Zach Cregger Discusses Directing New Resident Evil Horror-Comedy

Zach Cregger occupies a very strange space in horror filmmaking. Unlike Curry Barker’s Obsession or Kane Parsons’ Backrooms, Resident Evil walks a fine line between comedy and horror, featuring the same dark hilarity as Cregger’s previous films. It’s a tightrope he balances effortlessly, never undermining the tension of certain scary scenes but amplifying them in fascinating ways. You’re almost willing to let your guard down, right up until Cregger hits you with that heart-attack-inducing jump scare.

Comedy typically isn’t my forte. It was one of my primary issues with Weapons, since Cregger’s previous film relied far too much on its comedic elements and often overrode the on-screen tension. The sketch-comedian-turned-auteur director clearly has a knack for finding humor in horrific situations, but that comedy always felt like it was competing with the horror rather than emerging naturally from it. Much of that film’s ending is filled with gag humor and slapstick comedy, like James, played by Austin Abrams, getting knocked out multiple times, or Gladys, played by Amy Madigan, being chased by children. It all culminated in hijinks rather than something genuinely horrifying.

Resident Evil, by comparison, feels much more confident. It is first and foremost a horror movie filled with moments of blood-curdling terror. The jokes are just there to soften you up.

Cregger’s balancing act

One of the best examples is the film’s early dog sequence that occurs roughly 20 minutes in. Set on a snow-covered ranch near an abandoned house, the scene begins with the protagonist Bryan, played by Austin Abrams, being chased by a big, black guard dog in the wake of a car accident. He eventually scrambles into a barn unscathed, races up a ladder, and reaches the safety of the upper level. He hits the dog with a well-timed “Learn to climb, bitch!” as it scrambles to reach him at the foot of the ladder.

While easily hand-waved away as a throwaway line, the joke highlights the kind of character Bryan is, along with the kind of movie Resident Evil is trying to be. Even in the thick of a rather harrowing situation, neither Bryan nor Cregger feels the need to drop the comedy act, and the jokes do not stop there. After poking the barn door closed while throwing in a “Try opening this with no thumbs” jab, Bryan triumphantly tosses the ladder down at the dog in jubilation. Only ten seconds later does he realize he needs that very ladder to exit the barn safely through a nearby window.

It is all so well-timed and brilliantly rendered against the backdrop of a severely tense scene. The whole event resembles the ridiculous situation that could happen to a player or an NPC in a Resident Evil game. The audience succumbs to the campiness of it all, laughing even as Bryan hits the ground and suffers a minor leg injury. Cregger waits for the opportune moment. It is not until Bryan is leaning up against the barn in a quiet calm after safely avoiding the threat that the director hits you with that needle-drop-jump-scare. The dog bursts through the side of the barn in a hail of wood right up next to Bryan’s face, a moment so reminiscent of the games it might give even the most hardened veterans a bout of PTSD.

The scene works primarily because Cregger lets the character’s stupidity become the punchline without making Bryan himself disposable. He is a buffoon, but he is also someone worth rooting for, which makes him feel almost perfectly designed for a video game horror movie. It helps that Abrams brings a certain charm and conviction to the character that remains unmatched. He is simultaneously capable and dumb enough to keep moving forward, yet somehow still likable after every subsequent horrible decision he makes.

The joke is the trap

It is a fascinating turn of events, especially given that Cregger did not necessarily have that balance figured out in the first version of the film. In an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the director revealed that he removed several jokes from the film after test screenings found Resident Evil initially too funny. He was almost walking into another Weapons situation, which likely would not have sat well with Resident Evil fans who know far too well how it feels to see one of their favorite franchises ruined by Hollywood. Fans are still complaining about the film’s comedy, but Cregger admitted he preferred the movie stripped of its overabundance of punchlines.

The restraint is important because Resident Evil has never been completely humorless. Although a survival horror franchise, the games have spent nearly three decades mixing tension with bizarre situations, ridiculous dialogue, and characters who seem completely unfazed by the nightmare unfolding around them. Encapsulating Resident Evil’s funnier side are lines like the now infamous “Jill sandwich” spoken by Barry Burton in the first game or Leon S. Kennedy’s unforgettable “Where’s everyone going? Bingo?” declaration from Resident Evil 4. Even some of the series’ more unintentionally funny moments, like Wesker’s melodramatic “STOP! DON’T OPEN THAT DOOR!” from the original game, have become part of the franchise’s enduring personality.

Cregger understands that the DNA of Resident Evil is not just viral outbreaks and gore, but the sheer absurdity of trying to survive them. By stripping back the excess comedy that bogged down Weapons, he turns humor into a trap. The laughs do not offer an escape from the tension. They act as the setup for the punchline, and the punchline is usually something horrifying enough to make your skin crawl or sudden enough to make you jerk in your seat. It is a surprisingly novel way to treat jump scares. You get a few seconds to chuckle at Bryan’s misfortune and feel like you are in on the joke, right before Cregger punishes you for letting your guard down.

Some purists will inevitably complain that Resident Evil leans too hard into camp, overly protective of a franchise they take dead seriously. That friction is exactly why this adaptation succeeds where so many Hollywood attempts have flatlined. Cregger has not degraded Resident Evil by making it funny. He is honoring the franchise’s truest legacy by proving that terror always hits hardest when you are already laughing at the sheer absurdity of the nightmare.

Resident Evil is in theaters now

Source: Polygon