Zach Cregger's career has seen a remarkable ascent, transitioning from a member of the comedy troupe "The Whitest Kids U’ Know" to a rising star in Hollywood horror. In 2022, his solo directorial debut Barbarian, made on a modest budget of less than $5 million, was notably released in theaters by Disney (though it premiered on Disney+ in France). His 2025 follow-up, Faded, was a box-office smash, grossing $270 million against a $38 million budget.
Now, in 2026, Cregger tackles Resident Evil, the latest adaptation of the iconic video game series. This iteration boasts an impressive $80 million budget, surpassing all previous film versions. This significant investment signals the industry's strong confidence in Cregger, who reportedly earned $20 million for the project, a quarter of the total budget, according to The Hollywood Reporter.
This places considerable pressure on the new Resident Evil, which stars Austin Abrams, known for his role as the drug-addicted James in Faded. However, the newly released first excerpt genuinely suggests the film will live up to expectations. We're certainly eager to believe.
Raccoon City Awaits
The nearly three-minute excerpt is quite substantial, especially for a film reportedly just 90 minutes long. Yet, it doesn't reveal anything new in terms of spoilers, as this particular scene has already been featured in trailers and on posters. It depicts the protagonist, played by Austin Abrams, navigating a street littered with car wrecks, as zombies perched on rooftops plunge to the ground, exploding into bloody puddles upon impact.
The clip effectively showcases several aspects of the film's direction: its pacing, the intricate sound design, touches of humor, the generous amount of gore, the visual effects, and clever narrative devices. As the panicked hero observes the corpses, expecting them to reanimate, we understand he's discovering the mechanics of these undead creatures—and the limits of their seemingly immortal nature—in real-time.
Much like Paul W.S. Anderson's approach with the first film, Zach Cregger has opted not to incorporate existing characters from the games. This introduces Bryan, a medical courier whose delivery mission spirals into a nightmare as the city descends into chaos. While the 2002 Resident Evil largely followed the narrative beats of the first game (a commando exploring a hidden lab beneath a mansion), the 2026 film appears to draw inspiration from Resident Evil 2 and 3 (surviving in Raccoon City amidst an apocalypse). Interestingly, the director considers Resident Evil 4 to be the franchise's best game.
The film is, predictably, Rated R, but this alone isn't a cause for celebration. The much-maligned Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City, which flopped at the box office in 2021, was also Rated R, as was the saga starring Milla Jovovich.
Zach Cregger's version, which also features Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, Johnno Wilson, and Zach Cherry, is notably produced by PlayStation Productions. This studio, founded in 2019 to adapt PlayStation's major brands, has previously brought us films like Uncharted and Gran Turismo, Until Dawn, and has projects like Horizon Zero Dawn, Ghost of Tsushima, and Bloodborne currently in development.
The film is set to hit theaters on September 16. We eagerly await the press screenings.