Zach Cregger's take on Resident Evil had its premiere Tuesday night, and the people who saw it are not being shy about liking it.

According to Variety and TheWrap, critics and film journalists who attended the screening are calling the Sony Pictures reboot one of the strongest video game adaptations to hit screens, with several going as far as saying it's the best Resident Evil movie of the six made so far. SplashReport's Kellvin Chavez wrote that the film "has its foot on the gas from the opening scene and NEVER hits the brakes," praising its "gloriously gory action" and "seriously twisted, Thing-esque creature designs." Variety's own Jordan Moreau called it "one of the best horror movies in recent memory."

The film stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who gets pulled into a viral outbreak while making a delivery to Raccoon City General Hospital. It's his second film with Cregger after last year's Weapons, and reactions suggest the pairing works again. Critic Tristian Circa '89 said Abrams plays "an everyman in way over his head," and multiple reviewers flagged the humour running through the carnage as a highlight rather than a distraction.

No Leon, no Jill, and that's the point

Here's the twist that's already stirring arguments among longtime fans. Cregger's version skips established series characters like Leon S. Kennedy or Jill Valentine entirely, opting for an original story set inside the games' world instead. Variety reports that decision hasn't gone down well with a section of the fandom, and Cregger himself has admitted he was "naive" to think he'd get away with an original story inside a franchise this loaded with expectation.

Whether that gamble pays off with wider audiences is a separate question from whether critics liked the film, and early word suggests the two things aren't lining up the same way. The reactions collected by both outlets skew almost uniformly positive, with only the occasional note, one reviewer said the back half "dragged a tad" after a stronger opening, otherwise reading like a rare consensus for a franchise reboot.

Resident Evil has been through a lot of hands since Milla Jovovich first led the series in 2002, running through four more Jovovich sequels and a 2021 Johannes Roberts-directed restart that didn't land the same way. Collectively, the franchise has pulled in more than $1.2 billion worldwide, per Variety, which is exactly the kind of number that makes a studio hand the keys to a director coming off something as acclaimed as Weapons.

Cregger wrote the script with Shay Hatten, and the supporting cast includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser and Johnno Wilson. The film opens in theatres September 18. Whether the enthusiasm from Tuesday's premiere crowd holds up once general audiences and the wider critical pool weigh in over the weekend is the thing to actually watch for now.