I’m on a hunt for the scariest movies of all time! I’ll be looking at films of any era, from any country, and then reviewing them based solely on how terrifying they are.

If you have a suggestion for a horror movie, please let me know on Bluesky.

Please be advised, spoilers may lie ahead!!

Resident Evil (2026)

Director: Zach Cregger

Starring: Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry

W-w-whaaaaaat?!

Back-to-back entries for The All-Time Scariest this Resident Evil week? Could it be a matter of convenient release timing, or did I just not have enough article ideas to fill an entire five-day slate? I’ll never tell…

Regardless of the reason, we are stepping off the hamster wheel of Alice movies for once, and making a late night delivery with the newly released Resident Evil film from Zach Cregger. It’s proven a surprise hit for critics and predictably divisive amongst the RE faithful, but the only question we want to see answered is simple: is this one actually fucking scary for once?

I hope you’re ready to sequence break for the second time in RE Week 2026, because we’re entering the Creggerverse… now!

Resident Evil (as we shall be referring to it henceforth, despite the fact that that title already belongs to roughly four other products) is a modern retelling of the infamous night that Raccoon City succumbed to the dreaded outbreak.

This time, it is from the perspective of an oblivious civilian in the form of Bryan Hodukavich (Abrams). Bryan is a humble organ courier, and he has accepted a last minute job to make a priority delivery to the Raccoon City General Hospital — despite the fact that he has to drive through a Colorado blizzard without the necessary tire fittings.

His night goes from bad to worse when he strikes a woman with his car, kicking off a horrifying series of events as he discovers that something sinister is happening in Raccoon City. What began as a routine job takes him on a wild misadventure where he must fend off ghouls of all shapes and sizes, and to put it kindly, our boy is way in over his head.

Right off the bat, the setup feels pure RE. The zombie car collision premise is a cue taken straight from the Resident Evil 2 remake opening cutscene, but the way it plays out is a little more absurd. For better or worse, Bryan tries really hard to do the right thing, propping the clearly disturbed woman up in his car to drive her to the hospital.

It sets the tone for the rest of the film, because Resident Evil is a surprisingly funny experience throughout. We very much see the experience through Bryan’s lens, as he mutters under his breath and bumbles his way through every mishap. This could be insufferable, were it not for the fact that many of his errors are actually quite relatable. He doesn’t just pick up a gun and suddenly know what he’s doing; he often panics and sprays bullets indiscriminately.

We’ll circle back to Bryan’s personality a bit later, as I want to gush about the film’s first act for a bit longer. It’s no stretch to say that the events that occur during the first zombie encounter and Bryan’s subsequent visit to the farmhouse are the finest moments in Resident Evil cinematic history.

Finally, we have a proper fucking zombie movie, and as odd as the winter landscape might seem to purists, it is used to great effect. Seeing the zombie come barrelling out of the complete darkness as it stalks the protagonist is wonderfully jarring, and special credit has to go to Andrea Miltnerová for her performance in this respect: she comes across as downright animalistic, operating on ravenous instinct.

The film employs several wide shots of monsters running through the darkened woods in a manner that is reminiscent of cryptid footage, and in one particular instance it sets things up for a masterful bait-and-switch. I won’t go into too much detail, but it’s likely my favourite jump scare that I’ve seen in ages. Strangely enough though, when it happened, I wasn’t frightened — instead, I laughed in delight.

This brings me to a strange phenomenon that I experienced while watching Resident Evil; in some ways, it was perhaps a little too well crafted for its own good. There were a few instances where I thought, “oh, I think this should happen next,” and I was dead on the money. It’s not that it’s predictable or formulaic in any way, but a good horror movie sets things up in a certain way to the trained eye.

As Bryan makes his way deeper into Raccoon City, he must overcome hurdles lifted directly from survival horror, such as resource management, traffic blockages, and all those godforsaken keys. It’s a great touch that pays deference to the source material, keeping things fresh while also allowing for some interesting perspective shifts. Remember how that cheesy Doom movie from 2005 had that hamfisted first person scene? Resident Evil does that sometimes as well, but in a way that makes us feel like we’re a very real part of the danger.

The monster designs are also very much in line with the games, with the main attraction being the ghastly stalker-type enemy unofficially dubbed the amalgam (or tumbleweed). This twisted mass of bodies is a spectacular sight to see as it flops about in an unnatural manner; a true eldritch horror that is chilling to behold.

And yet, this is where I must acknowledge the clear tonal shift that occurs in the film’s back half. In much the same fashion as Resident Evil Requiem, once Bryan arrives at Raccoon City proper, the focus shifts from horror and isolation towards showy action set pieces. It’s still intriguing from a viewership standpoint, but it confirms the suspicions I had when I first peeped the trailers: the scare factor is pretty much reserved for the first 40 minutes or so.

As per the norm for the medium, zombies go from being a real one-on-one threat to an anonymous obstacle that can be bypassed. And while the amalgam makes its presence felt throughout, growing larger as it acquires more corpses, once you’ve seen it for the first time, you’ve gotten the general idea.

Additionally, the overly jocular nature of this film constantly undermines the tension. Your mileage of fear — and tolerance in general, if that isn’t your cup of tea — hinges very much on whether you find Bryan loveable or annoying.

So I guess I’m left asking… if the scariest part of the film was what we saw in and around the farmhouse, how scary could it really be? It’s a lot of heavy lifting for just one scene (though Smile got a boost in its scare score based on a single fucking shot), and although I believe it was well done, I can’t really say that it ever got me to jump. At best, the first shot of the amalgam gave me a tiny shiver, but little else.

That shiver is still more than the entire bloated mess of Anderson slop ever generated, however, so I think it’s only fair that Cregger’s Resident Evil ekes out a tiny little half paw for scariness. It might seem like a backhanded compliment, but when you consider that all five Alice films have combined for a grand total of zero fucking paws up to this point, it’s a true watershed moment for Resident Evil movies.

Final Verdict

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is a fine film that uses its source material as a guideline while ultimately telling an original story. Outside of a few references and nods, it’s really more “in the style of Resident Evil” while bearing closer resemblance to The Thing, which might stick in your craw if you’re a diehard fan.

If you don’t get frightened by the time Bryan leaves the farmhouse, it’s safe to say you probably won’t get spooked at any point thereafer. It’s still an enjoyable romp, at least, and a welcome reprieve from the godforsaken Andersonverse with all of its unnecessary explosions and backflips.

Bryan > Alice, don’t @ me.