Resident Evil (2026): A Gloriously Gross-Out Return to Raccoon City

Zach Cregger, fresh off the success of Barbarian and Weapons, takes the reins of the Resident Evil franchise and delivers something the series hasn't managed in over two decades: a movie that actually feels like playing the games. Rather than dragging along the Umbrella Corporation lore or trying to shoehorn in Chris Redfield-style mythology, Cregger strips the story down to something primal — an ordinary person thrown into an extraordinary nightmare, which is exactly the sensation the games have always traded on.

The plot is lean by design. Bryan, a medical courier played with wide-eyed, increasingly desperate energy by Austin Abrams, takes a high-paying gig to deliver a package to a hospital in Raccoon City on the same night his girlfriend tells him she's pregnant. Naturally, the city has just become ground zero for a viral outbreak, and what follows is a tight, adrenaline-soaked 90 minutes of Bryan trying to survive the night. It's a simple premise, but Cregger uses that simplicity as a strength, keeping the pace relentless and the tension unbroken.

What makes the film stand out is its tonal balance. Cregger's background in sketch comedy shows through in perfectly timed comic beats that punctuate the horror without ever undercutting it — you're laughing one moment and recoiling the next. And the horror itself doesn't hold back: the infected are rendered with genuinely stomach-churning body horror, all tentacles, extra eyes, and grotesque mutation, delivering the kind of gross-out spectacle longtime fans of the games have been waiting for a movie to actually commit to.

If there's a knock against it, it's that the film doesn't have much on its mind beyond visceral thrills — the narrative is fairly surprise-free once the initial premise is set in motion, and it's not interested in saying anything particularly deep. But that's almost beside the point. This is a movie built for pure sensation: stressful, funny, disgusting, and thoroughly entertaining in roughly equal measure.

In the end, Resident Evil (2026) succeeds precisely because it stops trying to be a faithful adaptation of a story and instead becomes a faithful adaptation of a feeling — the specific dread and dark comedy of watching an ordinary night collapse into chaos. It's not just the best Resident Evil film to date; it's a strong argument for how video game movies should be made going forward.

Xinemas Rating: ★★★★☆ (4/5)

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