The first Resident Evil movie came out at the perfect time for me. I was deep into the first few games, loving the blend of horror and action. Resident Evil 2 (the game) scared me so thoroughly at one point that I literally fell out of my chair (I was leaning back in it at the time, but still). So, I expected to walk out of that first movie scared shitless and feeling as though I had just been through one of the games, but on the big screen. That was not the case.
I certainly have a soft spot for those films, even if I haven’t seen them all. Director Paul W. S. Anderson took a franchise, stripped a few details from the source material, and did whatever he wanted with it for the next 14 years. In a world where fanboys can get studios to change what they’re doing by complaining loudly and angrily, seeing a director throw canon to the wind for over a decade is pretty incredible. He released his last Resident Evil movie in 2017 and, since then, attempts at adaptations have tried to honor the source.
Resident Evil: Welcome to Raccoon City released in 2021 which was only a good time for movies if what you made had Spider-Man in it. It received poor reviews, but was noted as being more faithful to the games. A TV show dropped on Netflix a year later and, despite a slightly better reception than the movie, it was cancelled a month after its release. With two failed adaptations, it seemed like Resident Evil might take a rest for a while. Then the man behind Barbarian set his sights on it.
Zach Cregger took the horror world by storm with Barbarian, a film that had one of the best marketing campaigns I’ve ever seen. Weapons, his second film, is set to hit theaters this summer before he makes his way to Raccoon City. His goal? Make a movie that feels like the games. “Because I love the games,” Cregger explained to ComicBook.com. “I played all of the games. I played Resident Evil 4 a hundred times through. I’m obsessed with it. And so, I just want to tell a story that feels like it’s honoring the experience you get when you play the games.”
Maybe Cregger can be the one who makes a faithful adaptation that goes over well (and isn’t animated). He certainly has no intention of going down the Paul W. S. Anderson route, explaining that he did not see any of those films. “I haven’t seen the movies, that’s just not my thing,” he noted. “But the games are my thing. That’s just a playground, I just love … I think the movie is going to rip. I think it’s going to rip.” Rip flesh from bones, Zach? Or am I taking that too literally?
The director went on to explain one of his favorite aspects of the games, which gives me hope. “There’s a moment that comes in every moment of every Resident Evil game where you find yourself standing in the mouth of a dark passageway. One shot in the gun is left,” he told the outlet. “You know that something horrible is waiting for you in that darkness, that awful moment where you have to will yourself. That’s something that every Resident Evil game has perfected and has kept me and millions of other players returning to the series for decades.”
He ain’t wrong! One such moment made me fall out of my chair over twenty years ago (barf). The games are really f***ing scary. If Creggers can tap into that while being faithful to the source material, he may find the secret formula to a Resident Evil film loved by fans and critics. Then, I hope he goes back to making original movies and maybe gets Barbarian a physical release.
