Resident Evil Director Reveals the Scene That Almost Killed His Star, And Why He's Not Adapting the Games Outright

This morning, the full trailer for Zach Cregger’s next horror opus arrived, showing off even more footage from the upcoming Resident Evil. Having already made a name for himself in the genre space with both Barbarian and Weapons, the hype for the new movie is truly at a high that no other attempt to adapt Resident Evil for the big screen has been able to manage. That said, some fans of the games have been confused by the fact that the film is clearly telling an original story and not actually based on a narrative from one of the games. On top of that, it seems like no characters from the games will even be present at all.

Speaking at a preview event for Resident Evil, attended by ComicBook, Cregger addressed this directly, reiterating that he wanted the experience of watching his movie to elicit the same emotional reactions that gamers get when playing the game.

“I love that it’s not survival action, it’s survival horror. And it’s like this slow, creeping dread where you progress from set piece to set piece, and you always feel like you have maybe just enough to survive,” Cregger said. “Making a movie’s really hard, but it just feels like it’s right there, it’s in the games, just do what they do so well. And so I just wanted to make a movie that would, like, celebrate everything I think makes those games so special, but not cannibalize the stories that those games tell so well.”

Resident Evil Director Reveals Why the Movie Isn’t Adapting a Specific Game

Cregger went on to note that the narratives of the Resident Evil games are sophisticated enough for fans who play the games that bringing them to the big screen just for the sake of doing it wasn’t actually a path to telling an improvement of the story.

“I don’t think I can, like, tell Leon’s story better than the games tell Leon’s story,” Cregger added. “That feels to me like kind of a losing endeavor. But to tell a story that lives in the world of Raccoon City, on the eve of the outbreak, and playing by the rules where the Umbrella Corporation, the T-Virus, and all those things are there, but this story just kind of happens, you know, over here. That feels like a really fertile place to live. So that was kind of the thinking behind this.”

Cregger offered another tease for fans, seemingly confirming the rumors that have lingered over the movie that called it the Mad Max: Fury Road of horror, calling it “a big rollercoaster ride.”

“I want people who love the games the way I love the games to feel like they’re getting a Resident Evil movie that is deliberate.I want people to feel seen. Because I love these games, and I am making this to celebrate these games. So that is something I really hope.”

Resident Evil Almost Killed Its Star With One Stunt

Cregger also opened up about the practical nature of filming the movie and how tough it was, revealing how proud he was of the crew as they came together to solve the problem of figuring out how they would film some of the wildest moments of the sequel. As he puts it, “it takes a lot of really smart people getting in a room” to figure it all out, going on to cite that some of the big set pieces at the end of the film are bigger than anything he’s ever done.

The filmmaker went on to detail one of these major moments, and how it almost killed his star, Austin Abrams. As seen in the trailer, a moment with Abrams’ character has him running down a street as zombies rain down from the sky and land on the cars around him. Cregger revealed that this was achieved with practical effects, dropping massive bags of blood from cranes. As he revealed, though, one of these 150-pound bags of blood got released too early.

“It would have killed him if he had been one step to the right; he would have died,” Cregger said. “It’s in the movie, so it’s f–king worth it. I was pretty stoked. I was like, ‘Can we do that again? They’re like, ‘No, we can’t do that again; he almost died.’ That’s what’s so great about making movies: you have this scene, you have this amazing idea in your head, and then you just have all these people help you realize that idea and immortalize it on the screen, and there’s a real sense of teamwork and accomplishment, and I’m very proud of this movie. I feel like I grew a lot making it just as a filmmaker, and so I can’t wait to share it.”

Resident Evil is scheduled to be released in theaters on September 18th.

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