Resident Evil
★★★½Worth watchingIs Resident Evil worth watching? (No spoilers)
Go in knowing this is NOT a horror movie. It's a dark action comedy, and as that, it's great: I laughed the whole time, and the main character is brutally relatable. The first 30 minutes are the strongest, and the ending feels rushed. Worth watching, but make sure to manage your expectations.
⚠️ Spoiler warning: everything below the quick take, including the full review and ending explained, contains spoilers.
Resident Evil review
Resident Evil is NOT a horror movie. Even though the film is directed and produced by horror creators, labeled as horror, and has a spooky trailer.
If anything it's an dark action comedy film with a side of thriller.
So understandably I left feeling a little cheated and unsatisfied. The entire movie I was sitting there waiting for shit to get real, and it just never did.
If anything, the final 30 minutes were the goofiest of all.
However putting that aside, the film was great. As a dark comedy it was amazing. I was laughing the entire time. The main character was brutally real and relatable. From not understanding how guns work, to the constant cussing, and of course the locks.
The first 30 minutes is by far the strongest. This is when the feeling of upcoming dread is strongest, and when the realness of the protagonist is the strongest (and most laugh inducing).
The second act is also quite strong, although the camera hanging on the monsters for so long ruins a lot of the mystique and horror.
The ending was quite abrupt. It felt like we lost any sense of horror, instead relying fully on action. The story was quite good enough for this to work. The full reveal of the somewhat lackluster monsters really hurt the ending.
And while I love to see a protagonist die, it felt rushed and unfulfilling.
Overall, while far from horror, and nowhere near The Barbarian or Weapons, Resident Evil was a wild ride, and will be worth a rewatch later. As I feel going in with more accurate expectations will help tremendously.
Is Resident Evil scary?
Scare level: 2/5
Not really, despite the marketing. There's some creature and body horror (mutated babies, a transformation) and some gory kills, but it plays more like a dark action comedy. The dread is strongest in the first 30 minutes, then it turns into pure action. Nowhere near Barbarian or Weapons. Think of the first 30 minutes as Alien, and the rest as Aliens.
Resident Evil ending explained
After the rest of his group is killed, Bryan escapes through the sewers to Raccoon City General Hospital and leaves his pregnant girlfriend a voicemail apologizing for how he reacted to her news. Amazingly he manages to find the building, however only after becoming infected himself.
Bryan delivers what the scientists need, and they make a cure. But unfortunately he is quickly turning into a mutation himself. Still pleading for the antidote, he kills the scientists one by one. The final one falls from the building, and the only vial of the cure drops and is lost. Bryan roars as helicopters close in over a burning Raccoon City.
It's a deliberately hopeless ending, showing us what this world feels like to a random NPC.
My take: I love seeing a protagonist die, but this felt rushed.
Does Resident Evil have a post-credits scene?
No. Resident Evil (2026) has no mid-credits or post-credits scene. The credits are just music over black.
Movies like Resident Evil
- Weapons (2025) – Zach Cregger's horror follow-up
- Dawn of the Dead (2004) – survival against the infected