Even before Resident Evil arrived in theaters, fans knew that it wouldn’t have any familiar characters or story elements from the video games, as Zach Cregger made it clear he was blazing his own path forward. What wasn’t known before it debuted, but became very clear while watching it in theaters, though, is that the same philosophy extended to what monsters would appear in the film. There’s a clear influence from Resident Evil‘s Plaga monsters at one point, but for the most part the film creates its own nightmares, and they all feel in line with the terrifying beasts lurking around the corner in every game.
Videos by ComicBook.com
Though there are plenty of hideous beasts haunting the movie, there’s one that has been making audiences squirm since it first started to form on screen. It may not have an official name, but the “merged monster” that chases Austin Abrams’ Bryan throughout the movie has been likened to a body-horror Katamari Damacy (or even the final monster from Inside) as it rolls through the streets of Raccoon City in pursuit of the main character, collecting more and more people and pieces to add to its horrifying look. A new behind-the-scenes video for Resident Evil has arrived and revealed how they brought the character to life, though, confirming that actual live-action performers worked together to make the monsters.
Resident Evil’s “Human Tumbleweed” BTS Revealed
In a new post on Instagram, Jakub Hudlický revealed that he had the job of “Movement Coordinator” for Resident Evil, and that multiple performers were actually tied together to create the movement of the monster seen in the film. Hudlický’s post reveals behind-the-scenes footage from the summer of last year, when they began to work out how the beast might move around in the movie, and it has fans thrilled at how it all came together.
“Holy sh-t that’s amazing!!!|” wrote one fan in the comments. “Lowkey that human cartwheel in the snow had me freaked out. Had me covering my eyes in the theater 😂🙈” Another added, “Literally shat my pants when you guys came tumbling on the screen. Goddamn.” Finally, another user said what we were all thinking, “That creature was practical!? 🫨”
The truth of the matter is a little more complicated. Even though real performers were put together to create the initial idea for the monster, Zach Cregger has confirmed that the entity seen in the movie was a visual effects creation by WETA. Speaking with Collider, Cregger revealed that “the human tumbleweed” was initially designed by strapping multiple people together as seen above.
“I had them figure out how to do like a five-person continuous infinite cartwheel with like some people were upside down the whole time, and it was legs over legs over legs. It was cool, but they had no agility, and you could see their heads, and it was just clearly not going to be what the movie needed it to be. I was still going to use it cuz I just didn’t want to use VFX. And then WETA showed me a mockup that they just put together that was like the dead people from the movie moving correctly, and it was so perfect. I was like, ‘It’s done. That’s it.’”
So yes, real people initially brought the monster to life and created the motion reference for the visual effects, but the full beast seen in the movie isn’t actually the performers from the video above. Cregger confirmed that this tactic of practical effects being used on set to enhance VFX later was a key component of production on Resident Evil, revealing that the terrifying long-armed baby from the hospital scene was also VFX in the final movie but had a puppet on set to provide movement and lighting reference.
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