‘Resident Evil’ Star Faced Near-Death Experience Dodging 150-Lb ‘Body-Sized Blood Bags’ on Set

Austin Abrams learned firsthand that going the extra mile for a movie can have consequences.

While filming the upcoming film Resident Evil, Abrams, 29, had a near-death experience, according to director Zach Cregger, when a “body-sized blood bag” almost took him out.

“It’s in the trailer momentarily, but [Austin is] running down the street, and there’s zombies on the roof of the buildings on either side, and they’re all leaping at him,” Cregger, 45, told reporters during a Q&A, SlashFilm reported on Thursday, July 23, of the explosive scene.

He explained that in the movie, Abrams’ Bryan, a medical courier, must fight for his life when a zombie apocalypse breaks out around him.

While the film is based on the video game by the same name, Cregger said he wanted the scenes to feel as realistic as possible.

“We had to basically design this thing where he’s just running and bodies are just falling and detonating all around him. And I knew I didn’t want to do it with VFX because I feel like it would just look like VFX,” he recalled, referring to visual effects that are usually computer-generated. “So, I was like, ‘How do we do this where all these explosions are real?’”

Cregger noted he was able to avoid VFX by using choreography, staging and dropping 150 pound “blood bags” from cranes as Abrams ran take after take.