It was a massive weekend at the box office for the venerable horror franchise, Resident Evil. The new film from writer/director Zach Cregger opened with $60 million at the box office, the biggest opening for any film in the series, and more money than a lot of the previous films made in their runs. Apart from the money, though, what’s even more exciting is that Resident Evil is an excellent horror film, arguably the greatest in the series.
Here’s the logline: From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger (Weapons, Barbarian) comes a thrilling — and terrifying — reinvention of the Resident Evil franchise. In an all-new story, Resident Evil follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
As I’ve mentioned previously, when it comes to horror movies, I’m an easy mark. Throw some jump scares my way and I’m in. Well, Cregger’s movie has some very, very good jump scares that not only made me jump, but also made me yelp a few times. I’m sure the dude sitting next to me got a laugh out of that.
Resident Evil‘s strength is that it runs a tight 90 minutes and doesn’t let up from the get-go. We hit the road with Abrams’ Bryan on a quest to deliver a bag to Raccoon City. Within minutes, he hits someone with his car, essentially setting up the film. Bryan moves through a farmhouse, tunnels, deserted city streets and more, pursued by various monsters both new and familiar. Cregger has set up Resident Evil in such a way that you feel like you’re experiencing the video games – in first- and third-person versions. While the vocal minority online initially balked that this film wasn’t going to be an adaptation of any of the many video games, what we get here is even better – a new story set in the world we love. None of this would matter, mind you, if we didn’t care about our main character; thankfully, Austin Abrams does outstanding work as Bryan. He keeps us engaged throughout the film, and we want to see him succeed.
As soon as I got home from the movies, I hopped onto my Nintendo Switch 2 to continue my Resident Evil fill. A few months back, we saw the release of Resident Evil Requiem, an excellent new instalment in the series. You can read my review here. At the same time, the two previous titles, Resident Evil: Biohazard and Resident Evil: Village, made their arrivals on the platform. I’d been holding off on reviewing until 31 Days of Horror in October, but over the last few weeks I’ve been playing through Biohazard. Having experienced it a few times over the years, let me tell you: it absolutely remains one of, if not the scariest games I have ever played.
Resident Evil Biohazard continues to be fantastic on Nintendo Switch 2. It hasn’t missed a step moving from previous consoles and Steam. I’ve mainly been playing with the system docked, and it looks as good as you’d hope on a 4K television. If you’ve never played the game on any system and you have a Switch 2, I can highly recommend picking up the title now. The jump scares are plenty, and they continue to work, whether or not you’ve played the game before. I’ll have my thoughts on Resident Evil Village when Halloween hits in just a few weeks.
Whether it’s at the movies or on your console, clearly we Resident Evil fans have been spoiled for monsters in 2026. Now excuse me as I try to escape the Baker Family in Biohazard. Wish me luck.
