Zach Cregger’s 'Resident Evil' Shows You How It Feels to Play the Games

Weeks before the premiere of Resident Evil, director Zach Cregger already went on an online apology tour, mitigating the possible hate the film adaptation could get from video game purists. But how can you even gauge the faithfulness of an original material? When it comes to plot, you simply don’t. The games and Cregger’s Resident Evil share the rapturous Racoon City as their setting. The latter is unbound to any story told before in the franchise, however. This freedom afforded the film room to breathe and be its own thing. There’s one thing the film adapted best, though: its video game mechanics.

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Throughout the relatively short film, we follow the traditional survival horror everyman Bryan (a buffoon, really) as he traverses his way inward to Racoon City’s heart to deliver a MacGuffin. Right from the start of the film, Bryan’s ‘quest’ begins. There’s really no setup. His frantic journey follows video game level design: locations have their charming characteristics, are populated by distinct adversaries, interact with resource scavenging and management, and can only be passed through with core items like unique keys for locks. The film’s plot does not strictly adhere to these video game beats, however. Rather, the film pokes fun at them while winking at the audience. “Yeah, video games! ”

I like this budding trend wherein video game adaptations adapt not the story of their source but the mechanics that popularized it. Think of Markiplier’s Iron Lung (2026), which leans into the claustrophobia of the game. In an earlier article, I surmised that the close proximity of filmmakers to these media (that they are super fans of) allowed the familiarity and respect needed to advance such adaptations.

In Resident Evil, the direction leans into Bryan’s perspective. Through camerawork, his vision (extending to ours) is sometimes obscured. The most effective scares, or gags, of the film are when lurking zombies run towards him from all directions. Like Cregger’s past films, humor is a core weapon in Resident Evil’s arsenal. It has a kind of humor longtime fans of the video game franchise can appreciate: a kind of satire that is informed by the survival horror conventions set up by the earlier games. The film is not necessarily scary but is akin to a fun theme park dark ride.

Newcomers also can easily have an enjoyable time. The franchise has always been unshy of silliness, and Cregger embraces it. Sometimes, though, this silliness brings a detriment to the material’s weight. Stakes aren’t there; Bryan’s goal is inconsequential. Even if he’s funny most of the time, Bryan has much depth as the cardboard character Billy Coen in Resident Evil Zero (2002). Moreover, Racoon City is less a character and more a mere backdrop. We don’t really see much of it. The city is relatively empty save for underwhelming side characters and zombie hordes when action sequences demand them. It’s hard to imagine Leon S. Kennedy moving along this Racoon City at the other side of town. And the monster designs are underwhelming and generic compared to what we’ve already seen throughout the franchise. The imposing Nemesis-like stalker enemy of the film feels like a ripoff of Rat King in The Last of Us Part II (2020). These are enough sins to deter a fan, if it weren’t for the film’s absolute fun factor.

Mila Jovovich’s Resident Evil films (2002-2017) are campy guilty pleasure blockbuster action films that throw accuracy out of the window. Resident Evil: Welcome to Racoon City (2021), to me, is an underrated attempt at fidelity even if it was crammed as it was. But alas, that is burdened by half-measures. And to this humble Resident Evil fan, Cregger already made a spiritual adaptation of the first title in Barbarian (2022): An unassuming property contains dark secrets underneath wherein resides a tragic female figure whose mystery is unlocked through multiple character perspectives. Lisa Trevor in Spencer Mansion, anyone?

So what is the worth of Cregger’s Resident Evil? Strip off its name and it can stand as a different entity. Damn, that’s the film’s biggest strength—a punk approach wherein the industry norm is to milk an IP of its most popular elements to attract the biggest audience. Currently, it’s the highest-rated video game movie ever. Maybe Cregger should be apologizing to that zeitgeist for proving it wrong. He doesn’t have to apologize for his film, though.

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