Lede
Resident Evil discovers that sometimes the bloke looking terrified by the monster is more entertaining than the monster itself.
Hermit Off Script
Resident Evil was fun for me mainly because I enjoyed Bryan’s reactions to what was happening more than I cared about the actual events happening around him. There is something refreshing about watching a character who looks as if nobody warned him that he had been cast in Resident Evil. Austin Abrams does not play Bryan like the apocalypse has finally given him his true calling. He looks confused, frightened, occasionally ridiculous and generally like a normal person having an exceptionally bad delivery shift.
At the beginning, though, I made the usual assumption: this is the one character carrying almost the whole film, so obviously nothing is really going to touch him. Cinema has trained us well. If the camera follows one bloke for 95 minutes while everybody around him is being converted into biological modern art, you start assuming he has been issued the standard invisible main-character warranty. The enjoyable part is that Bryan never really behaves as though he knows he has one. He reacts first and becomes heroic only when survival leaves him no better option.
Then we get to that human-eating carnival monster. Bloody hell. It is not terrible, but I am not sure “scary” was the emotion it produced. I spent more time wondering who looked at the normal Resident Evil catalogue of zombies, mutations and horrible laboratory accidents and thought: lovely, but could we make one look as if a fairground ride swallowed the butcher’s shop? It is so extreme that the creature becomes spectacle before it becomes fear. I was watching the idea rather than being frightened by it.
And perhaps that is why the film still works. The monsters do not have to do everything. The special effects do not have to do everything. A franchise formula can sometimes become more entertaining when it stops behaving as though it needs a huge marquee star standing in the middle of every poster. Give me one funny, nervous character reacting like a human being and I will happily follow him through the nonsense.
Sometimes the face running from the special effect is the better special effect.
RESIDENT EVIL – Official Trailer (4K)
Movie synopsis
Bryan is a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself trapped in a rapidly collapsing night of infection, violence and mutated creatures while making a delivery. Rather than following one of the Resident Evil franchise’s established game heroes, the film centres an original character who is badly out of his depth and trying to survive the chaos around him. The story uses Bryan’s ordinary-man perspective as its route into the outbreak.
Cast and credits
Director: Zach Cregger
Writers: Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten
Genre: Horror, action and sci-fi
Main cast: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser
Composer: Hays Holladay and Ryan Holladay
Production company/studio: TriStar Pictures, Constantin Film and Davis Films
Runtime: Approximately 95 minutes. Box Office Mojo lists 94 minutes; IMDb lists 95 minutes.
Release year and platform: 2026, theatrical release. US release date: 18 September 2026.
What does not make sense
- We have spent decades training movie heroes to shrug off impossible punishment, then the funniest thing here is watching Bryan react as if danger is actually dangerous.
- The human-eating carnival monster is so committed to being grotesque that fear occasionally has to stand aside and admire the engineering.
- Resident Evil has a perfectly respectable catalogue of zombies and biological nightmares, yet apparently somebody decided ordinary mutations were suffering from insufficient limbs.
- The expensive monster can fill the screen, but Bryan looking at it and silently questioning his career choices can steal the scene.
- Franchise cinema keeps behaving as though recognisable stars and bigger effects are compulsory, while this film gets plenty of mileage from an original character who is mostly trying not to die embarrassingly.
Sense check / The numbers
- Resident Evil reached US cinemas on 18 September 2026 and runs approximately 95 minutes. Box Office Mojo lists 94 minutes while IMDb lists 95. The difference is tiny, but the film is unusually lean for a modern franchise picture. [Sony Pictures] [Box Office Mojo] [IMDb]
- The original Resident Evil game debuted in 1996, and the series celebrated its 30th anniversary on 22 March 2026. Cregger was therefore walking into three decades of built-in expectations rather than an empty laboratory. [Capcom]
- By 30 June 2026, Capcom said the Resident Evil games had passed 213 million cumulative unit sales worldwide. That proves the name itself is enormous. It does not prove every film needs a famous lead or an established game character at its centre. [Capcom]
- The film opened with about $60.15 million in North America, playing in 3,684 cinemas, while its worldwide opening reached about $108.3 million against a reported $75 million production budget. An opening weekend is not the same thing as profit, but it shows there was a substantial audience for this version of the franchise. [AP] [Box Office Mojo]
The sketch
Scene 1: Plot armour delivery
A nervous courier silhouette clutches a parcel while a huge transparent shield marked “MAIN CHARACTER” drops around him as monsters approach.
Dialogue:
Bryan: “Am I immortal now?”
Franchise: “Usually.”
Scene 2: Carnival upgrade
The same courier faces a grotesque fairground-shaped flesh creature with too many limbs while one ordinary zombie waits awkwardly beside it.
Dialogue:
Zombie: “Remember simple fear?”
Monster: “We have upgraded.”
Bryan: “Why?”
Scene 3: No star required
The same courier walks towards a cinema screen while an unused red carpet and velvet rope sit empty beside him.
Dialogue:
Studio: “Where is the star?”
Audience: “He’s right there.”
Bryan: “I’m delivering a parcel.”
What to watch, not the show
- Studios testing whether a strong franchise name can reduce dependence on expensive A-list leads.
- Horror comedy using the protagonist’s reactions to make danger entertaining rather than treating every scene as solemn apocalypse.
- Familiar intellectual property giving filmmakers enough commercial safety to experiment with stranger creature designs.
- Visual-effects escalation turning monsters from frightening objects into attractions that audiences inspect.
- Famous faces becoming optional rather than compulsory in franchise cinema when the central character is distinctive enough.
- Original characters entering established universes instead of endlessly recycling the same heroes.
The Hermit take
Resident Evil works best when Bryan looks as baffled by the madness as I would.
Keep the nervous courier; the carnival meat monster can wait outside.
Keep or toss
Keep.
Keep Bryan’s human reactions, the humour and the willingness to let an original character carry a giant franchise.
Toss the assumption that every new monster needs several extra limbs to justify its existence.
Sources
- Sony Pictures – Resident Evil official film page: https://www.sonypictures.com/movies/residentevil8
- IMDb – Resident Evil (2026) film page: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35538033/
- IMDb – Resident Evil (2026) full cast and crew: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt35538033/fullcredits/
- Film Music Reporter – Hays and Ryan Holladay scoring Resident Evil: https://filmmusicreporter.com/2026/09/01/hays-ryan-holladay-scoring-zach-creggers-resident-evil/
- Capcom – Resident Evil 30th anniversary information: https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/news/html/e260316.html
- Capcom – Resident Evil cumulative series sales data: https://www.capcom.co.jp/ir/english/business/salesdata.html
- Associated Press – Resident Evil opening weekend box-office report: https://apnews.com/article/520d647a809e0a357cb4e2f34e89326f
- Box Office Mojo – Resident Evil (2026) box office and release data: https://www.boxofficemojo.com/title/tt35538033/
- Variety – Resident Evil (2026) review: https://au.variety.com/2026/film/global/resident-evil-review-zach-cregger-40441
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