// PC GAMER — GAMING
'The best videogame movie' ever? The first reviews of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil adaptation are absolutely glowing
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Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie comes out this week on September 18, and the early reviews have just dropped. It's good news for games and horror fans: it sounds like just about everyone likes it, with more than one reviewer calling it the best videogame adaptation ever made.
Granted, early reviewers are hand-picked by studios, so it pays to take these first batch of glowing reviews with a grain of salt—and speaking of salty, PC Gamer (despite asking nicely a number of times!) wasn't granted a press screening, so we can't offer our own take. I know, boo hoo, poor us. In the meantime, until we get a chance to see it ourselves, you can get hyped by what a bunch of other outlets have said about the latest Resident Evil flick:
GamesRadar+ (4/5): "Turns out eighth time's a charm, as despite much pre-release griping over the absence of iconic game characters like Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield, director Zach Cregger's Resident Evil isn't just the best Resi movie by a distance; it's the best video game movie full stop," says Jordan Farley.
Polygon (91/100): "Cregger takes his love for both the franchise and the genre and channels them into something we've never really seen before," says Jake Kleinman. "Resident Evil is funny, scary, gross, and beautiful. Above all else, it captures the fight-or-flight experience of actually playing a Resident Evil game."
Gamespot (8/10): "By backing away from the stories and characters of the video games, Cregger dodges the giant bullet of 'that’s not my Leon Kennedy' and instead lets us finally experience Resident Evil ourselves, through our own eyes," says Eric Frederiksen.
IGN (8/10): "With a laser focus on putting its hero through the worst night of his life," Tom Jorgensen says, "Resident Evil is a simple and exciting survival horror story that benefits greatly from director Zach Cregger’s sensibilities."
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Discussing Film (4/5): "Even though it’s an original story, Cregger’s take on Resident Evil sets a new high bar for video game movies by capturing the source material’s demented spirit while doing something clever and inventive with it.
Collider (8/10): "Clocking in at 90 minutes, Cregger's Resident Evil puts a lean, mean spin on an iconic horror franchise that's only poised to keep getting bigger, with a story that sits within the margins of the existing games while still giving fun, clever nods to its source material," says Carly Lane.