The first trailer for director Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is here, and it gives fans just a taste at what this new adaptation of Capcom’s legendary survival-horror series will look like. It’s less zombie movie and more monster flick, and includes a creature that looks ripped straight out of the recent Dune films (before you get too excited, no, it’s not a sandworm).
About a minute into the trailer, the film’s hero Bryan, in true Resident Evil fashion, drops into a sewer. He’s then confronted with a massive, pale-looking man sitting directly in his path–one that bears a striking resemblance to Baron Harkonnen, the main villain of author Frank Herbert’s early Dune books.
The similarities to Cregger’s monster and the Baron, particularly director Denis Villeneuve’s interpretation of the character seen in 2021’s Dune Part One and 2024’s Dune Part 2, are hard to ignore. Both characters are giant, pale, seemingly hairless men. In Baron Harkonnen’s case, he’s so massive he uses anti-gravity technology to float around. Despite the two looking nearly identical, Cregger in a trailer breakdown with IGN actually revealed a different literary inspiration behind the giant man in the sewer.
“Part of the inspiration for the look of this guy comes from the book Blood Meridian,” Cregger said. “There’s a character called the Judge in that book who’s described as a 7-foot-tall, maybe albino, hairless man, and I love the image of that guy. So this is a nod to one of my favorite books of all time.”
While Cregger said his Resident Evil movie won’t feature a “Nemesis” type character that is often seen in the games, the giant sewer man is, in a way, his nod to the idea. Cregger also said he doesn’t view Resident Evil as a zombie film, as there are only a handful of zombie scenes. Instead, it’s focused on the “weird creature stuff” that comes from how the franchise’s T-Virus mutates the human body.
The film isn’t a direct adaptation of the games, but will take place during the zombie outbreak in Raccoon City. Bryan’s quest will revolve around him needing to transport something into the heart of the city amidst the chaos that is unfolding.
Even though it won’t directly feature characters or plotlines from the game series, Cregger is instead adapting what it’s like to play an entry in Capcom’s survival-horror franchise. Cregger said Bryan, like players, will have to scavenge for supplies, slowly accumulate better weapons, and find keys and ways to bypass locked doors. The film will also make use of “over the shoulder” and first-person camera perspectives to mimic the feeling of playing the games, Cregger said.
Though the trailer gives a glimpse at some of the new monsters that will await viewers, including a quick look at some multi-limbed monstrosity coming out of a doorway, it seems clear Cregger is leaving plenty of surprises for the finished product. We can only assume the movie ends in a secret underground lab. Resident Evil hits theaters September 18.
