Zach Cregger is convinced he made the landing on his resident Evil reboot, telling reporters he is particularly proud of the film’s final moments after filming that relied heavily on tightly choreographed camerawork between director, cameraman and star.
Cregger, who wrote the film with Shay Hatten, described the opening as easy, leading to an ending he singled out for its excellence.
“But there’s also the first half hour. It’s short, like one big, long scene, in a way that I think works so well,” he said.
“Then, for me, the last 30 seconds of the film is such, I’m very proud of the last 30 seconds. So when I watch that, when the film ends, I’m always very happy.”
Star Austin Abrams, who plays medical courier Bryan, described the technical demands of filming as a true collaboration between him and the crew.
“We were doing a lot of camera work. It was a real dance with the camera,” Abrams said.
“James, our cameraman, had to be very precise, and I had to be very precise with his shots and get close to the camera at the same time.”
When asked about the film’s connection to the signature gameplay of its source material, Cregger drew a parallel with cinema itself: “Resource management is in every movie ever made. We have almost enough to do what we want. How do we make it work?”
The film follows Bryan, a medical courier who finds himself fighting for survival after a delivery problem in the infamous Raccoon City, deliberately avoiding using established characters from the video game series.
Cregger, who describes himself as a longtime fan of the games, has previously said that he wanted the film to honor the feeling of playing them rather than simply translating their storylines to the screen.
The production reportedly included a near miss during a stunt involving practical explosions around Abrams, which Cregger said in a separate interview “would have killed him” if the timing had been off by just one step.
resident Evil is scheduled to hit theaters on September 18.
