{"id":898787,"date":"2026-09-20T10:28:18","date_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:28:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898787\/"},"modified":"2026-09-20T10:28:18","modified_gmt":"2026-09-20T10:28:18","slug":"resident-evil-movies-ive-never-seen-one-weapons-director-zach-cregger-on-resurrecting-the-beloved-zombie-franchise-horror-films","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/898787\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Resident Evil movies? I\u2019ve never seen one\u2019: Weapons director Zach Cregger on resurrecting the beloved zombie franchise | Horror films"},"content":{"rendered":"

When Barbarian<\/a>, Zach Cregger\u2019s debut film as a solo writer-director, came out in 2022, it was a big success, creating a buzz among horror connoisseurs, garnering good reviews, and grossing $46m. Then his second film, Weapons<\/a>, came out in 2025 and did even better. Mounting industry buzz around the project crystallised into a fierce bidding war; Jordan Peele was reportedly desperate to produce and, incensed by his failure to secure the rights, allegedly fired his managers. The rumours went viral, resulting in a wave of incredible PR that saw the film wildly outperform box office expectations and win an Academy Award (for Amy Madigan<\/a>\u2019s blunt-fringed, bonsai-pruning best supporting actress turn as instantly classic villain Aunt Gladys).<\/p>\n

Even if Cregger had not had a box-office smash that crossed over into awards contention, there would still be an atmosphere of hushed expectation around his next move. Both Barbarian and Weapons addressed hot-button issues \u2013 sexual assault and school shootings, respectively \u2013 while resisting easy interpretation. Both, too, started out seemingly heading in one narrative direction, before thrillingly careening off elsewhere. Thus, with just two features, Cregger had established a reputation for totally terrifying, utterly unpredictable and \u2013 most importantly \u2013 genuinely original movies.<\/p>\n

Yet the real shocker from this nascent horror auteur is still to come. For his third film, Cregger has taken inspiration from existing intellectual property \u2013 or IP, those two little letters bound to strike fear into the heart of even the most stoic cineaste. Zach Cregger has made a Resident Evil<\/a> movie.<\/p>\n

Motivated cellar \u2026 Barbarian. Photograph: Collection Christophel\/Alamy<\/p>\n

\u201cLook, I could make a different movie now if I wanted to,\u201d he says, when I put to him the obvious question: why? He is talking to me via video call, from a warmly furnished but ominously low-lit room, wearing a crumpled navy T-shirt, and sounding much less defensive than his words might suggest. \u201cI understand how people could be like: \u2018Why IP?\u2019 But to me, that\u2019s just such a secondary concern because the IP is not the point. The point is the story. The point is, it\u2019s an original movie, even though it is Resident Evil.\u201d He sighs. \u201cAnd now I can\u2019t wait for everyone on the internet to be like, \u2018He admitted it!\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

Cregger is referring to the stick he\u2019s been getting online from more obsessive gamers ever since the first teaser trailer launched in April<\/a>. \u201cI feel like there\u2019s been so many people taking what I say about this exact thing out of context and saying: \u2018He just wanted to make the movie that he wanted to make, and then slap Resident Evil on it, so he could get a bigger budget.\u2019 Which is not the case. It was conceived to be a Resident Evil story. And when you watch the movie, you\u2019ll know that\u2019s the case, because it\u2019s undeniable.\u201d<\/p>\n

But what is \u201ca Resident Evil story\u201d? For those who are unfamiliar, the franchise began as a Japanese survival horror game released for PlayStation in 1996. It was then adapted into a live-action film series \u2013 Cregger\u2019s film will be the eighth instalment \u2013 beginning in 2002, with the Paul WS Anderson-directed Resident Evil, starring model turned actor Milla Jovovich as a woman battling a zombie contagion let loose on Raccoon City by the shadowy Umbrella Corporation. The film series, like the game, has been hugely profitable \u2013 that\u2019s why they keep making \u2019em \u2013 and could at one point boast (at nearly $1.2bn and counting) of being the all-time highest-grossing horror film series, until being overtaken by the Conjuring Universe and the Alien series.<\/p>\n

Strange bedfellow \u2026 Amy Madigan in Weapons. Photograph: Alamy<\/p>\n

Yet from the perspective of those aforementioned cineastes \u2013 and also more casual movie lovers \u2013 Resident Evil\u2019s reputation is distinctly mid. On reviews aggregate site Rotten Tomatoes, the highest-rated film from the franchise is 2016\u2019s Resident Evil: The Final Chapter, which scores an ignominious 39% \u201csplat\u201d. So while Cregger was \u2013 and is \u2013 a big fan of the games, the films? Not so much. When I ask what the relationship is of his film to the rest of the series \u2013 a sequel? Prequel? Universe-expanding retro-reboot? \u2013 he shrugs and says, somewhat proudly: \u201cI couldn\u2019t really say. I\u2019ve never seen one.\u201d<\/p>\n

Still, as Cregger appreciates, video game adaptations are tricky for a reason: they are expected to serve the play-experienced aficionados and the clueless noobs. Cregger\u2019s big idea for bridging this gap is to create a moviegoing experience that feels like a 90-minute session on the PlayStation, even for those audience members who may never have previously heard of Resident Evil. Narratively, this means following a single character, medical courier Bryan (Austin Abrams), as he attempts to deliver a cooler containing a transplant organ from hospital A in the flatlands to hospital B in the remote mountains near Raccoon City, Colorado, where \u2013 unbeknown to Bryan \u2013 a zombie outbreak is now under way. As in the game, Bryan regularly switches environment, progressing from snowy road to deserted farmhouse to sewage tunnel. In each new place, he must find the resources to survive. Shooting the film in a rural part of Czechia was, therefore, an appropriately gruelling experience for Cregger. \u201cIt was dark. It was cold. It was unrelenting,\u201d he says. \u201cI had pneumonia for the first half of the movie, and a horrible bacterial infection for the back half \u2026 It sucked.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fight or fright \u2026 Zach Cregger. Photograph: Du\u0161an Martin\u010dek\/Dusan Martincek<\/p>\n

It may have sucked, but it worked. Judging by the 30-minute preview made available to press, Cregger\u2019s film is exhilarating and immersive. He utilised the over-the-shoulder camera angles now synonymous with third-person shooters to mimic gameplay, and Bryan\u2019s dialogue is mostly a soliloquy of disjointed profanities. \u201cThat\u2019s how I talk to myself when I\u2019m sitting on the couch playing Resident Evil,\u201d says Cregger. \u201cI mean, I basically only say \u2018fuck\u2019 and run away from things.\u201d<\/p>\n

Is Bryan based on Cregger himself, then? \u201cOne hundred per cent,\u201d he says. \u201cEverything about him is me, my anxieties and my personality.\u201d This helps explain why Bryan has a verisimilitude that isn\u2019t always present among the plot-serving panickers and simplistic scream queens of horror. \u201cIt\u2019s fun to have a character who is a real character and convincing in the scenario, but also behaving the way that I think most people who play Resident Evil would behave,\u201d says Cregger. \u201cHe\u2019s more suited to be on the couch playing Resident Evil than surviving Resident Evil, and that\u2019s why he\u2019s the perfect person to put into this scenario.\u201d<\/p>\n

Cregger grew up, as video game-playing everymen tend to do, in \u201ca typical, middle-class, suburban neighbourhood\u201d. He was one of four boys raised by a stay-at-home mother, and a father who worked \u201cin mortgages and foreclosures\u201d \u2013 a job description that instantly conjures the boarded-up houses of Barbarian\u2019s Brightmoor, Detroit setting. Cregger\u2019s mother was always \u201cvery, very involved in the church\u201d, and when his parents divorced, she got a job there too, meaning the brothers attended services four or five times a week. The young Cregger still found time to ride around on his bike, watch movies and play video games, of course. It was \u201ckind of like that classic 80s American upbringing\u201d. Which is to say, for the most part Spielbergian, but with the potential for abject Lynchian horror.<\/p>\n

As a teenager, Cregger began playing in punk bands, which gave him his first experience of \u201ccatching the big fish\u201d, a transcendental meditation technique pioneered by David Lynch, which has become foundational to his creative process. \u201cI remember I would write these songs and I\u2019d be like: \u2018There\u2019s no way this is mine. This just feels like this is from somewhere else, and I\u2019ve just been lucky enough to hook it.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

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The grass is always greener \u2026 Brian Sacca and Cregger in Wrecked. Photograph: Everett Collection Inc\/Alamy<\/p>\n

Then, in college, Cregger formed his comedy troupe, The Whitest Kids U\u2019Know (\u201cI\u2019ve always hated the name,\u201d he says), which achieved success on the cable TV channels Fuse and IFC, before essentially disbanding in 2022 after the accidental death of founder member, and Cregger\u2019s close friend, Trevor Moore. (Their final project, the film Mars, was eventually released in 2024.) It was in the midst of this bereavement that Cregger wrote the screenplays for Weapons, Resident Evil and his planned next project, a sci-fi film called The Flood, in quick succession. Of The Flood, he says: \u201cIt may be the script I\u2019m the most proud of, because it has its own strange anatomy that just fits. I\u2019m very excited to start.\u201d<\/p>\n

A background in comedy \u2013 Cregger also starred in the TV shows Guys With Kids and Wrecked \u2013 is common to many of horror cinema\u2019s most exciting new talents. To Cregger, the connection is clear: \u201cThat muscle group that you work out in comedy, where your brain is constantly trying to think, \u2018What\u2019s the surprise? How can I inject an interruption into what we\u2019re expecting?\u2019 That\u2019s the same muscle group you need for a scare. So all of my time spent in comedy was going to the gym for horror as well.\u201d<\/p>\n

And just as every good standup learns to distinguish different shades of audience laughter, so a horror film-maker hopes to elicit a whole spectrum of scares, from slight startles to full-on existential dread. \u201cMy favourite kind is anything that gets me with stillness or a bizarre image,\u201d Cregger says, citing as an example a scene from Curry Barker\u2019s Obsession<\/a>. \u201cHer, running around, holding the flowers in front of her face? I was like, this is fucked!\u201d And, to clarify: \u201cThat\u2019s a good feeling!\u201d<\/p>\n<\/p>\n

Cregger is often grouped with online-adjacent horror auteurs such as Barker, Kane Parsons (the maker of Backrooms<\/a>) and Jane Schoenbrun (the writer and director of Teenage Sex and Death at Camp Miasma<\/a>). But at 45, his inspirations bypass online \u201ccreepypasta\u201d in favour of more enigmatic, classically rooted and traditionally cinematic influences. Barbarian, for one, was directly inspired by a self-help book, Gavin de Becker\u2019s The Gift of Fear, published in 1997.<\/p>\n

\u201cI have a lot of hippy ideas about creativity,\u201d he says. \u201cI just love the idea of being a conduit for the art, and that these objects of art exist with or without you [as an individual artist]. I understand how somebody could be like: \u2018Dude, what are you talking about?\u2019 Fine. I don\u2019t care. I like choosing to exist in that reality where I have the ability to go into my subconscious, cast a wide net and see what I can snag. And if the universe or whatever is smiling on me, I\u2019ll get something that will really make me happy, and that I\u2019ll get to spend a year and a half of my life bringing it to the surface.\u201d<\/p>\n

Back here on dry land, however, Hollywood\u2019s current horror boom is mostly attributed to some more straightforward, bang-for-buck economics. The genre can reliably serve up sensation for a sensation-seeking generation, without relying on big budgets, big-name talent or even \u2013 sometimes \u2013 pre-existing IP. But what horror films do rely on \u2013 franchise fare or otherwise \u2013 is a film-maker skilled at accessing the audience\u2019s most primal, subconscious terrors. Yes, Cregger has made a Resident Evil movie, and, more\u2019s the surprise, it might actually be really good.<\/p>\n

Resident Evil is in cinemas now.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"When Barbarian, Zach Cregger\u2019s debut film as a solo writer-director, came out in 2022, it was a big…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":898788,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[8],"tags":[64,63,134],"class_list":["post-898787","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-entertainment","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-entertainment"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898787","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=898787"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/898787\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/898788"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=898787"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=898787"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=898787"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}