Zach Cregger had his work cut out for him when it was announced that he was adapting the new Resident Evil reboot. Tackling an IP with such a huge fanbase would be overwhelming for any director, but Cregger’s passion for the franchise was clear from the outset. His previous two horror movies, Barbarian (2022) and Weapons (2025), were massive successes both critically and financially, so it stands to reason that he was already incredibly comfortable with the genre.
Still, apprehensions were high about whether the director could deliver a faithful adaptation, with some people even predicting that a rocky reception might deter him from ever helming another major franchise film. Now, with Resident Evil one day away from its theaterical debut (Sept. 18), early reactions have quelled those concerns, and it’s been so well received that social media commentators have been quick to place Cregger’s name in the same conversation as some of cinema’s most elite auteurs.
On X, one person compared his three-movie hit run to the likes of Quentin Tarantino, whose filmography really needs no introduction. They wrote: “Maybe I’m wrong, but I don’t think we’ve seen a director like Zach Cregger whose first three movies were all bangers since Quentin Tarantino. I can’t think of another comparison.” The bold claim immediately drew a crowd, with fans throwing names like Christopher Nolan, David Fincher, Robert Eggers, and Ryan Coogler into the ring. Another name that dominated the debate was Jordan Peele, who also found similar success with his three-movie run, Get Out (2017), Us (2019) and Nope (2022), as someone commented: “Zach Cregger is on the type of run that many thought Jordan Peele would be after Get Out.”
Whatever your definition of a cinematic “banger,” there’s no denying that Cregger’s bold vision for Resident Evil has paid off. The movie debuted on Rotten Tomatoes with an impressive 96%, narrowly beating out Exit 8 (2025) as the highest-rated video game adaptation so far. Meanwhile, early reactions have gone even further, hailing it a game-changing movie for the horror franchise. MovieWeb’s own Julian Roman described Resident Evil as a “near-perfect movie”, praising Cregger’s focus on gameplay mechanics and Austin Abram’s incredible performance as bumbling medical courier Bryan.
Given the massive pre-release hype and record-breaking projected box-office figures, a sequel seems all but inevitable – with or without Cregger at the helm. After all, the director has always been transparent with his intentions: he wanted to make a Resident Evil movie that satisfied his own artistic standards and honored lifelong fans of the franchise, but he has no immediate plans to ride the Resident Evil wave. While he is stepping away from the survival-horror sandbox for his next project – the highly anticipated sci-fi thriller The Flood – Cregger recently teased that he already has plenty of narrative ideas for a Resident Evil follow-up. And if the reboot truly delivers on all fronts, it is highly likely that both the studio and the audience will be begging him to return to Raccoon City.
