From fears about having kids to Resident Evil: Zach Cregger’s spark
His upcoming Resident Evil movie comes from a raw place—Zach Cregger’s doubts about having kids seeped into it, and not in the way you’re expecting.
Writer-director Zach Cregger says he baked a very real-life worry into his new take on Resident Evil: whether or not to have kids. That question became the engine for Bryan — played by Austin Abrams — a slacker medical courier sent on what should be a routine drop in Raccoon City that spirals into survival horror.
“I’m always kind of writing myself into my characters,” Cregger said. “I’m in my forties now and I don’t have kids, but those conversations are always around.”
Speaking with IndieWire, Cregger explained that Bryan’s personal life stays mostly off-screen — the trailer keeps the argument and circumstances vague — but the character starts from a place of comfort that’s abruptly shattered. For the filmmaker, tying Bryan to his own uncertainty made the script snap into focus.
“It was a way in that helped me invest in the character and the story myself, so that the writing felt more valuable and more visceral for me,” Cregger explained.
Inside Raccoon City
Cregger is stepping into one of gaming’s most obsessively mapped worlds, where the scares work best when they invade the everyday. Expect the series’ touchstones to lurk in the corners:
- zombies and mutating bioweapons
- Umbrella conspiracies
- locked doors and key puzzles
- herb combinations
- tight inventory management
After the 2022 breakout of Barbarian and his follow-up project Weapons, this franchise reboot is Cregger’s biggest swing yet — translating Capcom’s long-running nightmare for a studio release while keeping the odd, personal edges that made his earlier work pop. The official trailer is out now; Sony is releasing the film in theaters in the U.S.