Zach Cregger Says His ‘Resident Evil’ Won’t Be Like ‘Barbarian’ or ‘Weapons'

We are in a post-“Weapons is now an Oscar-winning film” world, and I am absolutely thrilled by that. Amy Madigan was phenomenal in that film, and while I’m not very interested in the promised prequel, her winning an Academy Award for her work was much deserved. That said, there should have been at least more nominations. Best Original Screenplay was right there.

What Cregger manages to do with the script for Weapons is fantastic. He lays out the story in such a way that things are constantly being recontextualized. Information is being doled out in such a hyper-specific way that he demands your attention for you to properly be along for the ride. The same thing happens in his film Barbarian, which plays with your expectations throughout the movie by only giving you a little bit at a time. Now, Cregger is moving on to Resident Evil, and it sounds like things will be more straightforward.

The writer/director appeared at CinemaCon recently, and Deadline is reporting that, in addition to showing some footage os some spooky monsters, Cregger explained how his movie will capture the “spirit” of the games but will be a departure from his usual style. He explained that his Resident Evil will feature “no narrative acrobatics, time jumps, or disorienting chapter things.” He went on to say that audiences will be “locked in with a protagonist on a foot journey through a world hell-bent on destroying them.”

That does make a lot of sense, given the games he is adapting. The Resident Evil franchise is usually more about getting from point A to point B without getting mauled or eaten. There is plenty of creepy atmosphere and a fair share of jump scares, so it is definitely in Cregger’s wheelhouse. But, to my knowledge (I’ve played through the fifth game, and I think there are like eight now), you don’t play the games out of order, so it makes sense that he’s offering something more straightforward.

I’m mainly excited that he wants to make this his next movie at all. Things are certainly difficult in the movie industry, but I would have assumed that Cregger could pick whatever he wanted after the successes of Barbarian and Weapons. Perhaps he just wanted something a little more financially rewarding. I don’t know! But I’m genuinely excited that he seems so excited. If this is the sandbox he wanted to play in, albeit in a different method than usual, I am all for it.