Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Movie Sounds Like It Will Be Similar To The Raid (And Hopefully It Is)

Zach Cregger became a horror icon overnight, and now he has Resident Evil in his sights. The iconic series has undergone several evolutions in its native medium, but its on-screen portrayal has always lacked something critical. Of all the video game movies out there, Capcom’s series seems to come back again and again, no matter how rough the last one turned out. Still, Cregger seems like a massive fan and a perfect visionary to helm the project. A single quote in his statement at Cinemacon sheds some light on the clever setup of his Resident Evil movie and draws connections to one of the best action movies of recent memory.

Resident Evil is a horror franchise with a firm hand on the action genre. One could almost imagine Capcom putting a hand on the slider that controls either tone and picking a new position with each iteration. Any adaptation of the franchise that doesn’t liberally apply genuine scares, pulse-pounding action, and an eternally shifting power balance is simply incomplete. Fans already know all of that very well, because the previous cinematic and streaming attempts never seem to find the right position. Maybe Zach Cregger will finally figure it all out.

Zach Cregger Has the Right Idea About Resident Evil

Zach Cregger and Shay Hatten’s script for a brand-new Resident Evil adaptation ignited a bit of a fight between studios, eventually concluding with Sony keeping the rights. The film’s first public announcement came with a promised release date of next September and a rumored star in Wolfs‘ Austin Abrams. Cregger has kept the script a closely guarded secret, but he’s been happy to talk about his history as a fan of the series. He spoke to the audience at Cinemacon on the subject, building considerable hype without so much as a teaser, and summed up his take on the franchise in a single quote (via Deadline):

He celebrated the games’ ability to create tension, placing players in a moment that forces them to look down a dark hallway, consider their tiny supply of ammunition, and move forward regardless of what they know awaits them. They’re games about survival, but that concept runs deeper than resource management or effective application of violence. It’s about the drive it takes to see a potentially dangerous scenario and decide to press onward. Cregger’s Resident Evil will mirror the game’s choice to follow characters who must will themselves to fight their way through impossible scenarios. There are other films that have perfectly captured that idea.

Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil Seems Reminiscent of The Raid: Redemption

The Raid: Redemption is, in many ways, the defining action movie of the 2010s. Its influence on every element of the genre worldwide is inarguable. It’s the kind of movie that cements its stars in the fabric of similar projects for years, ensuring fans will see even the minor characters pop up elsewhere. That success is partially owed to the film’s blessed simplicity. Iko Uwais stars as Rama, one of several Jakarta special ops officers on their way to raid a drug lord’s apartment complex. Once there, they almost immediately raise the alarm and find themselves fighting through a seemingly endless army of dangerous criminals. Like the protagonists of any Resident Evil game, the protagonists are a group of trained cops/soldiers entering a situation and quickly becoming overwhelmed. Most of them die, but some manage to beat the odds through skill, speed, and force of will. There’s even a borderline unstoppable boss in the form of Mad Dog. It might not be a mansion, but the apartment block is almost certainly an evil residence.

Borrowing from The Raid is fairly common in modern action movies, much like borrowing from Die Hard a decade or two ago. It’s much less common in horror, but The Raid is only separated from the genre by virtue of its protagonist’s physical capabilities. That same distinction arguably applies to the Resident Evil franchise already. It’s an inherently visceral, pulse-pounding action-horror franchise that even sometimes includes martial arts combat. The Raid is a perfect comparison point for a Resident Evil movie, perhaps even more so than any given George Romero film.

Of course, Cregger didn’t reference The Raid in relation to his Resident Evil movie. Instead, he noted one of the key aspects of the game series that just happens to align with Gareth Evans’ stellar 2011 film. However, that comparison still stands out as a great way to give hope to the fanbase. Fans have seen Resident Evil movies borrow from other projects, but they’ve never seen someone nail that all-important “awful moment where you have to will yourself” like Cregger seems to want to. The Raid is the perfect inspiration for that guiding suggestion.

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