Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Officially Claims the Title of Best-Reviewed Video Game Movie Ever

Franchise curses have a way of following certain properties for decades, and few carry a more notorious critical track record than this particular survival horror series. Across six previous theatrical outings, the original ‘Resident Evil‘ film franchise never managed to crack even 40 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, with 2021’s ‘Welcome to Raccoon City’ reboot faring even worse at just 30 percent, continuing a two-decade pattern of critical disappointment.

Zach Cregger arrived at this new attempt with genuine momentum behind him, having built a reputation for elevated, genuinely terrifying horror through both ‘Barbarian’ and his Oscar-winning film ‘Weapons.’ Rather than simply attaching his name to an existing franchise for a quick paycheck, Cregger built an entirely original story from scratch, personally pitching the concept to Capcom while promising fans a project rooted in genuine love for the source material.

That approach has now officially broken the franchise’s long-standing critical curse. Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ has settled at 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes based on 69 reviews, making it not just the best-reviewed ‘Resident Evil’ film ever released theatrically, but officially the highest-rated video game movie adaptation of all time.

The scale of this achievement becomes clearer when measured against the format’s other major theatrical successes. That 96 percent figure surpasses titles like 2023’s ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 3’ at 86 percent, 2021’s ‘Werewolves Within’ at 86 percent, and this year’s ‘Mortal Kombat II’ at 64 percent, along with ‘Sonic the Hedgehog 2,’ ‘Pokémon Detective Pikachu,’ and ‘Gran Turismo,’ all of which topped out well below Cregger’s new benchmark.

Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ is now the highest-rated video game adaptation ever with 96% on Rotten Tomatoes 🍅 🧟‍♂️ https://t.co/qib6VspUYz

— Culture Crave 🍿 (@CultureCrave) September 16, 2026

It’s worth noting that a handful of smaller-scale animated ‘Resident Evil’ entries, including 2012’s ‘Damnation,’ technically hold perfect 100 percent scores on Rotten Tomatoes, though those releases never received the same wide theatrical push or critical attention as major studio releases like Cregger’s version. Within the franchise’s live-action theatrical history specifically, this new film stands alone as the most acclaimed entry by a significant margin.

The first trailer for Zach Cregger's ‘RESIDENT EVIL’ has been released.

In theaters on September 18. pic.twitter.com/eeVCAGzy6M

— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 30, 2026

Reviews backing up that score have been consistently glowing. Variety’s Jordan Moreau praised the film directly on social media, calling it one of the best video game adaptations and one of the best horror movies in recent memory, specifically highlighting star Austin Abrams’s performance. Fellow critic Mark Cassidy echoed that sentiment, writing that Cregger “delivered the most faithful take yet” and calling it “easily among the best video game adaptations” he’d seen.

To put the 96 percent score in even broader context, it now sits alongside some of the strongest recent video game adaptations across any medium, including HBO’s ‘The Last of Us’ Season 1, which also debuted at 96 percent from critics, and Amazon’s ‘Fallout,’ which landed at 92 percent. Landing in that same tier represents a genuinely rare accomplishment for a theatrical film built around this kind of source material, a format that’s historically struggled to earn this level of consistent critical respect.

With the film opening in theaters September 18, this critical reception arrives at exactly the right moment to build momentum heading into its wide release. For a franchise that spent over two decades searching for cinematic legitimacy across seven previous attempts, Cregger’s willingness to build something original while staying genuinely faithful to what made the games resonate appears to have finally cracked a code that had eluded Hollywood for years.

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