Zach Cregger’s upcoming Resident Evil film marks the third cinematic adaptation of Capcom’s survival horror franchise, but it arrives without a single character carried over from the games. Rather than building around established icons like Leon Kennedy, Claire Redfield, or Jill Valentine, the movie instead follows Bryan (Austin Abrams), a medical courier who gets pulled into the outbreak overtaking Raccoon City on the same night depicted in Resident Evil 2. The fact that Cregger chose to tell an entirely original story around a character with no ties to the source material has fueled months of skepticism from longtime fans, many of whom expected the director behind Barbarian and Weapons to deliver a faithful live-action take on some of gaming’s most beloved heroes. Cregger has now responded to that mounting criticism head-on.
Videos by ComicBook.com
“I think I was naive,” he said, talking to IGN. “I thought fans of these games, like me, would be thrilled that somebody was coming along and turning Resident Evil into a survival horror movie. I was like, ‘That’s great.’ I did not really appreciate the sentiment that, ‘We’ve been waiting forever for Leon’s story.’ And I appreciate that, and I’m sorry that’s not the story I’m bringing. I get it, I understand the frustration. I understand it so well because I haven’t seen the earlier [Resident Evil] movies, because they don’t look like the Resident Evil that I love, so how could I be frustrated with fans who have that same attitude?” Although he is aware of the criticism, Cregger is also willing to defend his movie, which looks great on its own.
Resident Evil Fans Should Give Zach Cregger’s Movie a Chance
Cregger has been open about being a lifelong player of the games, and Resident Evil marketing has so far shown he does understand the franchise. For instance, the trailers include a scavenged box of Heavy Field shotgun shells lifted straight from Resident Evil 4 and a lingering shot of an old typewriter recreating the franchise’s save-point ritual. Beyond visual cues, some scenes drop into Bryan’s own point of view as he lines up a pistol, mirroring the first-person aiming stance players use throughout the modern games. That’s not all, as delivery paperwork glimpsed early in the footage ties Bryan’s medical cargo directly to Umbrella Corp, an early nod to the corporation’s long history of burying secret research facilities beneath Raccoon City. There’s even a sanitized underground lab and grotesque flesh creatures, as Bryan needs to fend for his life while evading monsters taken out of nightmares. The new Resident Evil is pure survivor horror, even without Leon there.
“My only hope is that they’ll see the movie regardless of their skepticism or their disappointment that I’m not telling some of the stories that the games tell so well, and they will feel seen when they do watch the movie, and they will recognize all of the love for the games that are in this movie, because it is there,” Cregger added during the interview. “This is not me just telling a story and slapping Resident Evil on it so I can get a budget. This is me telling a Resident Evil story. I understand the resistance, I do, because I have it myself. It is coming from a true place of love.” Given everything we saw so far, Cregger is right, and this might feel closer to the games than any other movie, even though it tells an original story.
Resident Evil hits theaters on September 18th.
More Movies
-
Image courtesy of Focus Features -
Image Courtesy of Universal
