There was a time when video-game adaptations were cursed to fail. It seemed nearly impossible to distill hours upon hours of gameplay into a short tale while still retaining what made the original title so special to begin with. Fortunately, the narrative has started to shift in recent years, as acclaimed projects such as The Last of Us and the Fallout TV series achieved near-impeccable world-building thanks to their long-running format. Meanwhile, films like Sonic the Hedgehog and Iron Lung proved that video game narratives can successfully be told in two hours.
Unfortunately, Capcom's Resident Evil franchise never quite garnered critical acclaim outside the video game world. The six RE movies starring Milla Jovovich were met with mixed-to-negative reviews, even though they grossed over $1 billion combined at the worldwide box office. Things didn't get any better with the release of 2021's Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, as critical reception was still poor, while commercial reception dropped as well. As such, all eyes were on horror director Zach Cregger to see whether he could finally break the Resident Evil film curse, and it seems he did so in horrifyingly good fashion.
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil is the highest-rated video game film of all time
On Sep. 18, 2026, audiences will visit Raccoon City—a place doomed from the moment it became home to the Umbrella Corporation. The company's effort to create bio-weapons resulted in the production of the dreadful T-Virus, which turns regular humans into unrecognizable monsters. Now we'll see the effects of the virus in full force courtesy of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil.
Early previews of Resident Evil (2026) were nothing short of promising, as they revealed that the film's opening minutes were gory, tense, and even funny. Now, full reviews have dropped, and they have shattered expectations. The upcoming horror thriller has earned a 96% approval score on Rotten Tomatoes, which is higher than any other video-game movie ever made. It's a bit ironic that a saga keen on reanimating the dead made sure that the video-game adaptation curse is officially put to rest.
To put into perspective how astounding this achievement is, here are the eight top-rated video-game films and their respective approval scores on Rotten Tomatoes, and how Resident Evil (2026) compares to them:
- Resident Evil (2026) - 96%
- Sonic the Hedgehog 3 - 86%
- Werewolves Within - 86%
- The Angry Birds Movie 2 - 72%
- Sonic the Hedgehog 2 - 69%
- Pokémon Detective Pikachu - 68%
- Gran Turismo: Based on a True Story - 65%
- Sonic the Hedgehog - 64%
Resident Evil (2026) also became the first film in Capcom's iconic franchise to surpass an approval score of 39%, which was the previous record held by 2016's Resident Evil: The Final Chapter.
Perhaps one of the biggest reasons behind Resident Evil's success is Zach Cregger's approach to its narrative. Instead of adapting the events of a specific game, Cregger created a completely original story that's simply set in the world that Capcom first created. Audiences will follow newcomer Bryan (Austin Abrams) as he attempts to deliver a very important package to Raccoon City the night the T-Virus outbreak occurs.
Despite forging its own unique path, Resident Evil (2026) will pay homage to the video games by featuring first-person sequences where inventory management is key and every bullet matters. That means whenever Bryan misses a shot, we, as the audience, will also feel his panic.
Thanks to all the positive discourse surrounding Resident Evil (2026), the film is tracking to have a $120M-$150M global opening weekend, which would be the highest the franchise has ever seen. Expectations are at an all-time high, and it seems the movie will deliver thanks to its dark humor, gore, and high stakes. Fortunately, the time is nearly here for us to discover what other horrifying surprises lie in store.
Resident Evil (2026) will be released on Sep. 18, 2026.
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