Zach Cregger, the director of the upcoming Resident Evil movie, appeared at San Diego Comic-Con this week, where he revealed that the movie’s star, Austin Abrams, nearly died filming a scene that ended up in the movie. The Resident Evil franchise has a history with this kind of thing, as a stunt performer on Resident Evil: The Final Chapter was killed from injuries he sustained during an on-set accident.
At Comic-Con, Slash Film reported that Cregger said there is a scene in the movie where Abrams’ character, the medical courier Bryan, is running through a street, with zombies leaping from the tops of buildings at him. Cregger wanted to film this sequence practically instead of using CGI.
To film the scene, the production team created 150-pound “body-sized blood bags” that were dropped from cranes to create the effect. One of the blood bags came close to striking Abrams, and Cregger said, “It would’ve killed him.”
“If he had been one step to the right, he would’ve died,” he said.
This shot–teased in the new trailer above–made it into the final cut of Resident Evil, “so it’s f**king worth it,” Cregger said.
“That’s what’s so great about making movies is you have this scene, you have this amazing idea in your head, and then you just have all these people help you realize that idea and immortalize it on the screen,” he said. “And there’s a real sense of teamwork and accomplishment. I’m very proud of this movie. I feel like I grew a lot making it, just as a filmmaker.”
The Resident Evil movie comes to theaters on September 18. Cregger says the story is akin to The Lord of the Rings.
“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,” he said.
For more, check out GameSpot’s breakdown of the latest terrifying new trailer for the Resident Evil movie.