Resident Evil combines terrifying scares, well-timed humour and plenty of nods to the games. Here’s my Resident Evil review and why it might just be my favourite horror movie of 2026.
I don’t normally do movie reviews on here, but considering I am utterly convinced it’s the best horror movie of 2026, I think a Resident Evil review deserves a place on The Morbid Tourist.
I have always been a big fan of the Resident Evil games (even though I’m only marginally good at them!), but in all honesty, until the promotion for this movie started dropping, I didn’t even know they were making a movie! I didn’t want to get too excited about it either, so I intentionally tried to avoid watching the trailers. All I knew was that it was called Resident Evil and was to do with the games.
I ended up going to see this movie on a whim. I’d spent the morning driving to Canterbury for an esoteric tarot tour the following day. My plan was to drive in and out of the city for my hotel check in and a whole bunch of spooky stuff. It was a lot – especially after a two hour drive to get there. Instead, I found a Vue cinema, used my free cinema ticket from Monzo, bought my favourite movie snacks, got comfy in a reclining seat and looked forward to a fun horror movie loosely to do with my favourite video games.
In the end, I absolutely loved it – so much more than I thought I would. I jumped out of my seat. I laughed. I even felt a bit emotional at parts too. And I really loved that I was seeing it solo on a random Friday afternoon – just to kill time really – but coming out of the cinema afterwards genuinely thinking I’d seen my favourite movie of the year. So much so that it even inspired me to share my thoughts with you all!
So I guess here is my first ever movie review on The Morbid Tourist.
Please note: spoilers ahead!
Resident Evil Review: My First Impressions
Like the games, Resident Evil follows one character’s epic and difficult journey – in this instance, Bryan, a glorified Postmates driver. He’s a medical courier – already saving people’s lives in his own way – and the movie opens with him dropping off an important package to a hospital whilst discussing his girlfriend’s recent positive pregnancy test. As he’s leaving, he gets offered a final job for the night – one that pays double. Accepting that job is probably the worst idea he ever had, since it sends him right into Raccoon City. The movie follows his journey – his first brush with zombies, obstacles he faces and some pretty damn scary monsters along the way.
It is, essentially, Austin Abrams playing a character where he’s having a very, very bad day (again).
I love the Resident Evil games, and I enjoyed the previous movies, but I do think this is the best movie adaptation of the franchise. I actually really loved that it was its own standalone story as well – with all the best elements from the games to enjoy.
It has so much to offer: sweeping shots of snowy locations, an eerie musical score, deeper themes relating to responsibility, a love-it-or-hate-it ending, humour and, yes, plenty of jump scares. And it’s genuinely scary too.
Balancing Horror and Humour
I know some people weren’t too keen on how much humour it had. And I suppose some of it could have been scaled back to make it even scarier, but honestly, I thought it worked perfectly as it was.
The humour never overshadows the horror. There are jump scares, gory scenes and genuinely terrifying moments where I had to hide behind my hands. But the humour brings a welcome release from the tension of following someone’s never-ending bad day, with monsters trailing him at every turn.
Fan Service and Familiar Details
If you’re a fan of the Resident Evil games, you’ll notice the fan service is incredible in this movie. From the typewriter ‘save point’ sitting on a desk at the farmhouse (oh Bryan, why didn’t you save here!) to the herbs and healing sprays in other blink-and-you’ll-miss-it moments. It’s not just about watching a Resident Evil movie as a fan of the franchise. It feels like a story lifted directly out of the RE universe – even though it’s a standalone story that doesn’t follow any of the main characters like Leon or Claire.
I loved that the shotgun ammo box – found in a random drawer and nowhere near the actual shotgun itself, by the way – was a direct replica of the ones found in the games, design and all. Some other things I absolutely adored spotting during my first – and second! – viewing included:
- The many locks throughout the film, adorned with symbols and impossible to open without the exact matching key.
- The hospital map towards the end, which looked just like the ones in the games, complete with a dot showing where the character stood.
- The eerie instrumental music when Bryan met the little girl on the trailer, which reminded me of the menu screen music in some of the games.
- The gradual weapon upgrades. Bryan starts with a handgun, upgrades to a shotgun and eventually gets hold of a submachine gun. We all know that feeling of desperately waiting for a better weapon in the games – and constantly searching for ammo in the most random of places.
- The routes through certain locations, which felt like moving through a game level. Towards the start, Bryan follows tracks in the snow through a small clearing in the trees, with the surrounding landscape seeming to funnel him along a set path. Later, when he arrives in Raccoon City, the narrow alleyways create a similar feeling, with only one route forwards.
These were just some of the many details that helped you feel like you were stepping into the world of Resident Evil and playing the game yourself.
The camera work took that feeling even further. At times – usually during the most tense moments – the film switched to a first-person point of view, from looking up at zombies in the roof to seeing Bryan’s hands aiming the gun in front of him. This was an excellent way of putting the audience directly in his position and recreating the feeling of playing the game.
What I haven’t seen many people talk about is that during some of these shots, you could also hear his heart beating loudly. This happens in the games too, especially when you’re low on health, and it added another layer to that familiar sense of panic.
The movie is a great watch whether you’ve played the games or not, but if you’re a fan, you’ll get so much more out of it.
Credit: Austin Abrams as Bryan in Resident Evil (2026). Courtesy of Sony Pictures / © Sony Pictures.
Austin Abrams as Bryan
Bryan as a character was perfect. He feels like someone who probably wouldn’t do that well in an apocalypse – like most of us! An ordinary guy thrust into the world of Resident Evil, with absolutely no preparation for what’s coming.
Bryan struggles to work a gun, he’s a bit shit at most things (including trying to jump over an electric fence and spectacularly failing), and he’s hardly taking any of this in his stride. What I found particularly endearing was every time he mumbled under his breath or told the zombies to fuck off – because this is exactly how I (and many others) play the Resident Evil games. The moment towards the end when he screams at a particular monster to just leave him alone reminded me so much of shouting at the screen when that dreaded arsehole Mr X kept stalking me in Resident Evil 2.
It would probably be silly to say Austin Abrams carried the movie – because he so obviously did, being on screen for pretty much the entire 95 minutes. But holding your attention for that long is incredibly impressive, and he did a fantastic job.
Austin’s charming portrayal makes Bryan all the more endearing – and yes, attractive too. Which makes Zach Cregger’s joke about wanting an ugly cast particularly baffling! Austin put on weight for the role, but the things that make Bryan look like a normal guy – bags under his eyes, messy hair, a body without washboard abs – are exactly what make him attractive. I think Zach underestimated how many of us prefer a scruffy, tired-looking guy over the picture-perfect Hollywood ideal.
But it’s Austin’s performance that makes you root for Bryan the whole time. He’s a hapless medical courier caught up in the start of the apocalypse, and his fear and frustration feel believable. You sympathise with him when he screams in terror, because really, you’d do exactly the same in that situation.
Exploring the Film’s Themes: Fatherhood and Responsibility
After seeing a few people on Twitter discuss fatherhood as a theme, I started noticing how much of Bryan’s journey supports that theory – particularly his fear of becoming a father and the responsibility that comes with it.
And the clues start immediately. The movie opens with Bryan on the phone to his girlfriend, Michelle, who has presumably only just told him she’s pregnant. He tells her not to freak out and asks her to do more tests to be sure. Once he collects the medical bag (and throws it roughly over his torso like it’s a pizza) and starts driving to Raccoon City, he insists he’s not avoiding the conversation – he’s delivering something important, like a kidney or a heart. He even talks about how he’s carrying life.
As his journey continues, he treats the bag with progressively more care. At first, it’s simply left on a seat. Later, he secures a seatbelt over it. Towards the end of the movie – once he knows he’s not carrying a heart or kidney to save one person’s life, but something that could potentially save many – he even rubs the bag affectionately, as if reassuring it that everything will be okay. It’s a gesture that reminded me of someone rubbing their pregnant belly.
His changing treatment of the bag mirrors his response to the pregnancy. He’s a medical courier dragged into the impossible task of protecting something that could eventually save lives, but what starts as just another delivery becomes something he actively chooses to care for.
That makes his eventual voice note to Michelle particularly heartbreaking. He tells her he wishes he’d reacted better to the news and that he thinks she’ll be an amazing mum. After spending the film learning to protect and care for something he never expected to be responsible for, he finally seems ready to do the same as a dad.
The Ending: Fitting but Heartbreaking
And oh, the ending. MAJOR SPOILERS AHEAD OBVIOUSLY.
I am so conflicted about the ending. It made me mad – and sad – and I wish it was different, but I’m also glad it ended the way it did. We spent the whole movie rooting for this unassuming, loveable character who is carrying what could be the missing piece to stopping it all – only for him to become the one thing he was trying to stop. And because it’s set in the RE universe (albeit as its own standalone story), that bleak ending feels fitting. The zombies don’t get cured. The monsters just keep coming. There really is no hope, and it makes the movie all the more heartbreaking.
Throughout its runtime, it’s a mixture of horror with some humour sprinkled in, so it seems almost unfair that it ends in such a soul-destroying way. Bryan – the character we’ve gotten to know, who is on our screens constantly from the start – doesn’t get his happy ever after. He doesn’t get to go home and tell his girlfriend he’s ready to be a dad. He doesn’t get to save the world. He doesn’t even get a hero’s death. He just gets the worst ending of all – becoming a monster himself.
But it means the movie stays with you for a very long time afterwards – even if I’m still wishing he got home safe and sound. I like to pretend the movie ended when he finally got his perfect shot and triumphantly punched the air above his head, screaming ‘Yeah! Video games!’ like a hero.
Final Thoughts From a Morbid Tourist
I think Resident Evil may be my favourite horror movie of 2026 – and perhaps my favourite movie overall this year too. As a huge fan of the games, I really do think it paid perfect homage to the franchise while telling its own standalone story. For me, it had everything I like in a horror movie: an unlikely hero, fantastic jump scares, just the right amount of gore, well-timed funny moments to break up the tension and an emotional connection through Bryan’s relationship with his girlfriend. The themes of fatherhood and responsibility give it more depth, making it all the more memorable.
The film has been out a while now, but at the time of publishing this post, it’s still in cinemas. I’d absolutely recommend trying to see it on the big screen if you can! Otherwise, Resident Evil is available to purchase digitally from 3rd November.
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