New RESIDENT EVIL Trailer Unleashes an Awesome and Intense Survival Horror Nightmare

A new trailer has arrived for Resident Evil, the upcoming horror movie from Weapons and Barbarian director Zach Cregger, and after watching it, I'm convinced this is the Resident Evil movie fans have been waiting for.

Everything about this trailer feels intense, chaotic, creepy, and packed with the kind of relentless survival horror that made the classic games so addictive.

Instead of trying to recreate stories we've already seen, Cregger is taking the franchise in a fresh direction with an original story that's inspired by the earliest Resident Evil games while unfolding during the events of 1998's Resident Evil 2.

The movie stars Austin Abrams as Bryan, a medical courier who accepts what seems like a routine delivery. His job is to transport a mysterious case to Raccoon City Hospital, but he arrives just as the deadly virus outbreak is spiraling out of control. From there, things descend into absolute madness.

Cregger recently opened up about the film, and his vision sounds exactly like what I'd hoped a Resident Evil adaptation would embrace. "It feels like one gigantic sequence. Things pop off about five minutes in and it basically stays like that until the end."

He continued: "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."

That's exactly what Resident Evil fans expect from the games. Every hallway, laboratory, alleyway, and abandoned building presents a brand-new nightmare, forcing players to adapt on the fly. Hearing Cregger describe the movie this way makes it sound like he's captured that same constant pressure and panic, and that's incredibly exciting.

Even better, Bryan isn't another superhuman action hero. Although the story takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2, Cregger isn't following Leon Kennedy through Raccoon City. Instead, he's introducing someone completely new who has absolutely no business trying to survive a zombie apocalypse.

As Cregger explained: "The concept here is that we’re following an idiot. Not that he’s stupid, but he’s not your typical game character, with no combat skills whatsoever and completely inept at survival.”

He went on to say: "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."

I love this approach. Instead of watching someone effortlessly blast through monsters, we're getting a regular guy who's completely overwhelmed and simply trying to make it through the nightmare alive.

That feels much closer to the survival horror roots that made Resident Evil such an iconic franchise in the first place, where fear, desperation, and resourcefulness matter far more than having the biggest gun.

The supporting cast includes Paul Walter Hauser, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, and Johnno Wilson. The $80 million production has already been described as a "horror version of Mad Max: Fury Road," and that's a comparison that's hard to ignore.

Add in a lean 90-minute runtime and an emphasis on practical effects, and it sounds like Cregger is delivering a fast-moving horror experience that never lets up.

He's also hinted that the movie carries an Evil Dead II-style energy, mixing inventive filmmaking with gruesome horror and dark humor. That combination feels like a perfect match for Resident Evil, especially if the movie can balance terrifying creature encounters with moments that are just plain fun.

Everything we've seen from this movie keeps getting better. Between the footage in this new trailer and everything Cregger has shared about his approach, it really feels like he understood what fans wanted from a Resident Evil film.

He's leaning into the horror, embracing the tension, and putting an ordinary person at the center of an extraordinary nightmare.

If the finished movie delivers on everything this trailer promises, I think we're in for one hell of a ride. This genuinely looks like Cregger made a really freakin' great Resident Evil movie, and I can't wait to experience it when it hits theaters on September 18.