As someone who doesn’t play games, either literally or figuratively, I have no opinion on how faithfully the new Zach Cregger-helmed reboot of the Resident Evil franchise follows the Capcom classic, but I did see a few of the Paul W.S. Anderson film adaptations that made so much money while—from what I understand, at least—veering widely from the feel and substance of the game, especiallly since they centered on a hero, played by Anderson’s wife, Milla Jovovich, who wasn’t in the game and reportedly had little to do with its whole vibe. Cregger’s version is nothing like Anderson’s, which was mostly about kicking zombie ass. Cregger simply places his protagonist, a young medical courier named Bryan (Austin Abrams), in a horror show situation in order to see if he can just survive it. What ass-kicking he does is mostly on the fly and conducted without anything approaching skill or finesse. Most of the time his survival is based on what we would call luck, though that may be taking something away from the gaming element. But that’s the thing: I’m assessing the movie purely as a movie.

And in that regard, it mostly succeeds at what it sets out to do, which is gross us out and make us root for the hapless hero. Unlike Cregger’s more celebrated previous two films, Barbarian and Weapons, his Resident Evil isn’t particularly frightening. The jump scares are telegraphed well in advance and the situations are staged for maximum visual effect rather than any emotional ones. The plot is so elementary it can be described in one sentence: Bryan is tasked with taking what he believes to be an organ for transplant from hospital A to hospital B, and on the way he is beset by zombies who have been infected with a virus that has somehow escaped from hospital B. What makes the biggest impression is the zombies themselves, which aren’t simply lurching meat-seekers but a wildly diverse group of monstrosities that have the power to fuse together to make more massive and more deadly monstrosities. Bryan, as befits a Gen Z hero who has probably not played the game, has to learn how to use guns along the way and keep cool under pressure, and in that regard he earns our sympathies without any effort. In fact, what makes this Resident Evil so involving is how cleanly he enlists our sympathies, a particular talent that Cregger displayed in his two previous movies. People say Cregger is the future of horror, and I wouldn’t disagree, because his protagonists feel more real than the horror stereotypes we’ve become accustomed to.

The stereotyped hero of the crime thriller Absolution is nailed from the get-go by the actor who plays him: Liam Neeson. The screenwriter, Tony Gayton, neglects to name this character (the credits list him merely as “Thug”), but Neeson quickly establishes his m.o. as an antihero: former boxer who ended up employed as an enforcer by a Boston crime lord (Ron Perlman) and, now at the end of his life and suffering from encroaching senility (CTE, to be exact), yearns to do something right for a change. The filigree is equally predictable: estranged from his children for years, he tries to reestablish ties with his daughter and then uses his inside knowledge of the Boston underworld to save a trafficked woman from the brothel where she is essentially imprisoned. 

Since Neeson is the only real reason to see Absolution, a caveat is in order: this is not one of those stories where his character has to eliminate countless goons in order to retrieve a loved one. It’s more on the order of The Friends of Eddie Coyle, though not nearly as elegantly plotted. That said, Gayton’s script is well-constructed, with characters established in the beginning returning at the end to assert those qualities we’ve already learned about them to deliver on the story’s dramatic intentions. Also, Absolution is not really an action film, though there are a few bits of violence. It’s mainly Neesom acting his age and imbuing a less-than-sympathetic character with more humanity than he deserves. And while the dialogue is cleverer than it needs to be, it’s by the same token better than it usually is in a Neesom thriller. “It’s the family curse of the asshole father,” someone says sarcastically when the Thug inadvertently reveals he was abused as a kid. The guy’s brief affair with a much younger black woman (Yolonda Ross) he sticks up for at a bar is unnecessary, but at least their pillow talk feels more or less natural. And the requisite meet cute with a grandson he didn’t know he had is played strictly for heartstring-pulling. But it’s a surprisingly assured production with its own prickly rhythms and an atmosphere that’s convincing. It stands on its own. 

Resident Evil opens Oct. 9 in Tokyo at Toho Cinemas Nihonbashi (050-6868-5060), Toho Cinemas Hibiya (050-6868-5068), 109 Cinemas Premium Shinjuku (0570-060-109), Shinjuku Wald 9 (03-5369-4955), Shinjuku Piccadilly (050-6861-3011), Toho Cinemas Shinjuku (050-6868-5063), Toho Cinemas Roppongi Hills (050-6868-5024).

Absolution opens Oct. 9 at Toho Cinemas Chanter Hibiya (050-6868-5001). 

Resident Evil home page in Japanese

Absolution home page in Japanese

Resident Evil photo (c) 2026 CTMG

Absolution photo (c) 2026 TG Movie LLC