Horror Movie Review! Resident Evil (2026)

Hometown Ghost Stories

The hosts of Hometown Ghost Stories review the 2026 Resident Evil film, discussing its effectiveness as both a horror movie and a video game

Key takeaways

• The 2026 Resident Evil film is praised for its seamless blend of horror, gore, and humor.
• Austin Abrams' performance as Bryan Hodukavich is highlighted as a standout that carries the movie.

Main topics

• Resident Evil (2026) Movie Review
• Video Game Adaptations

Notable quotes

I enjoyed every second of this movie.

Conclusion

The film is highly recommended for horror fans, regardless of their fa

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) I'm John Grylls from Creepy, and I listen to the Be Afraid Podcast Network. Speaker 1 (0:34) Welcome in everybody to HTGS Reviews, where today we are reviewing the very new Resident Evil movie. I am your host Rob Coakley, joined as always by Dave Wilkins. Hello Rob Coakley. And Jesse Wilkins. Hello Rob Coakley. I was doing the Resident Evil voice that they do at the beginning of the video games. People know, they get it, they know what I'm doing here. Speaker 3 (1:03) This Speaker 1 (1:04) is a brand new movie. So just so everybody knows, we went and saw this in the theaters tonight. We are reviewing it. You can go to the theaters and see it. We are going to start off with a spoiler free section, giving our overall review of this movie. We will then transition into doing a spoiler filled review. of Resident Evil so that you know what you're getting into here. If by chance this is your first horror movie review from us, let it not be your last. Hit that subscribe button. Hit that follow button. Hit all the buttons. Comment what you think about this movie. But all of that out of the way, Dave, do you have a synopsis for the movie Resident Evil? Resident Evil. Speaker 2 (1:47) Resident Evil 2026 directed by Zach Kreger. Tasked with delivering a package to a remote hospital, a courier gets trapped in a sudden outbreak and must fight mutated creatures to survive. Speaker 1 (2:02) So that is the synopsis of this movie. Dave, do you want to give some overall thoughts about it? Or do you want to... Why don't we all quickly go through any history we have with Resident Evil, just so people know how familiar we are with it. You kind of see it through the lens of different people that are reviewing it on our show tonight. Speaker 2 (2:24) Yeah. Speaker 1 (2:24) Okay. None. All right, Speaker 2 (2:27) your turn. This is going to go right in order. So you're none. I have very limited. I played a little bit of The Village. My most memorable experience with Resident Evil was when, Rob, I played it on VR for the very first time in your house when VR was, I think, pretty new. Speaker 1 (2:46) VR Speaker 2 (2:47) gaming. And there was like this jump scare that was fun. And I was like, this is a cool game, but never really played it. I never got into the games and I never watched a full movie. I saw, I've seen parts of some of the other movies and I always thought it was a dog shit movie franchise. And I went into this very low expectations. Yeah. I have Speaker 1 (3:12) played. almost every resident evil game there's some spin-offs that were on like game boy advance i might not have played but this has been one of my favorite gaming franchises since the since i was 11 years old starting with the original resident evil and so this franchise means something to me right and every other movie that has been made in this franchise the i think it was wes anderson uh or paul anderson one of one of the anderson's that were doing it For like 25 movies, too many movies. They were all pretty bad. I thought some people have some nostalgia for the first one. Sure. Then they did the welcome to raccoon city movie where they actually tried to incorporate the games and they just made it too convoluted. There was a, there was a bones of a good movie in there, but in the end it sort of fell apart. Maybe we'll review that some other time. But I. love a resident evil especially the ones that stick to horror resident evil 2 i will go down as saying is one of the best video games you will ever play in your life still think you two need to play that one uh resident evil one's a favorite of mine because of the setting but this is a franchise oh hang on which Speaker 2 (4:26) one which one did you you forced me to play one i think you went and bought me the game on xbox or something and gave it to me and was like you need to play this game And I think I got, I actually got pretty far into it. I don't remember which one that was. It might've been two. Cause you were like, this is my favorite one. You have Speaker 1 (4:42) to play Speaker 2 (4:42) it. It Speaker 1 (4:43) was either two or six is what I was, is what I would guess that I made you play. So it would be one of those two, but resident evil two remake is phenomenal. You should, you should play it. I think, Speaker 2 (4:55) I think it was the remake. It was probably the remake. Speaker 1 (4:58) Yeah. Amazing game. Speaker 2 (5:00) All that being said, we're reviewing the movie. Speaker 1 (5:04) Yes, but what I wanted to do there is to... I think it's important that people understand that we're all seeing it through a different lens. Speaker 2 (5:13) So Speaker 1 (5:13) I'm looking for certain things that you guys are clearly not looking for. And there's a lot of animosity with this movie before it came out, which I just hated because I think it's... So like Zack Craig doesn't want to do another Resident Evil because of all the backlash he was getting. Speaker 1 (5:33) this movie before it even came out because it wasn't following one of the main characters from the video games which i think is just such a lady to have from people uh is it do i want to see some of those characters in a movie sure but it doesn't mean that this movie is going to be bad right i Speaker 2 (5:51) don't so i having not played a lot of the games and i'm kind of going into this blind you could have told me that was a main character from the game i would have believed you That's where I'm at. I think that for the performance that we got out of this main character, it would have been a shame if they tried to do anything other than it because I thought this guy crushed his role. Speaker 1 (6:09) Yeah, absolutely. So with that being said, now you know how each of us are sort of attacking the review of this movie with our... Speaker 1 (6:19) our backgrounds on the franchise. So Dave, do you want to give us an overview of what you thought about resident evil? Spoiler-free. Speaker 2 (6:27) Yep. I went into this with the bar set at the absolute floor. I was 95 % sure I was going to hate it. I am a horror buff. I like to review horror movies. I was like, this is not going to be a horror movies. Resident evil is going to be an action movie. It might be kind of cool. Some of the effects. And I was, I was, I was pleasantly. wrong. I enjoyed every second of this movie. I enjoyed this movie was a perfect blend of horror, gore, humor. Speaker 2 (7:02) I want to say dialogue. Most of it was actually just, I don't even know if monologue is the right word. It was just the guy, it was like an inner commentary that we got from this character. And it followed him throughout this whole movie. It was dark, but it was funny. It was disturbing. It was shocking. You got body horror. You got jump scares that were very well done. One of them got, one jump scare in this movie. got the shit out of me. I almost hit the ceiling. It was fantastic. I had, I, yeah, me too. Uh, I enjoyed this movie. I enjoyed pretty much every second of this movie. Speaker 1 (7:37) Yeah. Justin, you want to give us your, your overview? Speaker 3 (7:40) Yeah, this movie was so much fun. So I also went in like, I didn't have low expectations because I, again, like I am completely disconnected with this franchise up until today where it's like, I never played the games. I never saw any of the movies. So I didn't have low expectations. I had no expectations. I didn't know what I was going in, what I was going to experience here with this movie. So, but overall without spoiling anything. Yeah. I also enjoyed every. second of this movie from the beginning um where you're kind of starting to understand the characters and just the scene or the the setting of uh you know driving through the snow and things like that like that whole scene was set up so cool and shot so well and um just creepy from the beginning i didn't really know what kind of movie i was gonna get i'm like all right we got creepy lady you know is this a zombie movie is it a ghost movie is it a you know, monster movie. I didn't know. And it was, and then like you got immediate, you know, comedic relief. And then that didn't go away the entire movie. And you're right. Like a lot of this dialogue was just the main character with his internal dialogue, just swearing over and over and over and over and over again. And such a limited cast in this movie. And that just goes to show how strong the, the performances were from the. actors that were in this. And the main one was Austin Abrams and he crushed it. He was just in the movie Weapons. Like I was sitting there, I'm like, where do I recognize this guy from? So he had a role in Weapons. The opening scene, Speaker 1 (9:15) right? In Weapons, he was the junkie in Weapons. He was the junkie, right? Speaker 3 (9:19) Yeah, yeah, yeah. And I thought his character in that movie, I remember being like, this dude is acting the hell out of this role. And he was still pretty funny. He kind of had the same... almost thing going on in the movie weapons with that kind of inner dialogue where he's, you almost had a similar scene where he's kind of rummaging through a house, you know, looking for items and just, it's a messed up scenario. So very actually parallel scenes there with, you know, you get without spoiling anything, but you get him rummaging through a house and it's kind of intense where you're like, Oh, something messed up happened here. Very similar to that. It was weird, weirdly similar to that, that scene in weapons. So. But overall, acting was great throughout. The special effects were fun. It was just one chaotic scene after another, and it kept me entertained the whole time. Some good jump scares, really suspenseful moments, and overall just a ton of fun. I really enjoyed watching this movie. Speaker 1 (10:15) Yeah, and for me, you know, I'm going into the movie. I know Zach Kreger directed it and we got to have a discussion at the end of this about who our favorite current horror director is because it's it's a tough list right now. But I want to have that discussion more towards the end. I went in cautiously. Thanks for letting us know ahead of time that we're going to get this fucking question. Speaker 2 (10:40) It's a tough one. Speaker 1 (10:41) So because that's what I was pondering on the ride home, honestly, like as I was driving home, I was thinking about who is my favorite horror director right now after watching this movie. But I was cautiously optimistic going into this movie. Of course, like for those of us that that know the games, know the lore. Yes, I want a Leon Kennedy movie. Yes, I want a Redfields movie. I want more umbrella stuff, which we get a little bit of in this movie. You get Raccoon City in this movie and you get little Easter eggs in this movie, but you're getting an original story. And I thought through the lens of somebody that is experiencing the beginning of the breakout of like a zombie slash monster like situation, we get the perfect character that would react like a lot of people would. Just they don't know how to do anything. They're scared. They're running for their lives. They're having these inner monologues. Austin Agerholm's killed it. Speaker 1 (11:35) He did play that character in weapons. Did you guys hear about how he actually got that role and weapons? How he was cast. Speaker 1 (11:45) No. So he went to a coffee shop to meet Zach Kregger to talk to him about the role. But he showed up in character and just continued acting in the way of the character of the junkie. And Zach Kregger was getting annoyed. So he finally just goes, you got the role. You got the role. You got the role. And Austin Arum drops it and just goes, really? And that was how he got the role was by showing up in character. convincing zach crager to give it to him that being said he was great in weapons his performance is what carries this movie uh so like this movie works from many different levels but none of it would work if he wasn't just absolutely locked in this entire movie What I really liked about this movie, and I think Dave, you even said this at one point, you said you felt like you were playing a video game as you watched this movie. And that's not in a negative light because what this movie was doing is it was bringing you through like a Resident Evil story from set piece to set piece to set piece. And it was so seamless and all of it made so much sense as you're going through it. And you're getting little Easter eggs from the Resident Evil games through it. There's a green herb at one point. We get the diamond key. at the gate which doesn't take away from people that doesn't that don't haven't played the games right so you get all these little Easter eggs but it's never it's never an in your face Easter egg it's like quickly behind in the back seat of a car it's a little thing that the character has to do there we get the key come out we see the diamond on it so like there's Easter Speaker 2 (13:26) eggs aside though like this the way this movie played out felt like you're you're doing a like a pov playthrough of a video game and i mean this in the best way possible because it also plays out like uh like a like a like a well-directed well-executed horror movie and you've got stuff that you might not even pick up on like if you go into this movie blinds not knowing it was a video game which now if you're watching this review and you plan to go watch it you can't do that because now you know because i just told you it's about a video game um but if you went in you wouldn't you probably wouldn't notice it But he's going through, you find a location and you go into the location. He finds a shotgun. He's like, perfect. It's hanging on the wall. He grabs it. Got to get ammo. He's rummaging through the drawers. This is like, you know, every survival horror game. Every survival horror game. Even like, it's like Red Dead. You know, you go through the, you're going through all the places looking for all the stuff. There's one scene that made me laugh. I think this is actually the scene that made me. make that comment to you was he goes into the fridge he grabs the cereal and the milk and he's eating the food out of the it's like you do that shit in video games you to replenish your health you go grab stuff out of the shelves in these places and then you know every single location you get there's another thing that you have to find a way to either beat the monster in that level or you have to uh you know solve a problem like figure out where you got to put the ladder and don't do the wrong thing with the ladder or you know or something like that and uh And it's just like this movie, like you kept hitting on that. And once you realize what they're doing, you're like, oh shit, this is actually really fun to watch because it's executed in a way where if you're a gamer, you're getting it. And if you're not a gamer, it doesn't matter. It's still playing out like a, like an interesting plot. Speaker 3 (15:10) Yeah. There was a few, there was a few things that I picked up on as well in terms of the guns he was leveling his guns up. So we started with the handgun, moved on to Speaker 2 (15:18) a Speaker 3 (15:18) shotgun, ended up with an MP40. And it just like the guns kept getting bigger. Excuse me. They kept getting better. And there were other scenes as well. Like they would do little cutaways of like first person view of him aiming the gun down a hallway and then, you know, using the flashlight. And it was very video gamey, but not over the top, like not in your face. Again, if you went into this movie like I did, well, I knew it was a video game. So I was picking up on these things as it was going. But at the same time, it's like it still plays out like a. a suspenseful horror movie with different obstacles in the way, different monsters. There was also a few of them that were like fight or flight. So he had a few options here where it's like, you could shoot this thing and try to fight this thing, or you can find a way to run away. And Speaker 2 (16:01) those are just always options that you have in all video games. It's like, all right, Speaker 3 (16:04) maybe I'll just avoid this one. It's not a boss fight. You know, I'm just going to avoid. I'll run into that Speaker 1 (16:09) crawly thing later or something like that. So Speaker 3 (16:11) yeah, Speaker 1 (16:12) it's very cool. It's very like, and that's a very important aspect of survival horror games is, is ammo conservation. It's like, you don't want to use all your ammo. Sometimes you want to try to get around some of these enemies and stuff. And I thought they, they did a really good job implementing that. There's a lot of stuff that stood out to me, obviously acting from Austin Abrams. Like we said, the, the other thing, I don't know if like, this is just something I'm hyper focused on lately for whatever reason, but the lighting and every scene of this movie. just rocks like they just lit every if it was snow always has a great aesthetic if you light it properly and film it properly so any of the snow scenes looked great but even the sewer scenes there was my favorite shot of this movie uh is just him walking down the sewer it was like waist high and the the backdrop of the light against him walking down the sewer was one of my favorite shots in this entire movie i mean that doesn't really spoil anything but you know that's That's the stuff that I really liked with this movie. Everything looks so good for a movie that's basically going from set piece to set piece to set piece. Every single one of them's distinct, got its own distinct look, and it's lit so well, and the lighting makes you feel what the character's sort of feeling. Yeah, Speaker 3 (17:34) weirdly enough, Speaker 1 (17:35) when we were going into this movie, because this is a movie that I wasn't able Speaker 3 (17:37) to go in completely blind where I saw the previews for it because it's on. you know, can't avoid it in certain scenarios. But, and I was like, oh, this movie looks like it's going to look awesome. So this was like the first time in a while that I've been like excited to go into the movie theater and just be immersed in like this crazy setting. And, and it delivered, it delivered right off the bat, especially with that driving through the snowy area. Like I was talking about earlier, I was like, oh, this scene alone is just like, it's just so well placed. Like the whole set was Speaker 1 (18:07) so good. Yeah. This was. I would say this. So let's get into our quick, if you should go see it or not see it. I think you should go see it in the theater. This was some of the most fun I've had at a movie theater in a long time. And I think it's worth going to see before we get into the spoiler section. What about you, Jesse? Speaker 3 (18:27) Yeah, I thought it was paced great and it was super entertaining. Again, shot really well. Just visually alone, it was just very cool. There was certainly plenty of gore, but it wasn't like Terrifier level gore where it's like, if this isn't your cup of tea, then you should avoid it. A little bit of body horror stuff, but overall, take the kids. Speaker 3 (18:51) Take the kids and drop them off at a babysitter and go see the movie. Dave? Speaker 2 (18:55) Yeah, I think you absolutely go see this movie. This movie is a lot of fun. I think that you're pretty much safe watching this movie unless you can't deal with some body horror. There's