Quick TakeArticle at a glance
- Resident Evil reactions are rolling in, and they're kind to Zach Cregger's reboot: critics who saw it at Tuesday's world premiere are calling it the best movie the Capcom games have ever gotten.
- PT Wednesday, and it turns out Hollywood has been sitting on some genuinely good news about a franchise that's never really had any.
- Critic Eric Goldman didn't bury the lede: “Resident Evil is a blast!
Resident Evil reactions are rolling in, and they’re kind to Zach Cregger’s reboot: critics who saw it at Tuesday’s world premiere are calling it the best movie the Capcom games have ever gotten. The film stars Austin Abrams and hits theaters worldwide September 18, 2026, after Wednesday morning’s review embargo lifted.
The embargo broke at 9 a.m. PT Wednesday, and it turns out Hollywood has been sitting on some genuinely good news about a franchise that’s never really had any. Yahoo Entertainment and NME compiled the first wave of critic reactions Tuesday night, right after Resident Evil‘s world premiere at The United Theater in Los Angeles, and by Wednesday morning the consensus reads less like a horror movie write-up and more like a victory lap.
What Critics Are Actually Saying
Critic Eric Goldman didn’t bury the lede: “Resident Evil is a blast! Unrelenting once it gets going.” Courtney Howard went further, writing that “Zach Cregger is cookin’ with napalm. It’s a wild, hilarious, unpredictably bonkers thrill ride.” Tom Chatalbash called it “by far and away the best use of the IP yet.” And Zach Pope said it’s “a near PERFECT Resident Evil experience,” singling out the “INCREDIBLE creature designs.”
Cregger, for his part, has been talking about the project less like a franchise assignment and more like a passion project. “It is coming from a true place of love,” he said of his approach to the material — and after Barbarian and Weapons, that tracks. This is a filmmaker who’s earned the benefit of the doubt.
Worth noting: none of these are staff reviews from a single outlet’s official critic page yet. They’re premiere-night reactions, the kind that go up on social media within an hour of the credits rolling, while embargoed written reviews are still being filed throughout Wednesday. That distinction matters for how much weight to put on any of this today — but it also means the sample size is already bigger than a handful of quotes, and the tone across it is consistent.
Not Everyone’s Fully On Board
It’s not a unanimous rave, and that’s worth saying plainly. Joey Magidson praised the movie’s momentum but flagged real reservations about how it wraps up. Premiere-night reactions are first impressions, not a settled verdict, and one qualified take among a wave of raves is a healthy reminder of that.
Cregger’s Resident Evil Might Finally Break the Franchise’s Curse
Here’s the part that makes this more than another positive buzz cycle: no live-action Resident Evil movie has ever gone Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes. Not once, across six movies and fourteen years. The Milla Jovovich era topped out at 38% with The Final Chapter in 2016, and that’s the high-water mark for the whole franchise.
| Film | Year | Rotten Tomatoes Score |
|---|---|---|
| Resident Evil | 2002 | 36% |
| Resident Evil: Apocalypse | 2004 | 18% |
| Resident Evil: Extinction | 2007 | 24% |
| Resident Evil: Afterlife | 2010 | 21% |
| Resident Evil: Retribution | 2012 | 28% |
| Resident Evil: The Final Chapter | 2016 | 38% |
| Resident Evil (Cregger, 2026) | 2026 | 82% predicted (Kalshi, Sept. 14) — not a final score |
As of Monday, September 14, prediction market Kalshi had traders pricing an 82% chance the new film lands a Fresh rating — more than double the franchise’s previous ceiling. That’s a market prediction, not a published Tomatometer score: real reviews are only just landing today, and nobody should treat 82% as official yet. But four enthusiastic raves to one qualified take, on premiere night, is a ratio this franchise has simply never produced before. If that holds once the full review count comes in, a series that has spent a quarter-century as a punchline for lazy game-to-movie adaptations finally gets to be the exception.
Why did the curse last so long in the first place? The Jovovich films were built as action movies wearing Resident Evil’s name, chasing sequels over story logic, and critics punished that for six straight tries. Cregger built his reputation on the opposite instinct — Barbarian and Weapons both worked because he trusted a premise to get stranger and scarier instead of diluting it for a wider audience. Handing a horror-comedy specialist the keys to a zombie franchise that had drifted into pure spectacle is the kind of swap that either flops spectacularly or fixes the whole problem. Premiere night says it’s the second one.
Why Cregger Skipped a Straight Game Adaptation
Cregger wrote and directed this one himself, and instead of remaking a specific Resident Evil game beat for beat, he built an original story that runs parallel to the events of Resident Evil 2. Austin Abrams leads the cast as Bryan, a character invented for the film rather than pulled from the games. Comic Book Co covered the first practical-gore footage from this version back at State of Play — you can see that first movie clip breakdown here.
It’s a similar bet to what The Last of Us made on television: trust the source material’s tone enough to tell a story next to it instead of just transcribing the plot. Cregger isn’t the only director making that bet this year, either — Street Fighter’s 2026 movie is running its own version of the same experiment.
When and Where You Can See It
Resident Evil plays Fantastic Fest on September 17 before opening in theaters worldwide on September 18, 2026. If the wide-release reaction holds anywhere close to premiere night, this is shaping up to be the weekend the franchise’s reputation actually turns around.
Full reviews are landing on Rotten Tomatoes throughout the day, and you can find the original premiere-night reaction roundup via Yahoo Entertainment. The 82% Fresh prediction comes from traders on Kalshi’s prediction market, recorded September 14, 2026.
Frequently Asked Questions
When does the new Resident Evil movie come out?
It opens in theaters worldwide on September 18, 2026, after an additional screening at Fantastic Fest on September 17.
Who stars in Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil?
Austin Abrams leads the cast as Bryan, a character created for this film. The story runs parallel to the events of Resident Evil 2 rather than adapting it directly.
Is the new Resident Evil movie based on a specific game?
Not directly. Cregger wrote an original story set alongside Resident Evil 2’s timeline rather than remaking that game’s plot scene for scene.
Has a Resident Evil movie ever gone Fresh on Rotten Tomatoes?
No. All six prior live-action films missed Fresh, with The Final Chapter’s 38% in 2016 standing as the franchise’s best score to date.
What are critics saying about the new Resident Evil?
The premiere-night reaction has been overwhelmingly positive, with critics like Eric Goldman, Courtney Howard, Tom Chatalbash and Zach Pope praising it, though Joey Magidson flagged reservations about the ending.
