Resident Evil: reviews

What the critics say average 8.2 from 42

• 10 San Francisco ChronicleBob Strauss Cregger’s formal mastery continues to evolve through what is essentially a creature spectacular designed to satisfyingly scare, tickle and gross us out. Read
• 10 The Seattle TimesDominic Baez It’s honestly shocking how funny this movie is — even more so that that humor doesn’t distract from the horror. “Resident Evil” never stops being scary, but it rarely stops making you laugh. Read
• 10 Rolling StoneDavid Fear Resident Evil is, hands down, one of the single best video-game screen adaptations to date, yet works in a way that doesn’t feel like an adaptation, doesn’t rely on fan service and Easter-egg hunts to pay homage, and doesn’t skimp on the dynamics that made the game so endlessly playable. Read
• 10 Radio TimesBen Rayner If you’re not already a fan of the franchise, you’ll find a fun, frenetic and gory horror that’s likely Cregger's best yet, with some standout moments of brain-bending body horror. If you’re a longtime fan of the series, you’ll find exactly the same experience whilst also being able to recognise the other layer of why and how everything’s unfolding. Read
• 10 FotogramasFran Chico Entertaining from start to finish, terrifying, funny… You could call it quite a surprise given the franchise's track record, but with Cregger behind it, the fact that it is one of the best films of the year (not just horror films) should no longer surprise anyone. Read
• 10 CinemaníaJorge Loser The director of Weapons achieves the most accomplished work of his career by imagining what After Hours would look like with John Carpenter behind the camera: an odyssey with monsters closer to those of The Thing than to Capcom's, minimalist synth score included. Read
• 10 El PeriódicoDesirée de Fez But the truth is that it is a magnificent film, a celebration of fantasy and horror full of talent, wit, inventiveness, verve and genuine love for pure genre cinema. Read
• 9.1 PolygonJake Kleinman Cregger takes his love for both the franchise and the genre and channels them into something we've never really seen before. Resident Evil is funny, scary, gross, and beautiful. Above all else, it captures the fight-or-flight experience of actually playing a Resident Evil game. Read
• 9.0 Screen RantBrandon Zachary This is the most John Carpenter-inspired film I've ever seen, but it reflects the style of the filmmaker so clearly that it's unmistakably by the same auteur behind Barbarian and Weapons. Clever in its cinematography, audacious in its horror, and bluntly hilarious through its dim-witted protagonist – seriously, the cheer of "Yeah! Video games!" at a climactic moment is primed to be memed – Resident Evil is kind of everything I hoped it would be. Read
• 9.0 The Hollywood ReporterFrank Scheck 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. Read
• 9.0 The Wall Street JournalKyle Smith It’s the ideal midnight movie, an adroit balance of the funny and the macabre, the frightening and the ridiculous. Read
• 9.0 The Daily BeastNick Schager As hilarious as it is unnerving, it’s the rare video game-based film to rock from breakneck start to insane finish. Read
• 8.8 The Boston GlobeMatt Juul In “Resident Evil,” director Zach Cregger brings not just the frights but plenty of laughs as well, masterfully blending the two in what may be 2026’s best horror film. Read
• 8.8 New York PostJohnny Oleksinski Cregger takes what’s winning about the franchise — its tentacled mutant zombies, the Raccoon City setting, its breakneck mission — and injects the story with appealing weirdness and humor. He makes it an actual movie, God forbid. Read
• 8.5 The WrapWilliam Bibbiani Zach Cregger directed an Oscar-winning horror movie, yet it’s his video game adaptation, the project with the words “sell out” written all over it, that turns out to be his best film. Read
• 8.5 The Globe and MailBarry Hertz This is a Resident Evil movie that exploits the elements of the game that naturally translate to the cinematic form (namely, loud action and squishy violence) but adds a crucial layer that PlayStation, and the Anderson/Jovovich team, never fully considered: comedy. Read
• 8.3 The Film StageDevan Suber Resident Evil is the ideal tribute to 30 years of the series, making one feel they’re playing along with the character. On top of that, it’s just a damned good thrill ride that stands alone. Would that all video game adaptations were like it. Read
• 8.3 AwardsWatchAugust Hammel Essentially running a one man show, with only a few assists from deftly deployed comic character actors and ghastly tentacled creatures, Abrams holds the screen as a wiry and winsome everyman whose bone deep haplessness ratchets up the tension and comedy of every scene. Read
• 8.3 IndiewireDavid Ehrlich This is how movies and video games can merge in a way that makes them stronger for sharing their DNA rather than disfiguring them both. Read
• 8.0 IGNTom Jorgensen With a laser focus on putting its hero through the worst night of his life, Resident Evil is a simple and exciting survival horror story that benefits greatly from Zach Cregger’s sensibilities. Austin Abrams is exceedingly charming as the woefully outmatched medical courier Bryan as he’s dragged through a hellish coterie of well-realized mutants and monsters by Cregger, whose good eye for creature effects, mounting dread, and signature humor all leave Resident Evil feeling very well represented. Read
• 8.0 The GuardianJesse Hassenger Good as Abrams is, alone and when playing opposite skeleton-crew supporting cast, he’s not exactly a one-man show, either; the guy behind the camera is his constant scene partner. Cregger, who has become a horror brand name on the strength of the similarly inventive Barbarian and Weapons, orchestrates the mayhem with expert command of pacing, comic-horrific timing, and even that old standby, the lowly jumpscare. Read
• 8.0 Total FilmJordan Farley Frightening, funny and exceedingly bloody, Zach Cregger's Resident Evil is a horror-comedy to match the best the genre has to offer, and an easy frontrunner for the best video game movie to date. Cregger's hot streak continues. Read
• 8.0 The Irish TimesDonald Clarke Fleshed out with elaborately vile body horror whose lineage passes through the source content and back to John Carpenter’s The Thing, Cregger’s shameless romp, though smallish in scale, feels like the best Resident Evil film in the franchise’s long history. That’s not saying much, but it is saying something. Read
• 8.0 The IndependentClarisse Loughrey The director of ‘Weapons’ has made a movie that’s incredibly faithful to the blockbuster video games that inspired it – yet which features enough bloody elegance to satisfy non-gamers. Read
• 8.0 Screen DailyNikki Baughan It’s a hugely entertaining genre actioner that should appeal to both newcomers and existing fans. Read
• 8.0 VarietyOwen Gleiberman “Resident Evil” is a lark, a monster mash, a shape-shifting throwaway. As a horror film, it makes “Weapons” look like “War and Peace,” but it escalates over 90 minutes into a kind of symphonic loopiness. It refuses to take itself seriously, but unlike the other “Resident Evil” movies…it’s alive. Read
• 8.0 ColliderCarly Lane Yet when Resident Evil works, it really works. The longer you watch, the more you have the sense that Cregger wants to subtly mimic the experience of playing the games not as a major character, but as an ordinary person with no special abilities or real prowess with guns. Read
• 8.0 VultureAlison Willmore If Resident Evil is his least interesting film to date, it’s still a deftly done, bitterly funny riff on the absurdities of the genre. Read
• 8.0 La RazónSergi Sánchez It is frenetic and creative, and it translates the experience of playing a video game into images with vibrant originality. Read
• 8.0 La VanguardiaJordi Batlle Caminal His Resident Evil is simply pure entertainment, with no pretensions or hidden meanings. […] A feast for diehard genre fans, very well served by Cregger, a born filmmaker. Read
• 7.5 Slant MagazineJustin Clark The film is its own unique species of monster, a hilariously dark and darkly hilarious romp whose plot isn’t trying to sell non-gamers on Resident Evil’s touchstone moments, but instead uses the setting and rules of the games to take audiences on a much wilder ride than some of the games themselves actually deliver. Read
• 7.5 SlashfilmChris Evangelista Cregger has proven he's capable of better movies than this, but "Resident Evil" is probably his most entertaining movie so far, and that might just be enough in the end. Read
• 7.5 The A.V. ClubJacob Oller The 90-minute B-movie so deftly juggles gags and gross-outs that, when it’s finally boxed in by the larger demands of IP, it’s as tragic as watching a beloved character succumb to the dehumanizing effects of a virus. But that transformation wouldn’t hurt so much if we didn’t care about what we’d lost. Read
• 7.5 Chicago TribuneKatie Walsh While the unwieldy ending might get away from him, the tightly controlled and efficient 90 minutes that precede it all are the work of a new master of a horror — one who delivers imaginative, terrifying and hilarious thrills and chills, whether he’s reanimating a dead franchise or dreaming up his own uncanny worlds. It’s just fun to watch him work, and “Resident Evil” might be his most playful — and gooey — film yet. Read
• 7.5 Roger EbertBrian Tallerico “Resident Evil” may be one of the rare recent cases where a blockbuster based on a famous IP actually feels like it could have been a bit longer. While the tension is great for most of the short runtime, Cregger could have maintained it for one more set-piece or made some of the connective tissue more engaging. Read
• 7.0 Next Best PictureJosh Parham There’s plenty of enjoyment to be found within this framework. The set pieces are still effective and Abrams’s performance is riveting, and that does a great deal to compensate for the inconsistent pacing. Purists may still yearn for a more faithful adaptation of this property, but given previous attempts, this is a big step in the right direction. Read
• 7.0 TimeStephanie Zacharek Resident Evil is largely a one-man show, and Abrams carries it deftly. Read
• 6.7 The PlaylistRodrigo Perez Once all the familiar machinery fully takes over, he’s still directing the hell out of it, and the results are often a blast. Still, it’s hard not to wish he had stayed in that leaner, more frightening mode longer—or simply made another original horror movie where nothing stood between him and whatever strange idea he wanted to chase next. Read
• 6.3 Associated PressJocelyn Noveck Rarely is it more clear that humor is a key asset to a horror film than in Zach Cregger’s highly entertaining survival-horror, zombie-infestation tale, and luckily Abrams is up to the task. Appealing but not cutesy, scruffy but charming, and basically genuine and kind, his Bryan is the perfect Everyman — a medical courier who somehow ends up as one of the only humans in a world of oozing tentacle monsters. Read
• 6.0 Time OutPhil de Semlyen The new-look take on Capcom’s gory survival game is still more goofy and good-looking than actually frightening. Read
• 6.0 EmpireHarry Stainer More than clears the (fairly low) bar as the best Resident Evil movie yet. While its rollicking first act matches the promise of Weapons or Barbarian, its surprise-free narrative stops it short of ascending those heights. But horror fans will happily gobble up this tight, bloody, 90-minute thrill-ride. Read
• 5.0 ABCCarmen Burné This Resident Evil succeeds where almost no one dares, that is, by telling something new. It is watchable. It is laughable, in the good sense. It is even acceptable as a story running parallel to that of the main characters, but something that truly defines it as one of the family is still missing. Read