During its CinemaCon presentation on Monday night, Sony offered a first look at the new Resident Evil film from Weapons and Barbarian helmer Zach Cregger.
A trailer played for the room only suggests that this will be a compelling watch for fans of Cregger’s past work. It introduces Austin Abrams as a young man trudging through a snowy night and up to a dark, empty house. He had a problem on the road, he says, and wants to use the phone. Calling his girlfriend, he says, “Some things have happened” and he’s in “a seriously f*cked-up situation,” and “we might not get to talk to each other again.”
We don’t see exactly what’s happening but get a glimpse at different creatures and bodies falling bloody in the snow from a great height.
In Creggers’ Resident Evil, Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in a nonstop race for survival as one fateful, horrifying night collapses around him in chaos.
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The new film marks the latest big-screen adaptation of Resident Evil, the popular horror video game series from Capcom, which has translated into one of the highest-grossing video game-based movie franchises ever.
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In an appearance tonight in Las Vegas, Cregger said the film is “a big, scary ride” he hoped would be “true to the spirit of the games.” He shared that he’s spent the last couple of decades playing “a sh*tload of Resident Evil” — “naturally cinematic” games, with their atmosphere, pacing, resource management and dread.
In comparison to his past films, he said, his take on Resident Evil will have “no narrative acrobatics, time jumps or disorienting chapter things.” Viewers will be “locked in with a protagonist on a foot journey through a world hell bent on destroying them.”
Launched in 1996, the Resident Evil video game franchise centers on the outbreak of a deadly virus tied to the shadowy Umbrella Corporation.
Milla Jovovich led the original Resident Evil series, spanning six films, which launched in 2002 and led to more than $1.2 billion in worldwide box office grosses. More recently, Sony returned to the world of Resident Evil with the Johannes Roberts-helmed 2021 reboot Welcome to Raccoon City.
Cregger directed the new Resident Evil, releasing via Columbia Pictures on September 18, from a script written with Shay Hatten. Constantin Film produced the pic and co-financed. The cast also includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis and Paul Walter Hauser. Producers included Robert Kulzer, Cregger, Roy Lee, Miri Yoon, Carter Swan and Asad Qizilbash. Executive producers are Oliver Berben, Victor Hadida, Richard Wright and Robert Bernacci.