Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Is Now the Highest-Rated Video Game Movie Ever Made
Video game adaptations have carried a reputation for disappointing critics for decades, a pattern so consistent that fans and journalists alike have referred to it as a curse. Even recent standouts in the genre have often split audiences and reviewers right down the middle, making genuine critical consensus something of a rarity for the format.
That struggle has hit the ‘Resident Evil’ franchise especially hard on the big screen. The original live-action film series never cracked much above 33 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, and even the 2021 reboot, ‘Welcome to Raccoon City,’ managed only 30 percent, continuing a pattern of critical disappointment that has followed the Capcom franchise through six previous theatrical outings.
Zach Cregger’s new take on the series appears to have finally broken that streak in dramatic fashion. According to a recent report, Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ is now sitting at 96 percent on Rotten Tomatoes, a score being celebrated as the highest ever achieved by a video game adaptation among the format’s major theatrical releases.
That number lines up with the wave of critical praise that’s followed the film since its first reactions began circulating. Critics have repeatedly pointed to Cregger’s ability to capture the actual tension of playing a ‘Resident Evil’ game, blending relentless survival horror with the dark humor that’s become something of a signature across his filmography, from ‘Barbarian’ to the Oscar-winning ‘Weapons.’
To put that 96 percent in context, it’s worth looking at how other major video game adaptations have fared with critics in recent years. ‘The Last of Us’ Season 1 earned a stellar 96 percent from critics upon release, while ‘Fallout’ landed at 92 percent and ‘Arcane’ has ranged between 87 and 95 percent across its two seasons, both benchmarks that had previously stood among the format’s strongest results.
Other high-profile adaptations haven’t fared nearly as well. ‘The Super Mario Bros. Movie’ settled at just 54 percent with critics despite its massive box office success, and its 2026 follow-up, ‘The Super Mario Galaxy Movie,’ fell even further to a rotten 40 percent, even as audiences embraced both films enthusiastically. Against that backdrop, ‘Resident Evil’ pulling in 96 percent from critics represents a genuinely rare feat for a franchise built around this kind of source material.
It’s worth noting that a handful of smaller-scale animated ‘Resident Evil’ entries, like 2012’s ‘Damnation,’ technically hold 100 percent scores on Rotten Tomatoes, but those ratings come from a sample size of just five reviews, making them far less statistically meaningful than Cregger’s film, which has already collected dozens of reviews from major critics.
The first trailer for Zach Cregger's ‘RESIDENT EVIL’ has been released.
— DiscussingFilm (@DiscussingFilm) April 30, 2026
In theaters on September 18. pic.twitter.com/eeVCAGzy6M
Reviewers have been especially vocal about how the film manages to feel like an actual interactive experience rather than a passive adaptation. Several critics have drawn comparisons to John Carpenter’s ‘The Thing’ for its body horror and creature design, while others have singled out lead actor Austin Abrams for grounding the film’s chaos with genuine charm as medical courier Bryan, thrown into a nightmare scenario over the course of one impossibly bad night.
Cregger himself has described the project as a love letter to the games, aiming to replicate the exhilarating dread of pressing forward with dwindling resources and no idea what’s lurking in the shadows ahead. Given the response so far, that approach appears to have resonated deeply with critics who have spent years watching similar franchises fail to strike that same balance.
With ‘Resident Evil’ set to hit theaters on September 18, the film now carries the weight of both fan anticipation and genuinely historic critical acclaim heading into its opening weekend. If audience reception matches what critics are saying, Cregger may have just permanently changed the conversation around what a ‘Resident Evil’ adaptation, and video game movies more broadly, can actually achieve.
Do you think Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ deserves its status as the highest-rated video game movie ever?
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