Hideo Kojima does not review many films. When he does, the gaming world pays attention — if only because his six-word dismissal of Madame Web became almost as famous as the movie itself. So when the creator of Metal Gear Solid and Death Stranding turned his attention to Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil, expectations were predictably high.
The verdict, shared on X (formerly Twitter) on 12 October, is surprisingly warm — though characteristically layered. Kojima admitted he “wasn’t particularly interested at first” but watched the film because of Cregger’s involvement. What he found was not a straightforward adaptation of the Capcom survival horror series, but something altogether stranger and, in his view, more interesting.
‘A Film About the Players’
Kojima’s review opened with a comparison to John Carpenter’s The Thing, noting that the film’s opening score immediately evokes that classic horror atmosphere. From there, he described what follows as “a relentless barrage of classic horror techniques, terrifying situations, and jump scares that never lets up until the very end.”
Whether that description constitutes praise or gentle criticism is open to interpretation. Calling something a “relentless barrage” of genre techniques could suggest admiration for the craft or a sense that the film leans too heavily on familiar tricks. Kojima’s reviews are rarely unambiguous, and this one is no exception.
But then he delivered the line that matters most: “This isn’t a film adaptation of Resident Evil. It’s a film about the experience of playing Resident Evil, controller in hand.”
Context: Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil is not a direct adaptation of any single game. It takes place “on the periphery” of Resident Evil 2, drawing on the franchise’s lore while telling an original story. IGN scored the film 8/10.
Game Over, Shouting ‘F***!’
The most revealing passage in Kojima’s review is also the most personal. He compared watching the film to his own experience playing the original Resident Evil on PlayStation in 1996, drawing a direct parallel between the movie’s protagonist Bryan and himself as a frustrated player.
“It reminded me of how I felt when I first played the original Resident Evil on PlayStation back in 1996. I was just like Bryan in this movie. I kept getting game over after game over, shouting ‘F***!’ over and over again. lol”
It is a charming admission from one of gaming’s most revered auteurs — the man behind some of the most meticulously crafted interactive experiences in the medium’s history, confessing that he screamed profanities at his television while dying repeatedly in a haunted mansion. It also speaks to something essential about what makes Resident Evil work, both as a game and, apparently, as a film: the friction between competence and failure, the gap between what players want to do and what they actually manage to pull off.
Cregger’s film, according to multiple reviews, leans into that gap. Bryan is not a skilled survivor — he screams, runs, and demonstrates what one reviewer generously called “terrible aim.” That is precisely the point. The movie captures the experience of being bad at Resident Evil, of fumbling through corridors while something unspeakable chases you, which is how most people actually played the game.
The Kojima Review Scale
There is an informal metric among Kojima followers: the longer the review, the more positive he feels about the film. His Madame Web verdict was six words. His Electric State assessment is apparently still pending. By those standards, Kojima’s Resident Evil review — multiple paragraphs, a personal anecdote, and a photo of the Japanese theatrical poster — qualifies as enthusiastic.
He also mentioned being “happy I managed to pick up a program for Digger,” a small detail that suggests he enjoyed the cinema experience enough to collect memorabilia. For a director known to be particular about his environment — Kojima has previously spoken about his sensitivity to light and sound in theatres — that is no small compliment.
The film itself has been receiving strong notices. Multiple reviewers have called it the best video game movie ever made, with praise for Cregger’s ability to translate the survival horror genre’s specific tensions to the screen. Our own review awarded it four stars, describing it as “frightening, funny and exceedingly bloody.”
What It Means for Video Game Films
Kojima’s observation that the film is “about the experience of playing” rather than a literal adaptation touches on a tension that has defined video game movies for decades. The most successful entries in the genre — from the early Resident Evil films through to recent successes like The Last of Us on television — have understood that translating a game to screen requires capturing the feeling of interaction, not just the plot.
Cregger appears to have taken that principle to its logical conclusion. By making Bryan an imperfect, frightened everyman who behaves exactly like a struggling player, the film replicates the emotional texture of survival horror in a way that straightforward adaptations rarely achieve. The jump scares and horror set pieces are effective, but the real achievement is making the audience feel the same frustration, panic, and dark humour that defines the games themselves.
Whether Kojima would describe it as a masterpiece is unclear. His review is positive without being effusive, appreciative without being uncritical. But coming from a filmmaker and game designer of his stature — someone who understands both the mechanics of horror and the specific pleasures of playing through it — the endorsement carries weight. And the image of Kojima himself, controller in hand, shouting at the screen in 1996, is one that neatly captures why these games endure.
