Resident Evil Test Screening Reactions Have Us Hyped For Zach Cregger's 2026 Movie

Five years after the critical and commercial failure of "Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City," Sony Pictures is attempting yet another resurrection of the "Resident Evil" movie franchise with arguably the hottest horror filmmaker working today. Fresh off the surprise blockbuster success of his Oscar-winning "Weapon," Zach Cregger is reportedly pocketing $20 million for the studio's plainly titled reboot "Resident Evil." Expectations have rarely, if ever, been higher for a video game adaptation, and early test screening reactions suggest that Cregger has crafted a stripped-down, white-knuckler of a horror flick.

World of Reel's Jordan Ruimy just published what he's been hearing through the "Resident Evil" test screening grapevine, and /Film has heard similar reactions from our own sources, who corroborate this reporting. Like the great action filmmaker Walter Hill, Cregger apparently eschews exposition and throws the audience into the middle of a zombie outbreak in his movie with a zonked-out, in-over-his-head delivery dude played by Austin Abrams ("Weapons"). He's been asked to transport a briefcase with undisclosed contents to Raccoon City and, somewhere along the way, hooks up with characters played by the likes of Paul Walter Hauser ("Cobra Kai"), Zach Cherry ("Severance"), and Kali Reis ("True Detective: Night Country"). According to Ruimy's sources, Abrams' character "works more like a player avatar," and we basically experience this entire waking nightmare from his perspective.

The most exciting news coming out of this screening, aside from folks digging the hell out of the movie, is that it runs a tight 90 minutes. This, folks, is apparently a bullet of a movie.

One of Jordan Ruimy's sources compared the unrelenting horror action of Zach Cregger's "Resident Evil" to George Miller's "Mad Max: Fury Road." It's apparently a seamlessly constructed string of set pieces powered by actors who don't need a hint of backstory to be interesting. Folks like Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, and Kali Reis are always compelling, and the furthest thing from conventional movie star types. They'd be right at home in John Carpenter's "Assault on Precinct 13."

At 90 minutes, Cregger clearly keeps things grounded, compact, and consistently harrowing. He's already proven that he's a whiz at camera placement, shot composition, and pacing, so this shouldn't come as a surprise. It's just cool that this sounds like the anti-"Barbarian" and -"Weapons." You don't go to "Resident Evil" for mystery. You get to get the doo-doo scared straight out of you. If Cregger can excel at this speed, it's time to start asking what he can't do (which is why I hope his next movie is a faithful adaptation of Proust's "In Search of Lost Time").

We'll find out if this early hype is real when "Resident Evil" shambles into multiplexes on September 18, 2026.