Turning a video game into a movie means taking an interactive experience and making it something audiences can watch. Too often, adaptations change so much of the source material that longtime fans are left wondering what the film has to do with the game at all.
Zach Cregger’s “Resident Evil” was released in theaters Sept. 18, 2026, and takes a different approach to the classic video game. As a fan of the franchise himself, Cregger understands that faithfully adapting “Resident Evil” is about capturing exactly what it’s like to play it, rather than recreating the story we’re already familiar with.
The film follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier sent to Raccoon City General Hospital to deliver a package. Everything turns upside down when Bryan is suddenly thrust into an outbreak of infected monsters.
Rather than including one of the franchise’s recognizable protagonists, Cregger created Bryan as an ordinary man thrown into the horrific, unimaginable world of “Resident Evil.” This gives the audience a way to experience the film from the same perspective as the player.
Cregger recreates the tension through the film’s atmosphere by using dim lighting, claustrophobic spaces and eerie sound design. It makes the world feel unfamiliar and threatening, similar to the way exploring an unknown area in a “Resident Evil” game can make even an empty hallway feel unsafe.
This is especially important with a survival horror game series like “Resident Evil” where part of the fear comes from feeling vulnerable and having to carefully manage your resources.
With Bryan, Cregger created a character that enables the audience to be a part of that experience from the outside. He’s not a highly trained hero like the classic video game protagonists who know how to handle monsters. Bryan is the person sitting down playing the game for the first time.
This is shown in the way that Bryan initially starts off struggling to use a gun and questions the bizarre puzzles he encounters. He also points out the absurdity of things that longtime players have simply accepted as part of the “Resident Evil” experience, with Austin Abrams bringing his hilarious yet genuinely terrified reactions to life.
Like the player, he enters a horrifying world without knowing its rules, gradually learning how to survive and becoming more confident as he gains experience and resources. This mirrors the way one would become more comfortable playing a “Resident Evil” game, by learning when to fight, when to run and how to make limited resources last.
Cregger can’t give the audience Bryan’s inventory screen or a health bar, but still makes those resources important. By repeatedly drawing attention to the number of bullets Bryan has, as well as his injuries and his abilities, the film recreates a player’s constant awareness of their own limited resources and skills.
Bryan’s progression and growing confidence doesn’t make the world around him any less scary, it simply shows that he learns how to live in it. Early in the film, every new threat becomes completely overwhelming because he doesn’t know how to deal with it.
As he becomes more familiar with the dangers around him, he grows more competent in defending himself and is more willing to take risks. He becomes aware of what he needs to do to survive, much like the way a player develops throughout the games.
That’s what makes Cregger’s adaptation successful. He doesn’t need to recreate the exact storyline of a “Resident Evil” game. He understands the feelings that come from playing one and translates that into the film with Bryan as the protagonist.
For that, I highly recommend “Resident Evil” for both fans of the games, and those who aren’t, because the experience of the source material is effectively conveyed either way.
“Resident Evil” is rated R for strong bloody violence, gore and language throughout. The film contains frequent graphic violence, disturbing imagery and strong profanity, so viewers who are sensitive to those elements may want to keep that in mind.
“Resident Evil” is currently in theaters. For more information about the film, visit the official Sony Pictures website.
Author: Charlee Steed
Photo: Courtesy of Sony Pictures
Editor: Briar Adams
eic@suunews.net
