Resident Evil (2026) reboots the videogame-as-movie franchise, after six hugely successful films from Milla Jovovich and Paul WS Anderson – most of which I’ve seen, and I particularly loved the last two in 3D, including the finale in IMAX at Vue Printworks.
I missed 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, but now, Weapons‘ Zach Cregger has rebooted the series once again, centering on Bryan (Austin Abrams – Dash And Lily), who couriers human organs for transplant, and takes on one last job for the night because it’ll pay double, as his latest one is going out of town… to Raccoon City.
While the film piles on suspense at times, you just know that when he’s driving though ice at night and runs a woman over, you just know she’s going to turn into a zombie. Of course, he doesn’t know this, so treats her like a very shocked individual, even though rigor mortis has clearly long set in.
And then how to explain the situation, when a cop stops him, as he’s trying to get her along to the hospital?
This incarnation of Resident Evil has great direction and editing, plus humour, such as early on, when the hospital asks Bryan for reassurance that his car’s fittest with winter tyres and chains, because it’s incredibly icy outside. He needs the money so says yes… cut to him sliding about all over the road.
I’ve had a shot at almost all of the games in the series, but while I’ve only played the first one all the way through, Cregger certainly gets how it works, such as when Bryan gets a gun, realises he only has four bullets left and needs to look for me, since you don’t get an infinite number in the game, and have to make them count. The same goes for a shotgun. I did wonder when a typewriter would come into it, but it’s not like a film would need to save its own game. Maybe there was one in the background that I missed.
There will be other characters I’m not familiar with, though, such as the sewer-located belching man with a surprise inside, and the film feels rather like a run through the ‘greatest hits’ of the game series, rather than a coherent storyline or any lore and plot exposition, but then it’s more like a road trip as Bryan tries to get from A to B to deliver his package.
As such, it does deliver a solid and fun 90 minutes of entertainment before the end credits begin, once you’ve seen it, there’s no need for a rewatch.
In fact, this feels more like how The Last Of Us should’ve been made into a non-gaming experience, since the TV series is talky-talky with rare glimpses of zombies, and a complete missed opportunity.
I saw this on a regular cinema screen and later learned that in IMAX, 30 minutes opens up to 1.90:1 – apparently from the moment Bryan enters the sewers and until the end, but while I watched it, I thought the 2.39:1 widescreen frame looked well-composed throughout – unlike, say, Spider-Man: Brand New Day, which looked frequently, horribly cropped. For a moment, I did think about seeing Resident Evil again in IMAX, but I think back to Alien: Romulus, and how that should just have been 2.39:1 throughout, as the IMAX version opened up to 1.90:1 and just felt like a bad TV movie.
As an aside, at one point, Bryan has to abandon his car but doesn’t switch off the lights? That’ll kill the battery!
NOTE: There are no mid- nor post-credits scenes.
Resident Evil 2026 is in cinemas now, and is available to pre-order on 4K Blu-ray, 4K Blu-ray Steelbook, Blu-ray and DVD.
Detailed specs:
Cert: 
Running time: 94 minutes
Release date: September 18th 2026
Studio: Sony Pictures Entertainment
Aspect Ratio: 2.39:1; 1.90:1 (IMAX version: 30 mins)
Cinema: Odeon Trafford Centre
Rating: 7.5/10
Director: Zach Cregger
Producers: Zach Cregger, Victor Hadida, Robert Kulzer, Roy Lee, Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Miri Yoon
David Minkowski, Matthew Stillman
Writers: Zach Cregger, Shay Hatten
Music: Hays Holladay, Ryan Holladay
Cast:
Bryan: Austin Abrams
Carl: Zach Cherry
Maxine: Kali Reis
Paul: Paul Walter Hauser
Dave: Will Merrick
Birdie: Zoé Bellas
Stanley: Chris Lew Kum Hoi
Wade: Griffin Newman
Andrea Vasquez: Jo Martin
Dr. Maria Stokes: Emily Piggford
Officer Wilson: Johnno Wilson
RV Girl: Isla McRae
Surgeon: James Beaumont
Voice of Michelle: Sara Paxton
Puker: Shaun W Loeser
Agatha: Magdalena Šittová
Voice on Intercom: Zach Cregger
Reviewer of movies, videogames and music since 1994. Aortic valve operation survivor from the same year. Running DVDfever.co.uk since 2000. Nobel Peace Prize winner 2021.