Zach Cregger, director of the upcoming Resident Evil reboot, has teased that a colossal monster will feature in the film, brought to life fully through practical effects.
In an interview with Bloody Disgusting, Cregger said it was “a real thrill” to work with special effects legend Shane Mahan, whose credits include iconic horror films such as The Terminator, Aliens, and Predator.
“Well, we had to have some original stuff in this movie, right,” Cregger said.
“You don’t want to go to a movie in the theater and see all these things you’ve seen before, so it was really fun to invent new things that fit into the world of the T-virus and Resident Evil, but were new. And Shane is just a genius.”
Cregger teased a particular puppet built by Mahan that weighed around 2,000 lbs and took four people to operate. It was so large that it had to be delivered in pieces when shipped to Prague, where the film was shot.
“That was a treat because you’re acting with the thing,” Cregger explained. “It’s not a tennis ball on a stick that you’ve got to imagine what it’s going to be. That’s it.
“Even some of our things that ended up VFX, Shane built the practical thing, and we filmed it that way. Then we would use VFX to help with the animation. It gives everything this real tactile, perfect, sitting-in-this-space kind of quality when you do it practically first.
“Shane’s design sense is really top tier, so I was very honored to have him on the movie.”
Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil release date
Resident Evil will be released in theaters on September 18th, 2026. It is co-written by Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten, and stars Austin Abrams, Zach Cherry, Kali Reis, Paul Walter Hauser, and Jonno Wilson.
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Written by Reece Heather
A veteran Zelda Universe editor and First-class journalism graduate, Reece emerged with a Nintendo 64 and a lifelong obsession after a narrow escape from Santa’s Naughty List in 1998. Outside of games, he’s reading Punisher comics, being bossed around by his cocker spaniel, and cornering innocent bystanders to rant about the importance of game preservation.
