Resident Evil First Reactions Praise Zach Cregger’s Gory Reboot

Early reactions to Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil reboot are pouring in after Tuesday screenings, and the consensus is loud: the Weapons and Barbarian director has delivered a gory, funny, high-tension studio horror that many critics are ranking among the best video-game adaptations. Variety rounded up posts calling the film a “cinematic spectacle” and “gloriously gory,” with Austin Abrams repeatedly praised as a hapless medical courier trapped in a Raccoon City outbreak.

TheWrap reported similar enthusiasm, including its own Casey Loving’s note that Cregger “nails the feeling of playing these games” in a smart, scary package that plays “like an RE2 DLC in the best way.” Other first-look posts highlighted creature design, nonstop set pieces, and humor that never fully undercuts the survival-horror mood.

Sony’s reboot reunites Cregger with Abrams and co-stars Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser. Cregger wrote the screenplay with Shay Hatten and intentionally sidesteps franchise icons such as Leon S. Kennedy and Jill Valentine, betting on an original story inside the established world — a choice that has already divided some game fans even as press reactions tilt strongly positive.

Six prior Resident Evil films, led for years by Milla Jovovich, plus the 2021 Welcome to Raccoon City reboot, have collectively grossed more than $1.2 billion worldwide. Cregger’s entry opens in theaters Friday, Sept. 18, from Sony Pictures / Columbia.

Whether general audiences match the Fantastic Fest and press-screening buzz will become clear this weekend, but the early word positions the film as a rare big-studio game adaptation that horror critics are eager to champion on the largest possible screen.