fears. This naivety and recklessness in his characterisation endears us to him.
Another reason why the film is so effective as an entertaining odyssey is the comedic timing captured by Abrams and Cregger. There are hilarious moments of physical comedy and wide-eyed reactions to the increasing strangeness of what is happening. It is a mostly solitary adventure, and Bryan’s running commentary with himself is also an amusing way of keeping the audience involved.
Especially in the first half, Cregger builds dread and suspense in a number of effective ways.
The darkness pervading the film is lit with whatever is available in the frame: the blue and red police car siren, the all-encompassing deep red from a car’s brakelights, headlights that forge a way through a snowy forest. The detailed, creepy production design and special effects combined with the unsettling way in which Cregger’s varied camerawork investigates these new discoveries sustain the film’s eeriness.
There is some ill-fitting exposition that detracts from the story’s small-scale stakes, appearing like a mandated inclusion rather than directorial intent, such as forcing a word or name into the film to appease game fans.
Certain character behaviour at a critical stage in the film also felt jarring by how broadly comical it leans. The tension between being a grounded survival film against being a large stakes franchise origin story becomes apparent towards the climax, and the film’s fresh, unrestrained approach is slightly undermined.
Nevertheless, Cregger has delivered two wildly different horror films in consecutive years, each just as exhilarating as the other.
4/5 stars
Now playing in cinemas across Galway
