The new Resident Evil movie has early reactions calling it absolutely wild, and it's not even the game you're expecting

The first 30 minutes of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil just screened for a small audience, and the reaction is loud enough that the whole internet already has an opinion.

Cregger's take does not adapt any single game directly. Instead it tells an original story that runs parallel to the events of Resident Evil 2, landing in cinemas on 18 September. Early reactions from that partial screening are calling the opening stretch one of the best set ups to a horror film in a while, praising the way it balances real scares with genuine laughs, and singling out Austin Abrams as amazing playing a bumbling protagonist who is more comic relief than action hero.

That is a meaningfully different pitch to most video game adaptations, which usually either play it painfully straight or lean so hard into fan service that anyone who has not played the games is lost within ten minutes. Cregger built his reputation on Barbarian and Weapons, both films that mixed real dread with dark comedy, and early word suggests Resident Evil is the same formula applied to zombie mansion horror instead.

Worth the caveat that this is reaction to 30 minutes, not the finished film, and early buzz off a curated screening has burned plenty of movies before. Studios do not show off the slow bits.

Still, moody, creepy, atmospheric and funny is a genuinely good combination of words for a game adaptation to be earning before general release, especially one that is not even trying to retell a story fans already know by heart.

Reactions have also pointed to how much the footage actually feels like playing a Resident Evil game rather than just watching one, which is the specific complaint that has sunk nearly every prior adaptation in this franchise.

Catch it in cinemas from 18 September and decide for yourself whether the hype survives the full two hours.