Writer-director Hideo Kojima has seen Zach Cregger’s Resident Evil movie, and he has now shared his review. Kojima, a true cinephile known for his public movie reviews, said he “wasn’t particularly interested” in seeing the movie at first, but he did, and he sounded pretty impressed by what he saw.
“Right from the opening, it hits you with music reminiscent of The Thing. From there, it’s a relentless barrage of classic horror techniques, terrifying situations, and jump scares that never lets up until the very end,” he said.
Kojima went on to observe what others did as well, which is how the Resident Evil movie is more of a film that provides the “experience of playing Resident Evil” as opposed to watching an adaptation of one of its stories.
“It reminded me of how I felt when I first played the original Resident Evil on PlayStation back in 1996,” he said. “I was just like [main character] Bryan in this movie. I kept getting game over after game over, shouting “F***!” over and over again. lol.”
This is the kind of response that Cregger said he wanted viewers to have. It’s also what got Cregger in some hot water with hardcore fans who wanted to see a straight adaptation of one of the games instead of Cregger’s own original story set inside the world of Resident Evil.
Another bright spot for Kojima? While he was at the theater, he picked up some physical reading materials for the divisive new Tom Cruise movie Digger. A lot of people have had a lot of things to say about that film, and we are all waiting to hear what Kojima thought of it, whenever he sees it.
The new Resident Evil has made more than $320 million worldwide, following its big debut in China where it’s made $40.7 million so far. Cregger’s Resident Evil movie is now the highest-grossing entry in the series to date, surpassing the previous record-holder, which was 2016’s The Final Chapter ($312 million).
For more, check out GameSpot’s rundown of the highest-grossing Resident Evil movies of all time.
While Cregger has said he has ideas for another Resident Evil movie, he’s done with franchise movies and is instead making an original movie, The Flood, next.
As for Kojima, he’s keeping very busy with the upcoming games OD and Phsyint, both of which are in the works for Xbox. Physint will also be adapted for film and TV, while Kojima’s Death Stranding is coming to the big screen as well.