Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Reboot Scores a Stunning Rotten Tomatoes Score, Breaking the Franchise’s Curse

Video game movies have spent decades carrying one of Hollywood’s most notorious reputations for disappointing adaptations, with even the most beloved franchises regularly stumbling when translated to the big screen. The original ‘Resident Evil’ film series was no exception, delivering six installments that leaned heavily into action spectacle while largely abandoning the survival horror tension that defined Capcom’s games in the first place.

Zach Cregger arrived at this reboot with genuine credibility to spare, having just come off the critical and commercial success of ‘Barbarian’ and ‘Weapons.’ Rather than simply slapping the franchise’s name onto an unrelated story, Cregger built an entirely original narrative from the ground up, personally approaching Capcom to pitch his own take on the material while promising it would be “definitely the most violent thing” he’d ever made.

That gamble has paid off in genuinely stunning fashion. Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ has debuted to a 98% score on Rotten Tomatoes based on 56 reviews, an almost unthinkable result for a franchise that’s historically struggled to earn even mild critical goodwill, let alone this level of near-universal acclaim.

The reviews backing up that score are just as effusive as the number itself suggests. Metacritic’s aggregate currently sits at a “Generally Favorable” 79, based on 20 critic reviews running 90% positive. Polygon’s Jake Kleinman praised how Cregger channeled his love for both the franchise and the genre into something audiences haven’t really seen before, calling the film funny, scary, gross, and beautiful, while specifically highlighting how it captures the fight-or-flight feeling of actually playing a ‘Resident Evil’ game.

TheWrap’s William Bibbiani offered perhaps the most striking praise of all, noting that despite directing an Oscar-winning horror movie previously, it’s this video game adaptation, the project that seemed to carry every “sell out” red flag imaginable, that’s turned out to be Cregger’s best film yet. IGN’s review similarly praised the film’s laser focus on putting protagonist Bryan through the worst night of his life, crediting star Austin Abrams for bringing genuine charm to a character dragged through a hellish gauntlet of well-realized mutants and monsters.

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

Not every reaction has been purely glowing. Tom’s Guide’s review, while still landing at four out of five stars, offered a more nuanced take, calling the film officially the best video game movie ever made while simultaneously arguing it’s also Cregger’s weakest work to date, a distinction that speaks more to how strong his previous films have been than any real shortcoming here.

The film follows Bryan, a medical courier played by Abrams, whose ordinary night spirals into chaos when he becomes trapped in an outbreak-fueled fight for survival, joined by co-stars Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser. Cregger has been candid about test screenings flagging early cuts as leaning too heavily into comedy, prompting him to rebalance the film toward the horror elements now earning such widespread praise.

CBR’s review landed at a full 9 out of 10, specifically praising how the film balances pulse-pounding terror with dark humor without letting either element undercut the other, while calling Abrams’s performance excellent and the film’s constant homages to the games a genuine strength rather than a hollow marketing gimmick.

With the film opening in theaters September 18 following a Fantastic Fest premiere the night before, ‘Resident Evil’ now carries the weight of near-unanimous critical enthusiasm heading into its wide release. For a franchise that’s spent over two decades searching for cinematic legitimacy, Cregger’s willingness to build something genuinely original while staying faithful to what made the games resonate in the first place appears to have finally cracked the code.

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