How the ‘Resident Evil’ Movie Leaned Into the Video Game Aesthetic

From ‘Resident Evil’ (2026).

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil has been a hit at the box office and praised by critics, even if some fans of the video game franchise it’s based on have voiced their disapproval.

The film stars Austin Abrams as hapless courier Bryan, who has been tasked with transporting a medical bag to Raccoon City. While the plot doesn’t follow any specific storyline from the games, it does make use of video game-esque shots.

“I feel like people, people my age and younger, we grew up not just with movies as our visual touchstones, but with video games, right?” 45-year-old Cregger tells Mama’s Geeky during an interview at San Diego Comic-Con.

“I am visually informed by these games I played since I was a little kid. And so to me, having that third-person view that is constantly shifting as the character is shifting their attention is really immersive.”

Cregger says too few movies have utilized that video game aesthetic correctly and there was no better project for it than a Resident Evil adaptation.

“What we did a lot was really lean into that third-person follow camera, where it’s a wide lens. You see the whole world, but your protagonist is in the center,” Cregger says.

“And then I had my actor and my camera operator, they had to really work together to make sure that they were perfectly in time so that it feels like Austin’s attention is controlling the camera.”

As well as third-person shots, of which there are plenty, Cregger also employed first-person shots, like a first-person shooter video game.

“The camera’s so small now so you can just fix it to him and then you know [pretends to point gun] it’s not like you have this gigantic thing anymore,” Cregger tells Daily Dead.

“Sometimes we would attach the camera to the gun so it would sit exactly perfectly in the frame. We did that with the shotgun and the machine gun. And other times we would fix it to Austin and get a fluctuation.”

The game is filled with other Easter eggs for fans of the game, such as typewriters, a reference to the game’s save zones, struggling with locks, and murderous infected dogs.

PetaPixel reported on the cinematography of Cregger’s last film, Weapons, which used the infamous Napalm Girl photograph as inspiration.