Resident Evil games over the years have slowly added more fantastical elements to their tale of bioweapons running amok, but for the new live-action movie, director Zach Cregger is dialing back those ideas to a more “grounded” level. Even so, he doesn’t think he’d fare very well if he were dropped in that world.
“I feel like some of the Resident Evil games get a little magical,” Cregger said during a Reddit Ask Me Anything session (via YouTuber Troy Hill Talks Movies).
“[Resident Evil] 8, we have a woman who can turn into a bird and fly around. And like, I love it. I’ve played it a bunch of times. I think it’s an awesome game, but in terms of me making a movie out of it, it’s like I’ve got to try and limit some of the wild aspects of Resident Evil. And so I chose to stick with the T-Virus, keep it as grounded as possible. So that means I’m not going to have a gigantic jacked dude in a trench coat, because I’m like, where’d the coat come from? How did he get the coat?”
Cregger explained that while the Resident Evil games do explain how Mr. X gets his stylish coat, in the world he has constructed for the movie, there’s no time for the infected bioweapons to consider zombie apocalypse fashion. “This movie, it’s like the outbreak just happened,” Cregger added. “I want to keep it chaotic, I want to keep it primal, and I want to just keep it as grounded as I can. The T-Virus causes all kinds of cool, fun mutations. That is enough, so I’m limiting it there.”
As a co-founder of the comedy troupe The Whitest Kids U’ Know, Cregger says that the muscles he developed for creating sketch comedy also helped him zero in on “absurd” opportunities and find the right timing for unexpected results in Resident Evil. As for his chances of surviving his own creation? Cregger doesn’t think he’d last too long in his version of Resident Evil.
“There’s no chance I would survive,” Cregger bluntly stated. “I wouldn’t have survived the cop car attack because I would have probably just dropped to my knees and just been like, just bite me, just f***ing do it. I can’t handle that kind of energy. No, I would die so fast.”
Resident Evil will be out September 18 in theaters, and the movie is projected to have a big opening weekend in North America. For more on the film, you can also read up on how several of the best Resident Evil games inspired the visuals of the upcoming movie.