Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil premiered in Los Angeles on Tuesday night and drew strong first reactions from attendees. Sony opened the film to brief post-screening reactions while holding full reviews until 9 a.m. PT on Sept. 16.
Those first responses matter because Resident Evil is Sony’s second reboot of the franchise, following Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City in 2021 and the canceled Netflix TV series in 2022. Early reaction is the first public read on whether this version connects before it reaches theaters globally on Sept. 18.
The United Theater in Los Angeles
The world premiere took place at The United Theater in Los Angeles, where festivalgoers were allowed to post short thoughts after the screening. That early access gave the film an immediate audience read without opening the full-review floodgates, a controlled rollout that keeps the first wave of attention focused on reaction rather than criticism.
Austin Abrams plays a medical courier who gets caught up in the outbreak and must try to survive, with Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser also in the cast. The setup stays inside Raccoon City, where another viral outbreak turns people into monsters, and that narrower focus gives Sony a cleaner test of whether the reboot can sell itself on pressure and survival rather than familiar series faces.
Resident Evil and 2021
Cregger faced fan questions for not using familiar characters from the game series even as early reactions to the film were overwhelmingly positive. That split is the real business story here: Sony is asking audiences to accept a second reboot after the 2021 film underperformed and a TV expansion already failed, so the premiere response is doing the first round of persuasion for the studio.
Cregger also trimmed a number of jokes after test screenings, which suggests the version that played in Los Angeles was shaped by reaction before it reached the premiere crowd. For viewers, that usually means the film arriving in theaters on Sept. 18 is closer to the cut Sony wants to sell, and the cleanest reading now is that the studio has a better launch pad than it did with the last attempt.
Fantastic Fest Sept. 17
Resident Evil screens at Fantastic Fest on Sept. 17 before its global release on Sept. 18, giving the film one more public stop before opening day. If the early applause holds through that second screening, Sony will have a stronger case that this reboot can travel beyond franchise memory and into a real opening run.
