The First 18 Minutes of Zach Cregger’s ‘Resident Evil’ Is Exactly As Terrifying As You Want It to Be

If you, like me, love horror movies but hide behind anything you have while watching them, you’re going to love Zach Cregger’s take on Resident Evil. Based on the popular game series, Cregger’s adaptation takes a different video game to film approach. He’s putting a regular guy in the world of Raccoon City.

The Mary Sue was lucky enough to attend an event for the film. There, Cregger did a Q&A to talk about the film and gave us a look at a new trailer and the first 18 minutes of the film. If you thought Cregger’s first two films, Barbarian and Weapons, were scary, just wait to see what he does with a franchise he loves.

What does the footage show?

Bryan (Austin Abrams) is a runner for a hospital. He brings organs hospital to hospital to help. After one drop, he is persuaded to do another outside of his zone because it will pay double. All this takes place before the outbreak in the world of Resident Evil as the games tell us.

A lot of the footage we were shown (aka the first 18 minutes) sets up a lot about Bryan. His partner Michelle is calling him trying to talk about her “condition” at the beginning before it is revealed that she is pregnant and Bryan isn’t exactly being helpful in their conversation about the baby. All that goes out the window when he meets a woman in the woods and a police officer who is kind of doomed from the start.

As Bryan is driving in the snow that he is not outfitted for, he accidentally hits a woman who walks into the road slowly and without a care. He puts her into a cop car eventually and as they’re driving to the hospital, Bryan sees exactly what is really wrong with her. Many of the shots feel like you’re part of the game, with one particular moment being a first person shot!

From there, it kicks off the most stressful of opening sequences and it is just the beginning of the film. How I will survive this movie, I do not know. But I’m excited to find out just how terrifying Cregger’s take on this franchise actually is.

And that’s just the beginning

Part of what Cregger talked about in a Q&A portion of the event was how he wanted to put his foot on the gas and go. Hinting that what press saw at this event was just the tip of the iceberg of what he has planned for Resident Evil. Which does including dropping body bags on Abrams and almost killing him but at least it looks cool, right?

If the movie is “revving” up from this opening sequence and going full speed ahead, it is going to be a lot to unpack because Cregger did something special with the opening of Resident Evil. You already love and trust Bryan, you want him to succeed, and you will be terrified of what lurks in the shadows.

You can experience this take on the Resident Evil franchise this coming September 18.

(featured image: Sony Pictures)

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