Sunday Scaries: The Recent Trailer for ‘Resident Evil’ Gives Me Supreme Confidence in Zach Cregger Delivering a Memorable Adaptation

The Sunday Scaries are upon us once again! Yes, as the weekend concludes, most of us feel an oncoming sense of anticipatory dread about the week ahead. Anxiety about work manifests itself into a feeling that’s known as the Sunday Scaries. However, we at Awards Radar are here to combat that, by taking back the name. Now, we want you think about a horror-centric piece on the site when you hear the term. So, let us continue on with another installment of the Awards Radar Sunday Scaries! Today, we’re looking at a recent trailer for one of the year’s most hotly anticipated horror titles…

Two weeks ago, the official trailer for Zach Cregger‘s Resident Evil was released (watch it here if you haven’t already). As a fan of the video games (having recently played Resident Evil Requiem to completion and then doubled back to finish Resident Evil Village), seeing a fellow fan like Cregger tackle the latest film adaptation has proven exciting. Well, a teaser and a trailer later, it’s clear that the movie Cregger has made is both unlike anything we’ve seen from the series on the big screen before, while perhaps at least in spirit, being the first one to likely have gotten Resident Evil right.

This here is what I said, in part, back in May when the teaser dropped:

Back on Thursday, the first teaser trailer for Zach Cregger‘s Resident Evil was released. Cregger, of course, is the current wunderkind in horror, having knocked it out of the park with Barbarian and especially Weapons, which won Amy Madigan an Oscar for Best Supporting Actress. That blank check could have afforded him nearly any project, but what did he choose? Getting to make his own version of Resident Evil, the video game franchise the became a mediocre yet profitable action film franchise (as well as one dreadful would-be reboot). Cregger himself would be enough to have you curious, but then this teaser came along, which really shows how we could be in for perhaps the best video game movie we’ve ever seen.

Cregger, who I called a master of horror here (after having said he was almost there here in a previous Sunday Scaries), has an evolving style that feels singular in the genre. What made the teaser so interesting to me is how much it looks like a Cregger flick, despite clearly having a bigger budget and scale than his previous efforts. Even when Resident Evil is positioned as a potential blockbuster and is valuable IP, the Cregger of it all shines through.

Now, the teaser trailer keeps things very mysterious, of course, but it does have lots of Cregger type imagery. There likely won’t be a basement in this one, but there sure is a sewer, with something very unsettling lurking there. He’s still keeping a lot from us, as with his last two works, but there’s enough here to put forth a specific vibe. At the very least, this is about as far as a new Resident Evil can get from the Paul W.S. Anderson ones, and that’s not nothing.

Resident Evil was already one of my most anticipated films of the year, let alone horror films, and this has done nothing to change that. You’re going to hear plenty more about this movie, both in the lead up to its release, as well as probably afterwards, but for now, it’s just building buzz. I was already there, but now, consider me seated to the nth degree…

Now, we have a full trailer which continues to get me excited. Cregger has filled this with Easter Eggs, clearly, showing his affection for Resident Evil. The flick doesn’t seem to feature any characters or plot elements from the games, instead telling something wholly original within that world. If anyone can do it, I think Cregger can. So far, nothing I’ve seen has suggested anything other than a grade A horror outing.

If Cregger aces Resident Evil like I expect he will, this should instantly be an all-timer amongst video game adaptations. With the game franchise currently on a high from Resident Evil Requiem, an amazing movie would be icing on the cake. Sit tight, as we’re only a month and change from finding out…

Stay tuned for another Sunday Scaries installment next week!