Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Gets New Trailer, Teases Bryan’s Bad Night in Raccoon City

Zach Cregger is taking another swing at Resident Evil after a string of movies that left fans cold. His version opens in theaters September 18 and runs a tight 95 minutes. It stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who signs up for a double-pay job delivering an organ to Raccoon City General on a snowy night. He has a pregnant girlfriend waiting at home and zero idea what waits for him once the truck rolls into the wrong part of town.

Cregger co-wrote the script with Shay Hatten, and they made a deliberate decision not to include Leon, Jill, or Chris. Bryan isn’t a muscle-bound special forces soldier with a magical bullet-proof umbrella. No, he’s simply a regular person with no combat skills, just like everyone else who needs to dig around for bullets when playing Resident Evil. He’s going through old drawers and pockets for stray change, picking up a Heavy Field shotgun shell or a typewriter alongside herbs, just a few small elements that add up to make it feel like they’re genuine from the earlier games rather than being shoehorned in for a fast cheap thrill.

The plot takes place on the eve of the Raccoon City breakout, which fans will recognize from Resident Evil 2, but Bryan’s on-the-ground approach immerses you in the action as the city goes mad and Umbrella’s T-Virus havoc enters the picture. Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Paul Walter Hauser all appear as Umbrella scientists; one is a henchman and the other is an ex-military type. They keep the corporate narrative in the background while keeping your attention on Bryan’s point of view throughout.


Cregger and cinematographer Dariusz Wolski shot most of the film in a way that gets you right in the action, swinging the camera around with Bryan as if you were playing in one of those old houses or police stations. If Bryan stares up at a stairway or peers through a doorway, you can see through his eyes.


The majority of the gore and creature effects are practical, which makes a significant impact. One set piece features Bryan sprinting for his life down a wintry street, with bodies and infected leaping from the buildings and the occasional explosion lighting up the extremely black sky. Another lasts about half an hour with no edit breaks, creating a sense of tension that never lets up. Cregger claims that the film never lets up; the locales change, the threats worsen, and the speed builds until you reach the end, which he refers to as ‘one of the sequences I’m most proud of’.


Filming took place in Prague on a $80 million budget, with the idea of showing it off on giant IMAX screens, and based on what we’ve seen of the new trailer, the finished product appears to be striving for the same beat as the early games. This means limited resources, careful sluggish movement in the dark, and the constant fear that the next room will be much horrible than the last. Cregger imagines Bryan plunging into a nightmare and unwilling to back off.


We still have a few weeks till September 18th, but after seeing that new trailer, it seems like the wait will be a little more palatable. If you’ve felt that Resident Evil has lost its edge, this new perspective will finally bring out that raw survival sense you used to get from the original games.