As Resident Evil fans brace for a new major-screen take on the video game, Zach Cregger recalled a practical stunt that nearly took a deadly turn. The co-writer/director recently detailed a sequence that“Would’ve killed”star Austin Abrams if the actor was one step off while filming the Sony adaptation, which premieres Sept. 18 in theaters.
“And so, we had to basically design this thing where he’s just running and bodies are just falling and detonating all around him. And I knew I didn’t want to do it with VFX because I feel like it would just look like VFX. So, I was like, ‘How do we do this where all these explosions are real?'
”The scene ultimately called for heavily rehearsing precise choreography as Abrams navigated an obstacle course of 150-lb“Body-sized blood bags”falling from cranes around him, one of which came dangerously close to hitting the actor. Cregger added,“It would’ve killed him. If he had been one step to the right, he would’ve died.
[The shot is] in the movie, so it’s f*cking worth it. I was pretty stunned. … That’s what’s so great about making movies is 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. I’m very proud of this movie. I feel like I grew a lot making it, just as a filmmaker.”
In Cregger’s Resident Evil, Abrams stars as medical courier Bryan, who has to clash for survival when a sudden outbreak occurs while he’s making a delivery. Co-written with Shay Hatten, Cregger’s Resident Evil landed at Sony last March, with the cast growing to include Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser and Johnno Wilson. Based on the 1996 Capcom video game, Resident Evil has been adapted into seven movies since 2002, including a 2021 reboot, with the franchise surpassing $1.
2 billion at the box office. In 2022, Netflix canceled its Resident Evil series after one season. “F*cking worth it,”states the man who didn’t face any danger himself.
This is a crazy thing to say.