Zach Cregger's Resident Evil Movie Includes First-Person Sequences — and Yes, Umbrella Is Involved

Zach Cregger's Resident Evil movie will pay homage to the series' first-person gameplay, newly-released footage has revealed.

A fresh video featuring Cregger discussing his upcoming horror adaptation also includes several quick shots from a first-person perspective, with the barrel of a shotgun and pistol raised directly in front of the camera.

The first moment sees a character — presumably Austin abrams' protagonist Bryan — sneaking through a house with a double-barrelled shotgun raised. The next shot we see is from behind the hands of a character — presumably Bryan again — holding a pistol as a zombie woman leaps towards him, and the camera.

𝙵𝚘𝚛 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚕𝚘𝚟𝚎 𝚘𝚏 𝚝𝚑𝚎 𝚐𝚊𝚖𝚎.

From the mind of Zach Cregger, director of Weapons and Barbarian. Filmed for IMAX – Resident Evil is in theatres 9.18. #ResidentEvilㅤ pic.twitter.com/BHnhoinFS3

— Resident Evil (@ResidentEvil) August 24, 2026

In his commentary, Cregger discusses how his movie will pay homage to how the Resident Evil games typically start players off with a simple pistol, before granting access to a shotgun and later a machine gun. We can see this in the footage shown so far, with the zombie woman seemingly the first undead that Bryan encounters (he hits her on the road) before he takes shelter in a nearby house (and finds a shotgun inside).

Details

And if you're sat there confused as to why first-person is now a thing in Resident Evil, well, the series has evolved a long way since the fixed-camera perspectives of the original Resident Evil 1. Several recent entries have featured a first-person viewpoint, which is also optional in this year's Resident Evil Requiem.

Another behind-the-scenes movie detail has also been released: a document showing the delivery note for Bryan's medical cargo. This is, deliberately, exactly the kind of collectible players find in Resident Evil games, offering a little more detail on what's going on. And indeed, here we see that Bryan's courier charges are being billed to... "Umbrella Corp."

𝚈𝚘𝚞 𝚏𝚘𝚞𝚗𝚍 𝙱𝚛𝚢𝚊𝚗’𝚜 𝚍𝚎𝚕𝚒𝚟𝚎𝚛𝚢 𝚍𝚎𝚝𝚊𝚒𝚕𝚜.

From the mind of Zach Cregger, director of Weapons and Barbarian. Filmed for IMAX – Resident Evil is in theatres 9.18. #ResidentEvilㅤ pic.twitter.com/Nv0r96SBzG

— Resident Evil (@ResidentEvil) August 24, 2026

Umbrella was always going to be a part of this movie, as it is set in Raccoon City concurrently with its big zombie outbreak. But how much the company will actually be involved remains to be seen. Cregger has repeatedly made clear that this film will not cross paths with known characters or re-tell story that's already present in Capcom's games.

Indeed, eagle-eyed fans have known for a while this is something of an alternate universe take on Raccoon City's zombie outbreak — which now happens in snow-covered streets and is set in the modern day, meaning characters use smartphones. (Canonically, the city's zombie outbreak happens within the Resident Evil games in September 1998.)

Has Cregger found the right balance between an original story that also pays homage to the source material for existing Resident Evil fans? There's not long left to wait until we find out. Resident Evil arrives in theaters on September 18. Last month, Cregger revealed how the filming of one particular sequence almost killed Austin Abrams when a stunt went slightly wrong.

Tom Phillips is IGN's News Editor. You can reach Tom at [email protected] or find him on Bluesky @tomphillipseg.bsky.social