Zach Cregger says Resident Evil accident nearly killed Austin Abrams
Cregger said a practical stunt with 150-pound blood bags came within a step of Austin Abrams as Sony's Resident Evil heads to theaters Sept. 18.
By Bianca Rossi · Entertainment Editor
2 min read
Zach Cregger is talking about a Resident Evil accident that almost turned a practical stunt into something far worse for star Austin Abrams.
The co-writer and director said during a Q&A, according to SlashFilm, that one sequence in Sony’s upcoming Resident Evil film required Abrams to run through a street while zombie bodies dropped from rooftops around him. The movie is due in theaters Sept. 18.
Cregger said the moment appears briefly in the trailer. He described Abrams sprinting as zombies on buildings on both sides leap toward him, with bodies landing and bursting around the actor.
The filmmaker said he pushed to avoid using visual effects for the gag because he believed the shot would look artificial. That meant building a practical version of the chaos, with the crew working out how to make the falling bodies and impacts happen for real.
What happened on the Resident Evil set?
According to Cregger, the stunt team created an exact path for Abrams and rehearsed it heavily. The setup involved 150-pound, body-sized blood bags being dropped from cranes around him as he ran through the scene.
One of those falling bags came extremely close to Abrams, Cregger said. The director said that if Abrams had been one step to the right, the impact would have killed him.
Cregger said the shot made it into the finished film. He also said the experience left him proud of the movie and of the collaboration required to bring the scene from an idea to the screen.
Who does Austin Abrams play in Resident Evil?
In Cregger’s Resident Evil, Abrams plays Bryan, a medical courier who is forced to fight for his life after a sudden outbreak hits while he is making a delivery.
Cregger co-wrote the film with Shay Hatten. Sony picked up the project last March, and the cast also includes Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser and Johnno Wilson.
Resident Evil began as a Capcom video game released in 1996. The property has already produced seven movies since 2002, including a 2021 reboot, and the film franchise has made more than $1.2 billion at the box office.
The brand has also moved to television. Netflix released a Resident Evil series, then canceled it in 2022 after one season.
Cregger’s version is the latest attempt to bring the survival-horror series back to the big screen. Based on his Q&A comments reported by SlashFilm, at least one of its most dangerous-looking moments was dangerous enough in real life to rattle the director after the cameras stopped rolling.
This story draws on original reporting from Deadline.