‘Resident Evil’ Trailer Teases a Relentless Survival Horror Nightmare

Horror is absolutely on fire right now, and everything really feels like it’s about to explode this May. Between the breakout buzz surrounding Obsession and the massive anticipation building behind Backrooms, which already feels poised to become one of the biggest horror movies of the year, fans are celebrating a wave of original genre storytelling in a marketplace drowning in sequels, reboots, and recycled IP.

That said, some of the year’s biggest horror events are still firmly planted in franchise territory, including Evil Dead Burn and Sony Pictures’ new Resident Evil reboot from Barbarian and Weapons director Zach Cregger.

The filmmaker unveiled the first footage during Sony’s CinemaCon presentation in Las Vegas, and despite early skepticism surrounding his “original” take on the beloved Capcom video game franchise, the response coming out of the room was overwhelmingly positive. Attendees described the footage as frantic, high-octane, and surprisingly aggressive, with several reactions comparing the energy to a horror version of Mad Max: Fury Road.

It’s a major tonal shift from the slower, dread-soaked atmosphere associated with the earlier games, though longtime fans know the franchise has always flirted with action-heavy chaos as the stories escalate. Sony finally released the trailer online today, and based on the reaction alone, Resident Evil already feels destined to become one of the biggest horror films of the year, and potentially the movie that revitalizes the franchise on the big screen.

The trailer itself wastes absolutely no time throwing audiences directly into the nightmare. The footage follows Austin Abrams ( breakout) as a courier traveling through a snow-covered, nearly abandoned town before stumbling into the middle of a rapidly spreading outbreak.