Empire Magazine has shared a new promo still for Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie, featuring Austin Abrams' character, Bryan, with what appears to be a zombie's hand clasped over his mouth.
Is this undead passenger real, or a figment of Bryan's imagination? The theory is that Bryan is seeing a zombified version of his girlfriend in this scene, and perhaps throughout the movie.
“It feels like one gigantic sequence," Cregger said of his take on the survival horror video games. "Things pop off about five minutes in and it basically stays like that until the end. What I love about the games is that you move from set-piece to set-piece. Every location has a unique challenge ... I’m borrowing from the games directly in that rhythm, where you’re just running through a gauntlet"
“The concept here is that we’re following an idiot,” he went on. “Not that he’s stupid, but he’s not your typical game character, with no combat skills whatsoever and completely inept at survival. Bryan is very much an everyman who happens to be burdened with this kind of sacred mission that’s going to take him into the heart of everything. It’s kind of like Frodo going into Mordor.”
A test screening for the movie was held recently, and while the feedback (via World of Reel) was positive, Cregger's take is said to have "practically nothing to do with the games, aside from a few Easter eggs and some recognizable monsters."
"I don't think my telling a story that's not about Leon is a violation of the Resident Evil world because the games do that all the time," Cregger told Screen Rant in a recent interview "Leon's not in seven or eight, so they're allowed to jump around. So I figure if I am honoring the games, I'm just going to tell another story that feels like playing a game in the world of the game, but I'm not stepping on the toes of any of Leon's storyline."
The most recent Resident Evil feature was Johannes Roberts' (47 Meters Down, The Strangers: Prey at Night) Welcome to Racoon City, starring Kaya Scodelario (Crawl) as Claire Redfield, Hannah John-Kamen (Ant-Man and the Wasp) as Jill Valentine, and Robbie Amell (Upload) as Chris Redfield. It was not well-received by fans or critics.
A live-action Resident Evil series starring the late Lance Reddick (John Wick, The Wire) as Albert Wesker was also released on Netflix, and that was met with an even worse reception.
Could this movie finally deliver the terrifying experience fans have been waiting for? Check out the new image and recent trailer below, and let us know your thoughts.
The new movie's official synopsis reads:
From the mind of visionary filmmaker Zach Cregger comes a thrilling—and terrifying—reinvention of the RESIDENT EVIL franchise. In an all-new story, RESIDENT EVIL follows Bryan (Austin Abrams; pictured), a medical courier who unwittingly finds himself in an action-packed, non-stop race for survival, as one fateful, horrifying night collapses into chaos around him.