Zach Cregger's upcoming Resident Evil film understands something fundamental about the video game series it adapts: the whole thing is utterly ridiculous, and that is precisely what makes it work. Rather than treating the source material with solemn reverence, the movie leans into the absurdity that has defined Capcom's survival horror franchise for decades, transforming it into a source of both terror and comedy.
The film follows Brian, played by Austin Abrams, a thoroughly ordinary man thrust into a scenario he has only ever encountered on screens. This choice represents a significant departure from previous Resident Evil adaptations, which typically centered on established protagonists like Chris Redfield or Leon Kennedy. By creating an original character who serves as a proxy for the viewer, Cregger allows audiences to experience the horror through the eyes of someone as unprepared and bewildered as they would be.
During a visit to the film's Prague set in December 2025, Cregger explained his approach to the material. He described the premise as imagining himself thrust into a Resident Evil game, admitting he would be completely unequipped for the challenge. «I'm not good with guns. I'm totally out of shape,» the director said. «It would just be me panicking from one situation to another.» That description perfectly captures how Brian behaves throughout the movie, hilariously complaining about having to climb impossibly tall staircases, running and screaming until terror naturally transforms into humor, and self-identifying as «not a gun guy» despite having to learn quickly on the job.
The genius of this approach lies in how it mirrors the actual experience of playing a Resident Evil game. Players routinely find themselves in completely alien situations, from fleeing a comically oversized trench-coated figure in a tiny hat to solving puzzles involving electronic chess pieces just to open a door. These are scenarios that make no logical sense, yet the games compel players to navigate them through rational thought. Brian stumbles through his journey to the heart of Raccoon City with that same bewildered determination, never quite believing what he is witnessing.
Abrams' performance carries the film through its most tense moments, with his expressive eyes generating laughs even when the action reaches its peak intensity. When the movie slows down, it often lingers on his face as he attempts to process whatever new form of body horror has just emerged. He reacts exactly as players do when a monster bursts from a freshly beheaded corpse, watching wide-eyed rather than immediately fleeing as normal logic would dictate.
Cregger drew particular inspiration from Resident Evil 4, a game he has played repeatedly and which many consider the perfect balance of joyful absurdity within survival horror. That game's iconic opening village section, where creeping dread in a quiet rural setting is shattered by tolling bells and an onrush of hostile villagers, finds its parallel in the film. Instead of a bell, the bark and bite of a dog signals to Brian that events are about to escalate into something truly silly.
While Brian lacks the physical prowess to deliver a Leon Kennedy-style roundhouse kick to an undead attacker, he does manage to unload a shotgun blast that leaves one enemy's brain as nothing but red goo on a wall. The character may be having a terrible time, but audiences at early screenings found much of the theater laughing along with his misfortunes.
Cregger has already demonstrated mastery of punctuating terror with humor across his three feature films as a horror director. Both Barbarian and Weapons proved deeply unsettling while also being darkly hilarious when the director chose to be. Resident Evil follows the same formula, though Brian never delivers quippy one-liners the way established franchise characters might. Instead, his reactions reflect how actual players respond when confronted with ungodly foes, often finding single words like «damn» escaping their mouths rather than full sentences.
The film's humor also draws from the particular joy of watching others play games, especially when things go wrong. Just as it can be funny when someone falls off an arena ledge while only one hit away from defeating a boss, Resident Evil finds entertainment in Brian's failures. The movie demonstrates far more interest in people being bad at their jobs than in seasoned professionals handling every situation with competence.
This approach represents a refreshing understanding of what makes video game adaptations work. Rather than attempting to elevate inherently absurd source material into something self-serious, Cregger's Resident Evil embraces the chaos, the illogical puzzles, and the overwhelming odds that define the games. In doing so, it captures something authentic about the experience of playing them, translating the sensation of holding a controller into a cinematic rollercoaster that never forgets to include every piece of glorious nonsense along the way.