Editor’s Note: Freeline Media critic Mike Fried isn’t a fan of movies based on video games. He finds them the height of artistic laziness. So, can any video-game-to-horror-movie effort win him over? Read on!

By Mike Fried

Resident Evil (2026)

3.5/5

I’m really not a big fan of the Resident Evil movies. I saw the first one and I thought it stunk. It didn’t help that I am not a huge Milla Jovavich fan (I prefer Olga Kuryalenko) and Paul W.S. Anderson’s films have been hit or miss; However, I am a big fan of Barbarian and Weapons directed by Zach Cregger, and as a result, I decided to overcome my trepidations by seeing this new version.

I should also note that I am really not a big fan of movies based on video games because, to me, that just reeks of pure laziness of thought. Nevertheless, because this film has gotten good reviews, I went into it hoping that it was going to be better than that fucking PlayStation movie that came out about a year and a half ago, Until Dawn. So there.

And it was. By a wide margin.

Bryan is taking a medical package to a hospital. He is distracted by an argument with his girlfriend over the phone and hits a woman who runs out from nowhere, whom he decides to take to the hospital, but he’s stopped by a sheriff who puts the woman in his cruiser and tells Bryan to follow him. The sheriff’s car flips and the woman attacks Bryan who takes the sheriff’s service revolver and kills his car engine in the process. Things get bad from there.

In my mind, the movie has three things going for it. First of all, there’s the terrific direction by Zach Cregger, who, as he showed us with Weapons, knows how to direct a horror film. He knows the comedy beats that are necessary in a film of this type. Unlike Weapons and Barbarian, this film just rolls through from one setup to the next in a linear fashion. There are no back stories, no interwoven tales that give you information at the writer-director’s whim. It is a brilliant use of restricted narration – in that you know what Bryan does. 

In addition, Cregger wrote this movie so that if Capcom did not license him to make the movie he could have made it as a standalone film. Which is probably why this movie has an 83 Metascore rating and the other Resident Evil movies have scores in the 30s and 40s. 

Second, the cinematography by Dariusz Wolski is absolutely first rate and thoroughly gives a fresh perspective on the horror film adapted from the video game genre. While there were first person shooter sequences, they were very few, but the wondrous thing was how Wolski manages to switch from the first-person view to the normal movie character view, especially in the Sky Bridge sequence. It really is a wonderful job and especially considering that most of the movie takes place outdoors at night the film does not play as dark as some other films but is rather lit darkly. There are likely other shots that mirror those in the Resident Evil games but I am, fortunately, unaware of these. 

Third, and I think the most crucial element of all, was the casting of Austin Abrams as Bryan. Abrams had a terrific turn as James the Junkie in Weapons and he was really funny there and he really got to show his acting skills and comedic skills in this film. He was, without a doubt, the perfect choice to lead this movie. He has a kind of nervous energy that enables him to make explicit his interior monologue without it seeming out of place.

There were a couple of other familiar faces popping up in the film; however, they show up in cameo roles and me not knowing that they were in the film added to my enjoyment, so I shall not spoil it for you.

But the action sequences were excellent and well-constructed especially the scene where Bryan must evade the infected who jump from the tops of roofs — a scene that nearly killed Abrams! The set direction in the Czech Republic was excellent and the visual effects showing the destruction of racoon City were really well done. 

Cregger seems to get great joy in compounding Brian’s misery, but of course that’s the nature of video games. You think you beat one obstacle and, goddamit, you realize that there are four other obstacles ahead of you. However, I’m not the guy to talk because the last first-person shooter I played was Doom. On my personal computer.

My biggest criticism is that this movie explicitly sets itself up for a sequel, a sequel that we knew was coming, but which did not have to be rubbed in our faces. There could’ve been a better resolution of the film that closes the loop for this story and still left the possibility of a sequel open. The way this movie ended there might as well have been a sign that said, “Resident Evil 2 Coming Soon to a Theater near You”.

Quite frankly that’s horseshit especially since Cregger explicitly said that this will serve as his first and last foray into franchise filmmaking. So why not close the loop, pal?

I thought the first hour of the film was the best part of it and I thought the third act kind of dragged and lacked the humor of the first hour — a fan service thing that I think was a mistake on Cregger’s part, removing a lot of jokes after a test screening – so that is the metric upon which I will rate this movie.

For people who do not like horror movies, I think you can safely skip this movie – there is more than the requisite level of blood and guts.

But, for those who like the blood and guts or those on the fence, I think you should…. 

WATCH IT!

Michael Fried has no formal training in movies, except having watched over 26,000+ movies — if not more — in his 60-plus years on this planet, starting with Goldfinger as his first cinema experience. He knows what he likes and he knows what he doesn’t like, and it’s quite often different from the conventional wisdom. He knows that the best franchise is Godzilla and he loves action movies and comedies. He has not been nominated for any awards except some boring insurance awards which has no applicability to movies (with the possible exceptions of Billy Wilder’s Double Indemnity and John Cassavettes’ Big Trouble). He is part of a team that won the 1980 SUNY Albany Trivia content by correctly guessing the question, “Who played the president of Klopstockia in Million Dollar Legs?” So he has that going for him, which is nice.

Contact Mike at moviemike3@gmail.com