*Spoiler Warning*
In September 2026, Zach Cregger directed a horror style video game movie adaptation for the Resident Evil franchise, which performed fantastically in the box office and with critics. Cregger directed the highest grossing film in the entire franchise, grossing over 400 million dollars worldwide. This is not only because the public yearns for disgusting parasitic monsters and continuous goosebump producing action, but because the film was so much more well thought out than people were expecting.
It felt like Cregger never wanted the audience to feel like they were watching a movie, but instead actually playing one of Resident Evil’s iconic survival horror games.
This ingenious tactic was used throughout many parts of the film but specifically seen in the narrative and nuances. At the beginning of the film, you see Bryan (Austin Abrams) given the medical cooler and take off towards Racoon City, this is like the audience are watching an un-skippable cut scene usually occurring at the beginning of games to determine characters and context. Bryan wasn’t really given the choice of denying the ride, especially when it was said to pay double and he had just been told his girlfriend Michelle is pregnant, just like players are not given the choice to skip the games context.
The narrative progresses with Bryan stumbling up to a farmhouse. This section of the movie acts as the game’s tutorial, providing the player with a chance to grab not only ammunition but health rejuvenation aids for upcoming fights and a taste of the parasitic monsters the character will be coming across and how to fight them. This was seen with the introduction of the farmhouse family who were turned into minor monsters and then develop into the creepy mass of human limbs at the end of the film – showing how the difficulty level of killing the monsters progress as the game goes on and the characters go through the levels. This could also be seen throughout the movie as Bryan acquires better guns and weapons also linking to him levelling up or getting further into the narrative.
Critics and fans of the movie pointed out on TikTok other creative ways that Cregger was able to immerse the audience into the game play. An example is the way the movie was filmed so that you could always see where Bryan needed to go on his journey to Racoon City and then to Racoon City Hospital because it was lit up! Like when playing video games, the game guides you through the narrative without outright telling you where to go. Specific first-person camera angles are used regarding scenes with a flashlight where it mimics video game content of playing in first person, especially at the beginning of the film when Bryan and the farmhouse woman are tussling in the snow. Lastly, and arguably the most ingenious and comedic nuance was Bryan’s lack of ability to shoot through locks. In most story based video games and especially in the Resident Evil franchise you need keys to get through doors and progress through the map and so those physics being applied in “real life” not only enforce the fact that this is a video game adaptation but also add a comedic angle.
A final interesting theory I stumbled across on TikTok was coined the NPC theory. This suggested that throughout the film Bryan was paving the way for a real player to find Michelle’s voice mail telling him to call back and stay safe, Bryan’s emotional voice note to Michelle and his unborn child as well as the littering of guns and ammunition left in his wake.
It could also be argued that Bryan, once he is completely infected, becomes the final boss for a real player to kill to beat the game.
Credits : Designed by Erin Whitaker & edited by Adam Affandy
