{"id":3671,"date":"2026-09-22T09:00:22","date_gmt":"2026-09-22T14:00:22","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/?p=3671"},"modified":"2026-09-21T23:33:11","modified_gmt":"2026-09-22T04:33:11","slug":"the-messenger-reviews-resident-evil","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/2026\/09\/22\/the-messenger-reviews-resident-evil\/","title":{"rendered":"The Messenger Reviews: Resident Evil"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo Courtesy of IMDB<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

\n

Editor\u2019s Note: All Opinion articles reflect the opinion of the writer only, not The Messenger or Johnson County Community College. <\/b>JCCC students interested in writing for The Messenger\u2019s Student Voices page can contact us at Mrobe136@jccc.edu.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Over the course of the decade, Zach Cregger has made quite the name for himself in the horror space, over just the span of a few movies. From the surprise hit of \u201c<\/span>Barbarian<\/span>\u201d to the Oscar-winning, acclaimed \u201cWeapons,\u201d Cregger has had a great track record in horror. As a live-action movie franchise, \u201cResident Evil\u201d hasn\u2019t exactly made the same impression. It began as a solid, if flawed first entry, which only led into a series of drastically diminishing returns. So, when it was announced within the last year that Cregger would be taking his own swing at the franchise, I was certainly interested. It\u2019s an interest that paid off, as after seeing Cregger\u2019s interpretation of \u201cResident Evil,\u201d I can say that it’s well worth any of the hype surrounding it.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

The movie overall takes a similar structure to movies like John Carpenter\u2019s \u201cEscape from New York\u201d or Sam Raimi\u2019s \u201cThe Evil Dead,\u201d in the sense that once the action begins, it never fully comes to a stop. You\u2019ll see most of the events that Bryan, the protagonist played by Austin Abrams, is a part of over the course of the movie. However, while the movie may have the most in common with \u201cEscape from New York\u201d in a structural sense<\/span>, <\/span>Bryan is far from a stoic, unstoppable Snake Plissken, as he has much more in common with Ash Williams from \u201cThe Evil Dead,\u201d an everyman-style character. His nature as an everyman means he doesn\u2019t only work well as an audience surrogate, but he also reflects many people\u2019s first time playthroughs of a Resident Evil game. He\u2019s easily spooked, inexperienced, and swears up a storm, both to curse the threats he faces, and to revel in his successes. In Cregger\u2019s signature style, he\u2019s able to use this ineptitude for humor, while never sacrificing the horror of the situation.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

As is to be expected from a Resident Evil adaptation, the movie features many creative creature designs, along with many creative ways for those creatures to be removed from Bryan\u2019s path. Many of the monsters in the movie lead to gasps from the audience I was with, gasps that were followed by cheers when those same monsters were destroyed. One recurring one will potentially remind fans of the franchise of various different ones from across the franchise.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Furthermore, Zach Cregger injects the movie with much of his own visual flair. The direction of the movie is honestly stunning, and there are several points throughout where the style can shift from stunning, hauntingly beautiful visuals to intense action. Along with that, Cregger is able to keep the style of the survival horror games intact. At several points in the movie, the camera will shift into a third-person angle akin to many of the mainline games, and a first-person angle primarily found in Resident Evil 7 and Resident 8. While an excellent way to pay homage to those games, and keep their signature style intact, it also helps to keep up the intensity and the fear of the movie. Throughout the movie, there will be several moments where you will be counting alongside the protagonist how many bullets he has remaining, a near-universal experience among those who have played a survival horror game.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Finally, while the movie doesn\u2019t directly adapt the events of a singular game, it does loosely adapt the outbreak in Raccoon City as seen in Resident Evil 2 and Resident Evil 3. The movie does share more in common with Resident Evil 3, as it also follows a character covering a large portion of Raccoon City with a loosely similar antagonist. (Also, a sewer section that left me feeling like I\u2019d need to burn my clothes after it.) Fans of the franchise like me will have a fun time spotting the various visual Easter eggs hidden through Bryan\u2019s nightmare.\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

Overall, if you\u2019re a fan of the survival horror games, or any of the movies I\u2019ve mentioned prior, I would say that \u201cResident Evil\u201d is well worth your time and money. In fact, as I\u2019ve written this review, I\u2019ve only wanted to go see the movie again more and more. It\u2019s rather infectious in that way.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

– Colin Fiscus<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Zach Cregger, who directed hit films \u201cBarbarian\u201d and \u201cWeapons\u201d is back and is as good as he always is. Keep in mind I have not played the Resident Evil games, so I know nothing about the games or the story of the movie.<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u201cResident Evil\u201d honestly might be the best movie Cregger has ever made! For someone who knew nothing about Resident Evil, he sure makes it enjoyable. Cregger\u2019s go-to actor, Austin Abrams<\/span>,<\/span> who was also in \u201cWeapons,\u201d does an amazing job portraying what it would look like if an ordinary person got thrown into the world of Resident Evil. He knocked it out of the park. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I also think that setting it in winter added a weird, cozy element to it that I didn\u2019t think would be there. It would be the perfect movie to watch over the holiday season. Just get cozy under a blanket with some hot chocolate and enjoy it! <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

I usually don\u2019t get scared by horror movies, but this one actually scared me a few times. It also had a great sense of humor throughout it, which I did not expect at all. I thought it was going to be all serious. <\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span>If you\u2019re on the fence about wanting to check it out, I would say go because I did, and I knew nothing about it, and it was awesome!<\/span>\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

-Hunter Eagan<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Furthermore, Zach Cregger injects the movie with much of his own visual flair. The direction of the movie is honestly stunning, and there are several points throughout where the style can shift from stunning, hauntingly beautiful visuals to intense action.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":14,"featured_media":3673,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advgb_blocks_editor_width":"","advgb_blocks_columns_visual_guide":"","_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[78,26,369],"ppma_author":[367,368],"class_list":["post-3671","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-studentvoice","tag-cavs","tag-jccc","tag-student-voice"],"author_meta":{"display_name":"Saul Epstein","author_link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/sepstein\/"},"featured_img":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2026\/09\/Resident-evilposter-1-300x209.jpg","coauthors":[{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/colin-fiscus\/","display_name":"Colin Fiscus"},{"link":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/author\/hunter-eagan\/","display_name":"Hunter Eagan"}],"tax_additional":{"categories":{"linked":["Student Voice<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Student Voice<\/span>"]},"tags":{"linked":["Cavs<\/a>","JCCC<\/a>","student voice<\/a>"],"unlinked":["Cavs<\/span>","JCCC<\/span>","student voice<\/span>"]}},"comment_count":"0","relative_dates":{"created":"Posted 4 days ago","modified":"Updated 4 days ago"},"absolute_dates":{"created":"Posted on September 22, 2026","modified":"Updated on September 21, 2026"},"absolute_dates_time":{"created":"Posted on September 22, 2026 9:00 am","modified":"Updated on September 21, 2026 11:33 pm"},"featured_img_caption":"","series_order":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"authors":[{"term_id":367,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"colin-fiscus","display_name":"Colin Fiscus","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""},{"term_id":368,"user_id":0,"is_guest":1,"slug":"hunter-eagan","display_name":"Hunter Eagan","avatar_url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/?s=96&d=mm&r=g","author_category":"","first_name":"","last_name":"","user_url":"","job_title":"","description":""}],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/files\/2026\/09\/Resident-evilposter-1.jpg","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/14"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3671"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3676,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3671\/revisions\/3676"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/3673"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3671"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3671"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.jccc.edu\/messenger\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=3671"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}