Following the success of “Weapons,” director Zach Cregger gears up for his take on the classic game “Resident Evil” in a new film. Cregger co-wrote the script with Shay Hatten (“Army of the Dead,” “Rebel Moon,” “John Wick: Chapter 4”) and places the film during the events of the second game, set in 1998. Austin Abrams, who starred as James in “Weapons,” leads the cast.
Also behind 2022’s breakout horror film “Barbarian,” Cregger knows a thing or two about delivering the goods when it comes to scary imagery, grotesque gore and buckets of blood worthy of Stanley Kubrick. In the official trailer for “Resident Evil,” the second reboot of the franchise, he doesn’t hold back when it comes to the violence and the blood. Fans will be happy.
‘Resident Evil’ Official Trailer
In the official trailer, “Resident Evil” ups the ante with some terrifying images and gives the audience a deeper glimpse into the story, as well as some Easter eggs to the game (e.g., the typewriter). Abrams plays a medical courier who delivers organs to hospitals and clinics. During a blizzard, he takes a delivery (worth double the pay) to the general hospital in Racoon City. But when he hits a pedestrian crossing a snowy backroad, he winds up at the center of mayhem that feels ripped directly out of the game.
The visuals thud with tension. When the courier seeks to use a phone at a nearby house, he’s pursued by the person he just hit, leading into a heart-pounding chase for survival. The video features blood raining from the sky, his desperate search for bullets and an overwhelming sense that he might not make it out alive.
During a recent press screening of the film’s first 18 minutes, Cregger took part in a Q&A session in which he discussed making a film with a more linear structure. “I didn’t want to be like the weirdo who breaks story structure. I did that with ‘Barbarian.’ I did it with ‘Weapons,'” he told the group of influencers and press, as reported in-depth by Mama’s Geeky. “I figured that it would be really 180 for me to do something that is just locked in with one character from point A to point B, and just keep it simple.”
“By design, it does not stop. It’s an unrelenting thing,” he added.
‘Resident Evil’ Isn’t Much of a Zombie Movie
According to Zach Cregger, moviegoers shouldn’t expect many zombies in the movie. “It’s much more focused on the weird creature stuff than the zombies,” he told IGN around the previously released teaser. “There’s really only two scenes, maybe three, where there’s proper zombie stuff going on.”
“I wouldn’t call this like a zombie movie,” he continued. “I just feel like, you have this opportunity for the T-Virus to do all these really fascinating things to the human body, and to the world around you, and so to just limit it to zombies feels like a squandered opportunity.”
Based on the teaser and official trailer, “Resident Evil” is shaping up to be much more than your run-of-the-mill zombie movie. Cregger has expanded the world and digs into the strange impact the virus outbreak has on the environment. The film now ranks high on the must-watch horror list for the rest of 2026.
