You could make a fair argument that Zach Cregger is a bit of a household name in horror right now, having delivered two of the most talked about horror films in recent memory, and in the space of only five years.

In 2026, the writer-director of the largely successful Barbarian and Weapons has the unenviable task of introducing the eighth live-action adaptation of the Resident Evil franchise to a horde of slavering fans, hungry for something worthy of the title.

Cregger has made it clear in interviews that he is a huge fan of the video games on which his reboot is based, while being completely transparent in his intentions: to tell a Resident Evil story that feels like Resident Evil, while keeping clear of all pre-established story material.

A film doesn’t have to be for everybody, but it should, preferably, be enjoyable for fans and newcomers alike

.His commitment to doing things his way and not hanging onto the coattails of all that’s gone before is, naturally, the equivalent of kicking a hornets’ nest when it comes to fan reception.

A long-fought debate on the importance of fidelity in adaptation has re-emerged, as the public began to postulate on whether this film would capture the spirit of the games, or simply use the iconic franchise title as a draw to attract an existing audience.

Full disclosure: i’m a long-time fan of Resident Evil, but ultimately I believe a film should stand on its own, fan-service be damned. A film doesn’t have to be for everybody, but it should, preferably, be enjoyable for fans and newcomers alike.

Firstly, and with that in mind, Resident Evil looks great.

There’s some surprisingly great effects here, for what very much feels, at times, like a low-budget, stripped back, brass tacks horror film. Across the hour and thirty minute runtime we get a smorgasbord of visually creative monstrosities that get progressively weirder and more lethal, like the levels in a video game.

The lighting is also fantastic, making good use of the snowy surroundings, dark tunnels and deceptively warm interiors to create a contrast that’s especially visually appealing.

He avoids fully committing to the unique brand of batshit many fans have enjoyed over the years.

Cregger uses pans, zooms and POV shots to great effect, translating the visual language of a survival-horror game to a film quite elegantly. The intention of this is always to keep us firmly planted in the shoes of our main character, Bryan, a courier tasked with delivering a medical package to Raccoon City - a trip he is, somewhat tellingly, being paid double for.

The action Bryan gets himself caught up in isn’t clean or graceful, but bumbling and frenetic. Cregger wants you to feel kinship with the Everyman lead as he fumbles his way through the violent and gore-strewn plot like a first-time player in a survival horror.

There are winks and nods to its franchise of origin, paying homage without diving headfirst into its cast of characters, array of familiar monsters or chronology of canonical events. This is, at times, a tasteful decision, and at other times, somewhat reductive.

While it was a pleasure to see Cregger have some fun with the formula and inject a little of his humour and personality into something often quite tonally rigid, the college antics and playful teasing of the source material at times diluted what makes the franchise so beloved.

Resident Evil is inherently a silly property. It’s full of flamboyant villains, hammy one-liners and secret labs that - for some reason - require a riddle to be solved before granting you entry.

The games are ridiculous. But the ridiculousness isn’t something to be trimmed away in adaptation. It’s part of Resident Evil’s DNA, and the atmosphere is all the more dense and flavourful for its eccentricities.

Cregger clearly wants to keep silliness in the picture for his cinematic take on the games, but it’s a silliness entirely his own, of a smart-aleck, ironic kind. He avoids fully committing to the unique brand of batshit many fans have enjoyed over the years.

The movie is intensely self-aware, and perhaps a little too much for its own good. Bryan seems to know that he’s inside a video game, his humorous observations of the predicaments he finds himself in only just falling short of a complete fourth-wall break.

But although a metaphorical wink down the lens is usually fun, I would have happily traded the few chuckles and grins they brought me for the unfiltered glee that comes from seeing a goofy B-movie taking itself entirely seriously.

In recent years a plague of self-awareness has spread through Hollywood, making it nearly impossible for a crowd-pleaser to convey anything through sincerity alone.

There always has to be a character on the outside, looking in, passing judgement and cracking wise on events from a contemporary perspective, for the sake of… I don’t know… making us feel smart? Not being labelled as ‘corny’?

Whatever the reason, it so frequently strangles the earnestness out of a story and results in a detached, surface-level experience. Bring back unabashed corniness, I say! And if the comedy arising from that corniness is unintentional? All the better.

And hey, all things considered, it’s probably the best adaptation the franchise has ever had.

2026’s Resident Evil is hardly an egregious example of this kind of smug, new-age screenwriting, but while listening to Bryan muttering about an encounter with a mutant creature the same way I might mutter after dropping a carton of eggs, I couldn’t shake the feeling that we’ve still got a long way to go before sincerity is cool again.

Ultimately, these are all criticisms from the point of view of a particularly pedantic Resident Evil fan. For the average filmgoer, Cregger’s latest outing will be a welcome shake up to the standard zombie apocalypse formula - funny, tense, creative, and lightweight.

And that’s really my main takeaway from the film: it made me chuckle, it put me on edge, it didn’t outstay its welcome. And hey, all things considered, it’s probably the best adaptation the franchise has ever had.

Even with the bar as low as it is, that’s still got to count for something.

7/10

Resident Evil is on general release

Director: Zach Creggers

Featuring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis