By: Gian Garmendia
Typically, video game movies are usually completely for the fans of said video games, often lacking a good story, characters, or you know, things that make a good movie. The Five Nights at Freddy’s movies, the Super Mario Galaxy movie, and other video game movies encapsulate this. The movies lack impactful or interesting stories, while simply throwing in niche references and cameos from the games so the fans can point at the screen with wide eyes. As someone who loves video games, this disappoints me. But Resident Evil (2026) did this differently.
If you didn’t know, Resident Evil is a very popular action survival horror franchise with over ten games in entry. It’s known for its zombie-apocalypse focused narrative, fluid action (highlighted most in RE games 5 and 6) and horror elements with deformed monsters that were of course once human (RE 7 having the highest level of horror in the franchise, due to its unique first person point of view). Resident Evil is a staple among the zombie genre, so it wouldn’t be a surprise that a movie based on the franchise would have a lot of traction. As for the movie itself, it’s perfectly demonstrates and authenticizes what makes Resident Evil iconic, in a movie art form.
Firstly, the main character of a Resident Evil game is quite important. There are many iconic characters that could end up being the star of the main plot line or their own side plot line, such as Leon Kennedy, Jill Valentine, Chris or Claire Redfield, Ada Wong, or Carlos Oliveira. However, the thing all of these characters have in common, is their extreme combat capabilities, that only get better as the games progress. While the combat can be flashy like Resident Evil 6, the excessive combat can make the game lose its horror factor.
Enter Resident Evil 7 and 8. In this game, a regular dude travels through a family madhouse to save his wife. That’s it. Ethan Winter (the regular dude) doesn’t have combat training, he’s not genetically enhanced (until you get to later in the game), and he overall feels like he’s experiencing everything for the first time. He’s relatable, in all of his “What the fuck is that?!” lines and “Fuck fuck fuck!” lines. In that sense, we share the horror with him. We ourselves don’t know what’s happening, nor are we prepared for it. The reason I mention Ethan is because the protagonist for the movie, Bryan, is equally completely clueless as to the current state of the world during the T-virus outbreak.
Bryan is a regular dude, a courier trying to make some money to support his fiancée and on-the-way baby. Throughout the movie, Bryan also curses like a sailor, fumbles with firearms in an attempt to defend himself, and at a certain point seems indifferent to the amount of horrifying things he’s dealing with. It’s comedic how eventually he just seems bored of it all, but he also has moments where he’s pumped with adrenaline and strategically defeats these monsters in order to survive. Just like any other Joe Shmoe. Despite a good clean slate main character, the movie offers many other things involving its filming elements and story progression.
First, the camera angles in this movie have so many call backs to the games in the way its shot. It’s not direct but it’s amazing when you finally notice it. The shots where Bryan is walking through the snow, his body shown in a third person POV on the left side of the screen, is nearly one-to-one with how the games are presented. The zoom in whenever Bryan has to make a sharp shot with a gun is equal to quick time events within the games. Not only that, but the unraveling and increasing-in-scale of the threats and equipment Bryan encounters throughout the movie is great.
It starts with a crash, Bryan meets an officer, the officer dies to the first sign of a zombie Bryan witnesses, Bryan has to take the officers pistol to shoot the zombie. Level 1 complete. Next Bryan finds an infected dog, which he has to “complete a QTE” to escape it and end its afterlife. He searches a house and finds a shotgun, when he then encounters another zombie and literally blows their head off. Then the two killed zombies combine to create a multi-limbed zombie that’s rolls and crawls around (in which the CGI was actually done by real people which is also very impressive by the director) in which Bryan has to completely run away, enhancing the horror element.
The horror in this movie is also very apparent, the amount of jumpscares and body horror were creative and interesting for a video game movie in which you think you would be there to just enjoy. And then POP. Zombies can be scary apparently, not outdated yet. To contrast said horror, the comedy in this movie helps make it feel campy. Where it isn’t go go go all the way through and has small moments of irony, which brings another sense of realism to the film. Yes I would happily eat a family’s entire box of cereal when I realize no one’s home. I would do that in my own house.
Overall, this movie was a really fun and great watch. It did its own thing while still being in the same universe as Resident Evil. Yet it felt like a brand new story. I’m glad video game movies are feeling more interesting and authentic to where they come from, and not just a bunch of hints to make fans happy. Movies are MOVIES, give them a story, no? In my opinion, this movie is an 8/10.
