Resident Evil remains one of the most successful and popular horror video game franchises in history, but the movies based on the games have rarely been great. However, that all changed in 2026 when Zach Cregger released his follow-up to the incredible horror movie Weapons and showed how to tell a Resident Evil story that paid homage to the games and avoided falling into the same trap as several other video game adaptations.
That said, Cregger’s Resident Evil isn’t the only entertaining movie based on the popular video game franchise. The original franchise was launched by director Paul W.S. Anderson with Milla Jovovich taking on the lead role of Alice, an original character who didn’t appear in the games. The first movie was a straight horror film, but the following movies moved more into the action-adventure genre, with Jovovich starring in six of them.
In 2021, Resident Evil rebooted with Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, but that movie didn’t see much success, and things remained dormant until 2026, when Cregger put a fresh coat of paint on the franchise and delivered a straight horror chase movie that seemed fresh and exciting. In all, there have been eight live-action Resident Evil movies, although not all compare well with the best.
8
Resident Evil: Apocalypse (2004)
In 2004, the Resident Evil franchise released Resident Evil: Apocalypse, the first sequel to Paul W.S. Anderson’s first film, but several things went wrong this time around. For one thing, Anderson wrote the script, but Alexander Witt signed on as the new director, and nothing seemed to connect as well as the original. That first movie succeeded as a straight-up horror movie, while this sequel tried to add more from the video games and fumbled the ball.
The movie does bring in some characters from the games, with Jill Valentine as the most notable, as well as introducing the villain Nemesis, who should have been a huge crowd-pleaser. The problem is that Valentine never works in this movie and is more of a satire of a female action hero rather than a flesh-and-blood character. After a scary first movie, this one failed and ended up with an 18% Rotten Tomatoes score for good reason.
7
Resident Evil: Afterlife (2010)
Resident Evil: Afterlife is the fourth movie in the series, and the first that saw Paul W.S. Anderson back as the director after sitting out the previous two releases. What hurts this movie and holds it back from some of the better releases in the series is that Anderson took several of the ideas he had for the franchise and crammed all of them into one movie, causing it to feel bloated and overloaded.
What makes it better than Resident Evil: Apocalypse is the characters. Kim Coates is great as Bennett, and the brother-sister duo of Claire (Ali Larter) and Chris Redfield (Wentworth Miller) was also a solid addition. The one thing that drags this movie down more than anything is Anderson going a little overboard with his action scenes, which often seem ludicrous and take attention away from the story.
6
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City (2021)
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was the 2021 movie that rebooted the franchise, the first in the series that didn’t include Milla Jovovich appearing as Alice. This was also the first that didn’t include Paul W.S. Anderson in any active role. Instead of Alice, this movie features a group of survivors fighting to stay alive inside Raccoon City during the zombie outbreak.
After the first movie was a straight horror film, the rest of the series shifted into a more post-apocalyptic action movie genre. The main goal of Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City was to bring the horror back to the series, while also filming scenes to look like the video games. The critics’ score was a low 30%, although the 65% audience rating was a bit higher. It ended up as a box office flop, and a sequel was canceled.
5
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter (2016)
Resident Evil: The Final Chapter is the last movie to feature Milla Jovovich as Alice, and by this time, everything is more of a post-apocalyptic thriller than a horror movie. While this movie is not great by any means, it is extremely fun and might be one of the best stories of the entire original six-movie franchise. If anything, this movie was a perfect conclusion for viewers who have followed the franchise since the first film.
It is disappointing not to see Jill, Leon, and Ada back in this film, but this is a great ending for Alice, who gets the ending the character deserved. There are some problems with the movie, with the directing and editing making many of the fight scenes hard to watch in some cases, and almost impossible in others. However, based on the storyline alone, this movie was a huge success.
4
Resident Evil: Retribution (2012)
Resident Evil: Retribution was the fifth film in the series, with Paul W.S. Anderson back as the writer/director and Milla Jovovich back as Alice. Out of all the movies in the original run, this was the one that felt the most like a video game. Most of the movie takes place in an underground Umbrella Corporation facility where they have digital worlds based on real places to test out their chemical weapons.
This allows the story to go from New York City and Tokyo to Moscow and suburban United States neighborhoods, without ever leaving the facility. This also allows it to have more of a video game progression feel, with each city/level having its own big boss to defeat. Bingbing Li is great as Ada Wong, as is Kevin Durand as Barry Burton, and Jill Valentine is miles better than in her debut. This movie is a clear love letter to the video games.
3
Resident Evil (2002)
Released in 2002 by Paul W.S. Anderson, the first Resident Evil movie is a horror film that shows the outbreak in Raccoon City at the start of the infection. However, it is not an adaptation of the video games and is a self-contained horror film with an original character named Alice fighting for her survival when trapped in a large house during the outbreak.
It received criticism for not being a straight adaptation of the games, but it is a great horror movie. Alongside Milla Jovovich as Alice, Michelle Rodriguez was also fantastic as Rain, and this is a movie that has two female action heroes at the top of their game. The villain, the Red Queen, was also great, and while this could have been a fantastic stand-alone horror movie, it did set the table for the franchise that followed.
2
Resident Evil: Extinction (2007)
Resident Evil: Extinction is the third movie in the franchise, and while Paul W.S. Anderson wrote the script, it was Russell Mulcahy (Highlander) who directed the film. After the overall disappointment of Resident Evil: Apocalypse, this is the movie that revived the franchise and ensured it could continue on to finish Alice’s story. Much of this is thanks to opening up the world and Mulcahy’s great direction.
The story moves out of Raccoon City and shows a world that has already fallen to the outbreak. Instead of the more claustrophobic horror of the first two movies, this is more of a Mad Max-style post-apocalyptic thriller, with factions set up to fight zombies and fight each other for control of the world. The movie brings in Claire Redfield and brings back Carlos Oliveira from Resident Evil: Apocalypse. This movie delivers the most fun of the original movies by far.
1
Resident Evil (2026)
The best Resident Evil movie ever made arrived in 2026 with the rebooted Resident Evil by Zach Cregger. The director proved with his earlier movies, Barbarian and Weapons, that he was a master at balancing horror and comedy, so deeply disturbing and grotesque moments were often countered with comic moments and funny one-liners to take the audience on a roller-coaster ride of emotions.
This introduces a new character, Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier taking something to Raccoon City Hospital. On the way, he accidentally hits a woman with his car, and then, when she turns into a ravenous monster and starts chasing him, he runs. Bryan is not an action hero, and he is in no way capable of fighting back. It makes Resident Evil an intense, yet incredibly funny, horror-thriller ride that respects the source material but delivers something even better.
- Release Date
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September 18, 2026
- Runtime
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90 Minutes
- Director
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Zach Cregger
- Writers
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Shay Hatten, Zach Cregger
- Producers
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Asad Qizilbash, Carter Swan, Miri Yoon, Robert Kulzer, Roy Lee, Zach Cregger, David Minkowski
