When a generation of early video gamers first picked up the PlayStation controller and stepped into the Spencer Mansion 30 years ago, it was impossible to know what an overnight cultural phenomenon it would become. Long after the era of flesh-eating zombies popularized by George A. Romero had faded into the sunset, the team at Capcom injected new life into the genre with the original Resident Evil, a game that not just revitalized zombie media but practically created the blueprint for the modern survival horror game. It goes without saying that the first game was an unprecedented success, spawning both a lasting video game franchise as well as a multimedia empire.
Despite the tumultuous previous attempts at bringing Resident Evil to the big screen, Sony Pictures is getting ready to unleash the T-virus on audiences once again, this time with director Zach Cregger at the helm. Even though his last two films were critical and commercial successes, recent comments from one of the movie’s producers have left fans feeling a little apprehensive — even though they indicate a far more satisfying experience for fans and newcomers than anything prior.
In a recent interview with Deadline, the CEO of Constantin Film, Oliver Berben, described the upcoming reboot (which recently wrapped filming) as being “far away from everything that is connected to Resident Evil,” citing Cregger’s singular vision as a filmmaker as the reason why they wouldn’t be directly adapting the game. Naturally, some fans were frustrated over the implication that the movie would deviate from canon, considering the first six films (each following Milla Jovovich’s original character on a globe-trotting adventure) grew increasingly distant from established lore to the point that they barely resembled Resident Evil by the third movie. However, the overarching issue with the Paul W.S. Anderson films was never a matter of narrative fidelity, but one of mismatched tone and identity. Despite the first few games being notable for their claustrophobic, slow-moving dread and a deliberate lack of resources and situational control, Anderson chose to make a guns blazing power fantasy that only grew to more absurd and heightened peaks.
It’s not as if faithfulness to the source material makes for a guaranteed home run either — Johannes Roberts clung pretty closely to the structure of the first two games with 2021’s Welcome to Raccoon City, and yet it was neither a critical darling nor was it the juggernaut financial success that the previous series had been. To a certain extent, a 1 to 1 remake will always invite a little disappointment simply on the merit that it lacks the immersion and interactivity that makes the original game so uncanny and so revolutionary. Sure, you can watch Robbie Amell pretend to be Chris Redfield and go through the same motions, but it will never be as visceral or terrifying as living through those moments in the game yourself.
If Berben’s comments are to be believed, which is that Cregger had “carte blanche to do whatever he wanted,” then that already makes this the most promising attempt at adapting the games so far. Without the constraints placed on previous versions (whether its forcing the films to be unrecognizable for unfamiliar audiences or a slavish adherence to the source), this new reboot has the chance to do something that both honors the fundamentals that make Resident Evil such a beloved series while also giving fans something fresh and wholly unique.
You can feel Cregger’s energy as a fan radiating out from every interview he gives about the project, and the fact that he specified Resident Evil 2 through 4 as major references for the film’s world and tone is proof that his original vision doesn’t necessarily have to clash with the elements that have kept fans coming back to the games for 30 years. Even if Leon Kennedy or Albert Wesker never show up, there’s still a strong possibility that the kind of stark, dread-inducing terror on display in Weapons and Barbarian will be put to good use replicating the nightmarish horrors found in Raccoon City.
