Resident Evil May Have Finally Cracked the Video Game Movie Code

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil has finally hit theaters, and early reviews suggest the franchise may have found its strongest big-screen entry yet.

The new film has earned a 96% Certified Fresh rating on Rotten Tomatoes, while CBR gave it a 9 out of 10. That makes it one of the most critically successful Resident Evil movies ever released.

But the bigger story may be how the film handles its video game roots.

Rather than directly adapting one of Capcom’s games, Cregger created a new story set inside the Resident Evil universe. That decision made some longtime fans nervous. Would it still feel like the games without familiar characters such as Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, Jill Valentine or Chris Redfield?

According to the early response, the answer appears to be yes.

It Feels Like You’re Playing Resident Evil

One of the movie’s biggest strengths is that it doesn’t simply copy a game’s story. Instead, it tries to recreate the experience of actually playing one.

Austin Abrams stars as Bryan, a character who finds himself navigating increasingly dangerous situations while trying to survive with limited resources.

The movie even uses first-person and third-person camera angles during certain action sequences, making Bryan’s journey feel more like gameplay.

And the film clearly knows what longtime Resident Evil players expect.

There are locked doors.

There are puzzles.

There are limited supplies.

There are strange keys.

There are rooms that feel suspiciously like the safe rooms gamers have relied on for decades.

Bryan searches for items, struggles with puzzles and occasionally seems just as confused as a player entering a new Resident Evil game for the first time.

At one point, he even jokes that he is terrible with guns because his only experience using them comes from video games.

It is funny, but it also shows exactly what Cregger is trying to accomplish.

He isn’t recreating Resident Evil 2 or Resident Evil 4 scene by scene.

He is recreating the feeling of playing Resident Evil.

A New Story May Have Been the Right Move

The movie franchise has experimented with original stories before.

Paul W.S. Anderson’s six-film Resident Evil series starring Milla Jovovich created its own lead character, Alice, while borrowing monsters, locations and characters from the games.

Then 2021’s Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City attempted something much closer to the original games.

Neither approach completely satisfied everyone.

Cregger appears to have found a different path.

Instead of trying to squeeze decades of complicated Resident Evil mythology into a two-hour movie, he uses the world Capcom created and tells another story inside it.

That gives the filmmakers freedom.

The Resident Evil universe includes corporations, viruses, monsters, underground laboratories and entire cities falling apart. There is plenty of room for new characters without rewriting the adventures fans already know.

And honestly, the games don’t necessarily need to be recreated shot-for-shot.

Modern Resident Evil titles — especially Capcom’s recent remakes — already deliver extremely cinematic experiences. Translating those exact stories into movies could actually remove one of the things that makes them special: the player.

When you play Resident Evil, you are the person opening the mysterious door.

You are the one deciding whether to use your last shotgun shell.

You are the one staring at a strange statue wondering where the missing piece goes.

A movie cannot recreate that interaction perfectly.

But it can recreate the tension.

And that appears to be exactly what Cregger understood

This Could Change Video Game Movies

For years, Hollywood seemed convinced that adapting a video game meant copying its characters and storyline as closely as possible.

Resident Evil suggests another option.

Use the world.

Use the rules.

Use the atmosphere.

Then tell a new story.

Cregger’s film reportedly exists comfortably alongside the games without interfering with them. Events involving characters like Leon and Claire could theoretically be happening somewhere else in the same universe.

The movie simply follows someone different.

That could be an important lesson for future adaptations.

Not every video game movie needs to recreate something gamers have already experienced.

Sometimes audiences may just want another adventure inside a world they already love.

And if the early reviews are any indication, Resident Evil may have finally figured out how to do exactly that.

Resident Evil is now playing in theaters.