Diana Cedeño, PhD
I’ve always thought that what makes a good horror movie is the feeling it leaves you with after it ends. That feeling doesn’t have to be fear; what matters is that something stays with you. But that response also depends on your connection to the film and the expectations you bring to it. Those expectations were especially relevant when I watched Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil (2026). As a fan of the games, I came with an open mind. I knew Leon S. Kennedy, Ada Wong, or even Alice weren’t in it, so I was prepared for a different story. By the end, though, I found myself drawn to its protagonist’s ordinary concerns: earning extra money (and in this economy?), getting the job done, and trying to help. That connection made his eventual transformation particularly unsettling. Before his transformation, Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a medical courier trying to get through a difficult assignment. His circumstances become increasingly grotesque, but there is something familiar about his initial predicament: he has work to finish and personal concerns that cannot simply be put aside.
