{"id":15052,"date":"2026-09-19T00:40:59","date_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:40:59","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/?p=15052"},"modified":"2026-09-19T00:41:05","modified_gmt":"2026-09-19T04:41:05","slug":"resident-evil-2026","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/2026\/09\/19\/resident-evil-2026\/","title":{"rendered":"Resident Evil (2026)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a>Resident Evil<\/strong> (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, gore, language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Zach Cregger\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hays and Ryan Holladay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 18, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Johnno Wilson, Emily Piggford, Jo Martin, Andrea Miltner, Sara Paxton (voice), Will Merrick, Zoe Bellas, Chris Lew Kum Hoi, Griffin Newman, Magdalena Sittova, Isla McRae, Karel Dobry.<\/p>\n

Rating<\/strong>: ***<\/p>\n

\u00a0Not that it\u2019s a very high bar, but the new reboot of Resident Evil<\/strong> is the best of the RE movies. This isn\u2019t a back-handed compliment either; it\u2019s actually a pretty decent horror flick.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Although it shares the name, this incarnation of Resident Evil <\/strong>isn\u2019t based on any of the Capcom video games and has no connection with any of the previous films. It\u2019s a beast all its own. Directed by Zach Cregger (Weapons), it\u2019s basically a fun B-level horror movie that openly borrows ideas The Thing, Night of the Living Dead and Alien. It has the zany sensibility of Sam Raimi\u2019s Evil Dead 2. It has frightening creature creations and buckets of gore, all served up with a knowing wink. The movie knows it\u2019s inherently silly and just goes with it. I had a blast.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The plot is simplicity itself. Medical courier Bryan (Abrams, Weapons) is tasked with delivering a time-sensitive package to Raccoon City General Hospital during a blizzard. On the way, while distracted on the phone with his pregnant girlfriend (voice of Sara Paxton), he hits a woman who runs in front of his car. He tries to take the injured woman to the hospital only to discover his troubles are just starting.<\/p>\n

\u00a0What follows is a night of terror as Bryan fights for his survival against monsters of all kinds. It starts with the woman, continues with a mutated dog at a farmhouse and gets worse from there. I guess it wouldn\u2019t be too much of a spoiler if I told you that the Umbrella Corporation is responsible for the whole mess.<\/p>\n

\u00a0Cregger keeps the story lean and mean at a relentless 95 minutes. He doesn\u2019t waste time developing characters that probably won\u2019t be around for very long. He doesn\u2019t even tell us too much about the protagonist Bryan. All we know about his life beyond the immediate crisis is the girlfriend who just wants to have a real conversation about her unplanned pregnancy. We don\u2019t even need to know that. It\u2019s just a way of humanizing Bryan so he doesn\u2019t feel like a video game character. In the role, Abrams does a good job. He doesn\u2019t try to turn Bryan into an action hero. He\u2019s just an ordinary guy in an extraordinary situation. It\u2019s a very physical performance. He\u2019s always on the move running, screaming, shooting and fighting while reacting like an ordinary guy would. It\u2019s freaking him out and he\u2019s not equipped to handle it. He more than once admits to not being a gun person.<\/p>\n

\u00a0The supporting cast, such as it is, includes Kali Reis (Mercy) and Paul Walter Hauser (The Naked Gun) as a couple of Umbrella employees who show up at the exact right time to offer help and an explanation and Zach Cherry (Shang-Chi and the Legend of the Ten Rings) as the scientist for whom the delivery is intended. Again, I\u2019ll say that no one other than Bryan sticks around very long. They do well with what little they get to do though.<\/p>\n

\u00a0I took the time to talk about the acting even though nobody comes to a Resident Evil<\/strong> for that reason. No, they\u2019re here for the gore and the effects. Well, let me tell you. They\u2019re GREAT! Cregger relies almost solely on practical effects with only a few digital enhancements. He teams up with FX artist Shane Mahan to create real, tactile creatures like the one made up of different victims and the one in the sewer that turns into something(s) even more terrifying. The creature effects are reminiscent of John Carpenter\u2019s The Thing. The gore, which is plentiful by the way, is good old-fashioned stage blood. The scene with bodies falling from buildings and splattering on impact is especially messy. Now this is what I want to see in a bloody horror movie!<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m going to take it a step farther. Resident Evil<\/strong> isn\u2019t just the best of the RE movies. It\u2019s the one of best movies adapted from a video game (along with the recent Mortal Kombat films). To be fair, this isn\u2019t a high bar either. Some of those movies are God awful. However, it\u2019s significant because it shows a good movie can be made from a video game. It has the feel of a game with Bryan making his way through one challenge after another trying to achieve his objective. At the same time, it\u2019s very much a horror movie with the \u201cBOO!\u201d scenes and the Carpenter-esque score by experimental musicians The Holladay Brothers (Weapons).<\/p>\n

\u00a0Admittedly, Resident Evil<\/strong> isn\u2019t perfect. It\u2019s clunky in parts and the ending leaves you wanting more. Also, it\u2019s not as ambitious as Cregger\u2019s other films (Barbarian and Weapons). But let me ask you this. Are we really looking for perfection here? There\u2019s nothing wrong with an imperfect horror movie as long as it\u2019s fun and entertaining and maybe even a little scary. I enjoyed Resident Evil<\/strong> thoroughly. I hope it does well enough to get a sequel. I want to see where it goes from here.<\/p>\n

P.S. There are no mid or end credits scenes so there\u2019s no need to hang around. When it\u2019s over, it\u2019s really over. Go home.\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Resident Evil (2026)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Columbia\/Horror\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 RT: 95 minutes\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Rated R (strong bloody violence, gore, language throughout)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Director: Zach Cregger\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Screenplay: Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Music: Hays and Ryan Holladay\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cinematography: Dariusz Wolski\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Release date: September 18, 2026 (US)\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 Cast: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Johnno Wilson, Emily Piggford, Jo Martin, Andrea […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":15053,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"nf_dc_page":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-15052","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-now-playing"],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/Resident-Evil-POSTER.jpg?fit=620%2C918&ssl=1","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15052"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":15057,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15052\/revisions\/15057"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15053"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15052"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15052"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/movieguy247.com\/MovieGuy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15052"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}