Critic Reviews

Cregger’s formal mastery continues to evolve through what is essentially a creature spectacular designed to satisfyingly scare, tickle and gross us out.

It’s honestly shocking how funny this movie is — even more so that that humor doesn’t distract from the horror. Resident Evil never stops being scary, but it rarely stops making you laugh.

It’s a thriller that’s as funny as it is jumpy, with a remarkable number of jokes rooted simply in Abrams either shrieking in fear or muttering with incredulity. Cregger weaponizes comedy not only as an irrepressible reflex, but as a tool: If horror is about tension and release, he sees the relief of a laugh the same way he might a scream.

Resident Evil is, hands down, one of the single best video-game screen adaptations to date, yet works in a way that doesn’t feel like an adaptation, doesn’t rely on fan service and Easter-egg hunts to pay homage, and doesn’t skimp on the dynamics that made the game so endlessly playable.

If you’re not already a fan of the franchise, you’ll find a fun, frenetic and gory horror that’s likely Cregger's best yet, with some standout moments of brain-bending body horror. If you’re a longtime fan of the series, you’ll find exactly the same experience whilst also being able to recognise the other layer of why and how everything’s unfolding.

Cregger takes his love for both the franchise and the genre and channels them into something we've never really seen before. Resident Evil is funny, scary, gross, and beautiful. Above all else, it captures the fight-or-flight experience of actually playing a Resident Evil game.

This is the most John Carpenter-inspired film I've ever seen, but it reflects the style of the filmmaker so clearly that it's unmistakably by the same auteur behind Barbarian and Weapons. Clever in its cinematography, audacious in its horror, and bluntly hilarious through its dim-witted protagonist – seriously, the cheer of "Yeah! Video games!" at a climactic moment is primed to be memed – Resident Evil is kind of everything I hoped it would be.

Filled with baroque gore and wildly imaginative set pieces delivered at a feverish pace, Resident Evil transcends its simplistic premise with the sort of cinematic wit and flair for which the filmmaker has been justly acclaimed.

It’s the ideal midnight movie, an adroit balance of the funny and the macabre, the frightening and the ridiculous.

As hilarious as it is unnerving, it’s the rare video game-based film to rock from breakneck start to insane finish.