Zach Cregger’s RESIDENT EVIL Will Make You Stress Over Every Bullet Austin Abrams Fires

If you’ve ever played Resident Evilwith two bullets left, questionable health, and something horrible waiting around the corner, Zach Creggerwants his movie to bring that same anxiety to the theater.

The director has revealed that his upcoming Resident Evil movie will borrow one of the games’ most important survival horror mechanics: resource management. Audiences will actually be able to keep track of how much ammunition Austin Abrams’ character Bryan has left, making every missed shot potentially painful.

During a live Reddit AMA, Cregger was asked how he approached the franchise’s resource management mechanics and explained:

"I love the resource management aspect of the games, and it was really important to me to bring that to the movie. You will know how many bullets are in his gun. YOU will care when he misses a shot."

That sounds like a fun way to translate the stress of playing Resident Evil into a movie. Ammo conservation has always been a huge part of the games.

You are constantly keeping track of their weapons, ammunition, healing items, and overall health while deciding whether an enemy is worth fighting or whether running away is the smarter move.

Cregger wants viewers thinking along similar lines while watching Bryan try to survive. He also explained that audiences will remain “keenly aware" of Bryan's "health as he progresses."

It’s a great approach for Cregger, who is a huge Resident Evil fan himself. Anyone familiar with the games knows the awful feeling of encountering a group of infected in some dark Raccoon City corridor and realizing your inventory contains almost nothing useful. Bringing that kind of tension into a theater could make for a seriously stressful and fun survival horror experience.

Cregger’s Resident Evil isn’t a direct adaptation of one specific game, and Abrams isn’t playing Leon Kennedy. Instead, the story follows Bryan, a medical courier who clocks in for a job delivering a package to Raccoon City General Hospital while the zombie apocalypse is unfolding.

The story takes place during the events of Resident Evil 2, allowing Cregger to tell a new story within a familiar part of the franchise’s timeline. He has also drawn inspiration from Resident Evil 4 and Resident Evil 7, incorporating different elements from those games into his film.

I love what Cregger is doing with this movie, and I’m excited to see the experience he created play out on the big screen!

Resident Evil arrives in theaters September 18.