Resident Evil director Zach Cregger explains in an interview why he isn’t telling the story of Leon, Chris, Jill, and the rest.
With the two horror films *Barbarian* and *Weapons*, American director Zach Cregger quickly transformed himself from a comedian and actor into one of the most sought-after horror directors in the film industry. A bidding war even broke out among movie studios for him and his *Resident Evil* screenplay, which Sony ultimately won.
Resident Evil has since been released, and our editor Natalie sat down with Cregger and lead actor Austin Abrams to conduct an interview. As a huge fan of the video games, Natalie was naturally particularly eager to ask why the new movie doesn’t tell the story of the games, but instead tells a completely new one.
“I would inevitably get something wrong”
Cregger responds that the decision was largely driven by fan expectations. The stories of well-known characters like Leon S. Kennedy and Claire Redfield have already been told in great detail in the games. And according to him, that creates a pressure to meet expectations that he simply couldn’t live up to. Specifically, he says:
Well, if I thought too much about all those expectations, I think that would be paralyzing. So I tried to just think about what kind of really simple story I could tell that could exist within the world of these games and that would feel authentic in terms of playing these games. A story that doesn’t break the rules of the games.
But I didn’t want to retell Leon’s story or any of the original stories that the games already tell so well, because I’d inevitably get something wrong and that would become a real problem.
Instead, Cregger chose to tell the story of a completely new character—one that could just as easily take place in a Resident Evil game. As a huge fan of the series, and of Part 4 in particular, he decided to tell the story of an ordinary guy who just wants to drop off a package and then head home. That’s when the monstrous T-virus outbreak occurs.
So I figured that if I could tell a story that really excites me and feels authentic to the essence of the games, then that’s all I can do. And that was a good tool for me to keep my focus very narrow and block out all the outside noise. It’s a simple story: it’s about a guy traveling from point A to point B—that’s really all there is to it. And that was something I could easily limit myself to.
As early as Resident Evil 7, Capcom chose to follow an ordinary person with no special abilities who must overcome his fears in a world infested with monsters. As is well known, that game helped restore the Resident Evil horror franchise to its former glory. So Creggers’ assumption that this approach can work is well-founded.
To find out whether Resident Evil is really any good and can capture the spirit of the original games, check it out in theaters now or read our detailed, spoiler-free review. You’ll find it in the link box above. There, our editor Miffy also explains why your health in Resident Evil has always been displayed completely incorrectly, as well as which game you can play to pass the time until the Code Veronica remake.
