The first look at the new *Resident Evil* movie is here—does it finally feel like the game this time?

I finally turned on my computer on Saturday afternoon. I was going to squeeze in a couple of rounds of gaming, but instead I came across news about the new Resident Evil movie. For someone like me, who usually only browses news on the subway, the scariest thing about this kind of adaptation isn’t that it might be bad—it’s that it ends up expensive, distant, and ultimately has little to do with the game. If it’s called Resident Evil but feels like some entirely different film, that’s like ordering a big weekend feast and getting a box of cold fried rice delivered instead.

The key information this time comes from footage recently screened internally at CinemaCon. According to DiscussingFilm, the clip shows a man trapped in an abandoned city overrun with zombies, and while the protagonist is sprinting through the streets, zombies are even leaping down from the rooftops. Just hearing that already sounds very Resident Evil—not the kind of thing where people stand around striking poses, and not the sort of power-fantasy action flick where every monster gets taken out with one punch. The sense of pressure is there right away.

Director Zach Cregger also spoke very plainly. He emphasized that he has been playing Resident Evil for more than 20 years and really loves the atmosphere, pacing, resource management, and fear that define the series. More importantly, he explicitly said this reboot will not go for complicated storytelling, but instead let the audience follow a single protagonist from point A to point B on a linear survival horror journey. That line is actually crucial, because it directly determines the film’s “time-value ratio”—you won’t have to spend a lot of effort piecing together fragments, and can instead follow the fear straight through from beginning to end.

That said, the most obvious point of comparison for this approach is the older Paul W. S. Anderson versions, which leaned more toward big action blockbusters with an “overpowered super-warrior heroine” vibe. Those films weren’t unwatchable, but the problem was that they felt more like they borrowed the shell of Resident Evil while really selling action spectacle, not the survival pressure familiar to players. For longtime fans, what has always mattered most is not how good the protagonist is at fighting, but that taut feeling of not having enough bullets, still having a long way to go, and never knowing what might jump out around the next corner.

The director previously also brought up a very real issue: if the movie doesn’t follow the game settings exactly, fans will definitely pick at it. But what he wants to do is find a balance between recreating the “spirit of the game” and expressing his own style. Honestly, that approach works for me. A film isn’t a strategy guide video—it doesn’t need to faithfully recreate every room key exactly as it was. As long as it preserves the core rhythm of fear that defines Resident Evil, that already makes it more worthwhile than many adaptations that have nothing but the IP name going for them.

If you ask me whether it’s worth looking forward to right now, my advice is: put it on your “low-cost attention” list for now, but don’t rush to idolize it in advance. The reason is simple: what’s public so far is still just test-screening footage and the director’s statements. Whether it can really deliver solid linear horror will depend on the official trailer and the final execution. But at least in terms of direction, it finally seems to be moving closer to the early Resident Evil games, instead of making yet another expensive takeout-style blockbuster concerned only with looking cool.

The new Resident Evil movie is scheduled to open in North America on September 18, 2026. For working players, its biggest advantage right now is that expectations are very clear: if it really captures that point A to point B survival feeling, then this movie ticket will probably be worth more than many adaptations that still can’t explain themselves after two hours.