Resident Evil: Zach Cregger's reboot opens in Malaysia on 16 September, two days before the United States

Malaysia gets the new Resident Evil on a public holiday, and before almost anyone else. TGV's film page lists it from Wednesday 16 September, Malaysia Day, and GSC's from Thursday the 17th, while Screen Daily's release calendar has Sony opening it in the United Kingdom and Ireland on Friday 18 September. This site lists it under Coming Soon for 16 September at TGV, with sessions to follow when the chains publish them, usually about a week ahead.

Not the games, says the director

The reason to pay attention is who made it. Zach Cregger's Weapons was one of last year's horror hits, and Screen Daily's interview with him in January, mostly about that film, ends on this one. He was shooting it in Prague at the time for Columbia Pictures, with Constantin Film, PlayStation Productions and Vertigo Entertainment producing, and he was clear about what it is: "This is an original movie", he told Screen Daily, and "I'm not telling the story of any of the games". It is set in the franchise's world but follows one person's progression deeper into a hostile environment, told straight through without narrative tricks, and, in his words, "It will feel like a Zach Cregger movie".

The chains' pages give the premise the trailer sells. TGV's synopsis follows a hapless courier sent to deliver a package to a remote hospital, who finds himself in the middle of an outbreak and has to fight through hordes of mutated creatures to survive; GSC's wording is the same. Both name Austin Abrams, Paul Walter Hauser and Kali Reis in the cast, and TGV adds Zach Cherry. The film is in English with Malay subtitles at GSC and Malay and Chinese subtitles at TGV.

What is not known yet

Two things the pages do not say. The classification is listed as to be announced on both chains' pages; a Cregger film about an outbreak is unlikely to be a family certificate, but the number is the Film Censorship Board's, and it will appear in the listings here when the chains carry it. And the running time is blank on TGV's page, which is usual for a title a fortnight out. Neither page names the halls it will play in, though GSC's page mentions its IMAX and 4DX formats in passing without confirming them for this title.

A holiday opening

The date matters for anyone planning the long weekend. Malaysia Day falls on a Wednesday this year, and a film that opens on the holiday itself gets a full day of sessions from the morning, where a Thursday opening usually starts with the evening. TGV is the chain that has it on the Wednesday, and the Onslaught and Fall 2 openings a fortnight ago show how the chains treat a new thriller: evening and late sessions first, premium halls included, matinees only if the first weekend earns them.

The Resident Evil page will list every cinema and session as they are published, with the classification and running time once the chains add them; for now it carries the date and the chain. The two local films opening the day after, Terbang and The Fox King, have pages of their own, and the showtimes page will show all three side by side by cinema once their sessions arrive.