HOLLYWOOD — After turning heads with Barbarian and Weapons, filmmaker Zach Cregger is taking on one of gaming’s most recognizable horror franchises with a new Resident Evil movie that aims to capture the experience of playing the games, rather than simply retelling their stories.
The film, starring Austin Abrams, arrives in theaters on September 18, 2026, with Cregger attempting to give the long-running video-game adaptation a distinctly survival-horror identity.
A New Story Inside the Resident Evil World
Instead of centering the movie on familiar protagonists such as Leon S. Kennedy, Cregger created a new lead character, Bryan, played by Abrams.
Bryan is a medical courier who finds himself caught in a terrifying outbreak while making a delivery near Raccoon City. He is not presented as an elite action hero. His relative lack of preparation is central to the story, putting the audience alongside an ordinary person trying to survive an increasingly dangerous situation.
Cregger has explained that he wanted to avoid simply reproducing stories that players already know from the games. Instead, the film uses familiar elements of the franchise while creating its own cinematic narrative.
Cregger Wanted the Movie to Feel Like a Game
One of the most notable features of the new film is its attempt to translate the ethos of the video games into cinema.
Reviews have highlighted sequences that resemble the structure of a game, with Bryan moving through increasingly dangerous environments and encountering different threats along the way. The film also incorporates recognizable Resident Evil ideas while giving them a new context.
Cregger has cited different entries in the franchise as influences, including Resident Evil 4 for its scale and later games such as Resident Evil 7, Village and Requiem for their emphasis on horror.
That approach gives the movie a different goal from simply recreating a particular game: make audiences feel as if they have entered a Resident Evil scenario themselves.
Horror, Humor and a Reluctant Hero
The film also carries Cregger’s established combination of horror and dark humor.
AP’s review describes Abrams’ Bryan as an everyman caught in an escalating nightmare, while The Verge notes that the movie combines survival-horror tension with comedic moments.
Cregger reportedly adjusted the balance during production after test audiences felt the film was too comedic. The director ultimately reduced some of the jokes to preserve the tension and horror atmosphere.
The result is intended to keep the audience uneasy without abandoning the occasional humor that has become part of Cregger’s filmmaking style.
A Different Direction for the Franchise
The new Resident Evil also represents a departure from previous live-action movie adaptations.
Rather than building the story around an established movie protagonist, Cregger focuses on Bryan and his struggle to understand what is happening around him.
That choice allows the movie to introduce newcomers to the world without requiring them to know the entire history of the games.
At the same time, longtime players can look for familiar creatures, locations, visual references and other connections to Capcom’s franchise. Reviews have noted the presence of Easter eggs while describing the film as accessible to people who have not played the games.
Why Gamers Are Watching Closely
Video-game adaptations have increasingly become a major part of Hollywood’s film and television landscape, but Resident Evil presents a particular challenge because the games already have a distinctive cinematic language.
Cregger’s approach is therefore less about copying the games frame-for-frame and more about translating their survival, exploration, escalating danger and darkly strange atmosphere into a standalone movie.
That philosophy could make the film feel familiar to longtime players while giving the franchise room to tell a new story.
With Resident Evil arriving September 18, the question is no longer whether Cregger can reproduce a particular game.
It’s whether he can make movie audiences feel like they’re playing one.
WWC ONE MEDIA G,A
