Culture 4 min read By Mason Emerson
Austin Abrams Says Resident Evil Stunt Work Was 'Harrowing'
Austin Abrams, star of Zach Cregger's Resident Evil adaptation, says he had no prior familiarity with the games and describes the physical demands of the shoot as 'harrowing.' The film is now in theaters and opened to $26.3 million domestically on day one.
Austin Abrams had never played a Resident Evil game before he was cast as the lead of Zach Cregger's new adaptation. Now that the film is in theaters, the actor is describing a production that pushed him physically and left little room for error. The horror gaming genre, he said, «really goddamn rocks your nervous system» — and the shoot followed suit.
Abrams admitted he was not familiar with either the Resident Evil video games or the long-running film franchise before taking the role. That lack of preparation did not spare him from the stunt work. He described the stunt shoot as «harrowing,» explaining that the pressure of getting the action right was constant. «You don't wanna f*ck up,» he said, a blunt summary of what it means to carry a video game adaptation that fans already know in detail.
Cregger's film puts audiences inside the player's point of view, a choice that makes the lead performance unusually exposed. Abrams is on screen for almost the entire 95-minute runtime, running, shooting, or struggling through a zombie-infested nightmare. According to Abrams, the role required a transformation he called «tragic» — a physical and emotional decline that runs through the film rather than a heroic arc. He also said he was not trying to look cool while screaming, a deliberate choice that keeps the character's fear raw instead of polished.
The production had its limits. Abrams has said there was one scene he was not allowed to shoot, a restriction that suggests the film's most extreme material was handled carefully even within an R-rated horror framework. That detail, along with his comments about the stunt work, points to a set where safety and control mattered as much as intensity.
The film is now playing in theaters, and the opening numbers suggest audiences were ready for it. Resident Evil earned $26.3 million domestically across 3,684 screens on its opening day, making it the No. 1 new release that Friday. Sony's zombie horror arrived at the start of the fall movie season, a window that has traditionally favored scary titles.
Cregger, who directed the film, also has a small presence in it. His cameo is not visible on screen — audiences will not see him — but they can hear him if they listen closely. The hidden appearance fits a filmmaker who has built a reputation for controlling how much the audience knows and when they know it.
For Abrams, the role marks a step into a franchise with a built-in audience and a demanding physical component. He came to the project without the shorthand that comes from years of playing the games, which meant learning the world from the script and from Cregger rather than from memory. The result, by his account, was a shoot that tested him in ways he did not expect.
The adaptation's opening day performance gives Sony a strong start, and the film's place in the fall release calendar puts it in front of viewers looking for horror as the season turns. Whether Abrams returns to the franchise will depend on where Cregger takes the story next, but for now the actor's main takeaway is the memory of a stunt shoot that demanded everything and punished mistakes.
