Culture 4 min read By Morgan Griffin
Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Becomes Best-Reviewed Video Game Movie Ever on Rotten Tomatoes
Zach Cregger's reboot of the Resident Evil franchise has officially become the best-reviewed video game movie of all time on Rotten Tomatoes, with a near-perfect debut score of 98 percent.
Zach Cregger's upcoming reboot of Resident Evil has officially become the best-reviewed video game movie of all time, according to Rotten Tomatoes. The film debuted with a near-perfect score of 98 percent on the review aggregation site, crushing the all-time record for the franchise and setting a new benchmark for adaptations of video games.
The record marks a dramatic reversal of fortune for a series that has long been dismissed by critics. The previous eight Resident Evil films, six of which starred Milla Jovovich, were routinely panned, and video game adaptations as a whole have historically struggled to earn critical respect. Cregger's take, by contrast, has been greeted as a smart and original reboot that brings style, humor, and a fresh perspective to the horror franchise.
At the center of the new film is Austin Abrams, who plays a medical courier named Bryan. As the story begins, Bryan is already having a rough night: his girlfriend Michelle has just told him she is pregnant, and he did not take the news well. He then picks up a gig that pays, and the night takes a turn into the monstrous. Critics have singled out Abrams for a performance that anchors the film's blend of scares and comedy.
Cregger, who broke out with the inventive horror film Barbarian and followed it with the Oscar-winning Weapons, was initially a surprising choice to helm yet another entry in Sony's long-running franchise. The director's track record in original horror made him an unlikely candidate for a reboot of a series that had already spawned roughly eight movies. Yet the result has been described as different from, and much better than, its predecessors — a creepy, squishy monster movie that takes its time and carries a strange innocence, at moments evoking the grindhouse energy of Planet Terror.
The 98 percent debut is not merely a franchise record but an all-time high for the video game movie genre on Rotten Tomatoes. That distinction matters for an industry that has spent decades trying to crack the code of adapting interactive entertainment for the screen. Where earlier efforts were often weighed down by slavish fidelity to game mechanics, Cregger's film has been praised for never getting bogged down in video-game sludge, instead treating the material as a springboard for a one-man-against-the-zombies lark.
The reviews suggest the film succeeds on its own terms as a horror-comedy rather than as fan service. Descriptions of the movie emphasize its funky monster fun, its willingness to take its time, and its weird innocence — qualities that have helped it stand apart from the franchise's earlier, more self-serious installments. For a series that began as a survival-horror video game and became a B-movie staple, the critical turnaround is notable.
For Sony, the record offers a potential creative reset for one of its most durable horror properties. For Cregger, it confirms his status as one of the most interesting voices working in the genre, now applying his sensibilities to established intellectual property without losing the personality that defined his earlier work. For Abrams, it adds a prominent leading role in a franchise that has historically been defined by its star, Milla Jovovich.
The film's near-perfect Rotten Tomatoes score also arrives at a moment when video game adaptations are enjoying a broader critical and commercial resurgence. Whether the record holds as more reviews arrive remains to be seen, but the debut already places Cregger's Resident Evil at the top of a category that has long been a punchline. The movie is expected to draw significant attention from both longtime fans of the franchise and newcomers drawn by the director's reputation.
